A Return to Traditional Health Care Practices: A Ghanaian Study
Abstract
Policy on implementing Western medical practices throughout Africa has led a sustained attack on the relevance of traditional medical practices. The findings of the study on child upbringing practices in some Ghanaian communities emphasize the importance of increasing traditional practices and ethics. The majority of rural people in the study had little or no access to Western health care, nor did they have the finances to use it. Findings showed that a high percentage of children could not have survived without traditional medicines.
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1.
1. More and more often, Western-trained African doctors are looking toward traditional medicines for cures. Dr. Iwa has been working successfully throughout Africa with traditional medical practitioners (TMPs) regarding HIV/AIDS treatment, thereby validating traditional medicines and practices. All antimalarial drugs, according to Dr. Iwa, are rooted in traditional medicine. Dr. Iwa, a member of the University Research Sciences Diversity was interviewed on Ghanaian television GTV on Special Report Africa in April 2002.
2.
2. In his proposal (May 10, 2006) to President Thabo Mbeki, The Coming Revolution in Modern Medical Science: Dreaded Diseases and African Traditional Medicine, Professor Vilakazi (2006) listed African doctors doing important traditional medical work that is proving to be successful in dealing with serious diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
3.
3. Dove (2001) led the baseline study in Ghana and wrote a report on child upbringing practices in seven districts: Afram Plains (east), Bawku East, Builsa, Savelugu/Nanton, Tolon/Kumbungu, Yendi, and Zabzugu/Tatale (north). The study and therefore the findings challenged Western notions of reality and stereotypes concerning rural people and practitioners of traditional religion.
4.
4. For comprehensive descriptions of the training of African TMPs, see Twumasi (1975), Medical Systems in Ghana, and Gelfan, Mavi, Drummond, and Ndemera (1985), The Traditional Medical Practitioner in Zimbabwe.
5.
5. The focus on male TMPs is largely due to the patriarchalization of mother-led societies, in the protection of women, as a response to Western and Arab patriarchal cultural domination (see Dove, 2002).
6.
6. See the Review of Primary Healthcare in Ghana, World Health Organization Project Work, by Dr. Twumasi (2001).
References
Dove, N. ( 2001). Baseline Study of Child Upbringing Practices in some communities of seven focused districts in Ghana. Accra, Ghana, and Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire: UNICEF.
Dove, N. ( 2002). Defining a mother-centered matrix to analyze the status of women. Journal of Black Studies, 33, 3-24.
Finch, C. ( 1985). The African background to medical science. In I. Van Sertima (Ed.), Blacks in science ancient and modern. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.
Gelfan, M., Mavi, S., Drummond, R.B., & Ndemera, B. ( 1985). The traditional medical practitioner in Zimbabwe. Harare, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press.
Government of Ghana & UNICEF. (2000). Situation analysis of children and women in Ghana. New York: UNICEF.
Twumasi, P.A. ( 1975). Medical systems in Ghana. Tema, Ghana : Ghana Publishing.
Twumasi, P.A. ( 2001, September). Review of primary healthcare in Ghana [ World Health Organization Project Work].
Vilakazi, H.W. ( 2006, May 10). The coming revolution in modern medical science: Dreaded diseases and African traditional medicine. Report to President Thabo Mbeki, Pretoria, South Africa.
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Article first published online: July 30, 2008
Issue published: May 2010
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