THE impact of colonialism on African traditional medicine and heritage is immense.
The current distrust between modern and traditional doctors to achieve the objective of regulation, standardisation and co-operation requires that both parties acknowledge their areas of strengths and weaknesses from which they operate and be genuinely concerned about the difficult but necessary task of being human in order to minimise the distrust and the perceived paranoid between them.
Prior to the introduction of cosmopolitan medicine, traditional medicine used to be the dominant medical system available to millions of people in Africa.
However, the arrival of the Europeans marked a significant turning point in the history of this age-long tradition and culture.
The introduction of traditional medicine, known as ethno-medicine, folk medicine, native healing or complementary and alternative medicine, is the oldest form of healthcare system that has stood the test of time.
It is an ancient and culture-bound method of healing that humans have used to cope with various diseases that have threatened their existence and survival.
Traditional medicine is broad and diverse.
Consequently, different societies have evolved different forms of indigenous healing methods that are captured under the broad concept of traditional medicine.
However, there are challenges to be overcome in order to fully achieve the objective of regulation, standardisation and integration of traditional medicines in Africa.
First, the ethnocentric tendencies of the Western hegemonic mentality that are usually paraded by most stakeholders in modern medicine remains a very serious challenge.
It is a general belief in medical circles that traditional medicines defy scientific procedures in terms of objectivity, measurement, codification and classification.
Second, the acceptance of Western religion, education, urbanisation and globalisation phenomena in Africa is affecting the use of traditional medicines.
The introduction of Western culture, particularly into rural parts of Africa, has had a negative impact on the role traditional medicine plays.
As Western education, Christianity and increased contact with the global community become an integral part of rural communities, taboos, traditions and customs have been affected and in some instances abandoned altogether.
The introduction of Western medicine and culture gave rise to a cultural-ideological clash which had created an unequal power relation that practically undermined and stigmatised the traditional healthcare system in Africa because of the over-riding power of Western medicine.
During several centuries of conquest and invasion, European systems of medicine were introduced by the colonisers.
Existing African systems were stigmatised and marginalised. Indigenous knowledge systems were denied the chance to develop.
In some extreme cases, traditional medicines were out-rightly banned.
The ban of traditional medicine was partially based on the belief that the conception of disease and illness in Africa was historically embedded in witchcraft where, in Western knowledge, witchcraft reinforces backwardness and superstition.
However, recent studies have shown that etiologies of illnesses in Africa are viewed from both natural and supernatural perspectives.
The subjugation of traditional medicines continued in most African countries, even after independence.
Indeed, local efforts were initiated to challenge the condemnation and stigmatisation of these medicines in some African communities during and after colonialism.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO): “…traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health, as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illnesses.
A traditional healer, on the other hand, is a person who is recognised by the community where he or she lives as someone competent to provide healthcare by using plant, animal and mineral substances and other methods based on social, cultural and religious practices.”
Prior to the introduction of cosmopolitan medicine, traditional medicine used to be the dominant medical system available to millions of people in Africa in both rural and urban communities.
In indigenous African communities, traditional doctors are well-known for treating patients holistically.
They usually attempt to reconnect the social and emotional equilibrium of patients based on community rules and relationships, unlike medical doctors who only treat diseases in patients.
In many of these communities, traditional healers often act, in part, as intermediaries between the visible and invisible worlds; between the living and the dead or ancestors, sometimes to determine which spirits are at work and how to bring the sick person back into harmony with the ancestors.
However, the arrival of the Europeans marked a significant turning point in the history of this age-long tradition and culture. Scholars have observed that the institutionalisation of the modern healthcare system can, therefore, be seen as one of the many legacies of Western encroachment in Africa.
Western invasion was a set-back in the process of development in Africa.
Scholars mention slavery, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, neo-colonialism and all other forms of domination and exploitation that were embedded in these epochs as major stumbling-blocks in the actualisation of indigenous African development.
Indeed, the current political and socio-economic crises in Africa are attributed to colonialism and its attendant ills.
Similarly, while some critics of colonialism have focused on the economic and political impact, others have shifted attention to the impact of colonialism on indigenous knowledge systems, especially the knowledge of medicine.
In post-independence Africa, concerted efforts have been made to recognise traditional medicine as an important aspect of healthcare delivery system in Africa.
However, the lingering mutual distrust between allopathic and traditional practitioners in Africa has continually hampered and thwarted the process of integration and co-operation between traditional and modern medicines as well as the difficulties in regulating traditional medical practices.
On the whole, Western-trained physicians appear unwilling to allow traditional medicines and practitioners in the official system of medical care in Africa.
This is an indication that not much is being done in medical schools to encourage the teaching of traditional medicines.
Research has shown that a number of traditional medicines are important and effective therapeutic regimens in the management of a wide spectrum of diseases, some of which may not be effectively managed using Western medicines.