The Associated Press
L U S A K A, Zambia. Sept. 16 — African traditional healers — though sometimes blamed for spreading AIDS through unsanitary practices or prescribing a sex-with-virgins cure — are gaining new prominence in the medical community as a weapon against the disease.
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Their presence was strong at a major African AIDS conference this week, and researchers there said they have a crucial role to play in caring for the sick as the epidemic sweeps across their continent, killing millions each year.
“We have to make sure the negative view of traditional healers doesn’t harm our efforts to harness this huge potential,” said Dr. Roland Msiska, a Zambian physician specializing in the impact of AIDS on development. He spoke at the 11th international AIDS in Africa conference, which ended Thursday.
Power in Numbers
Zambia’s 60,000 tribal healers outnumber Western-trained doctors by at least five to one. They are sometimes dismissed as witch doctors in the West, but they argue their centuries-old remedies can help people in poor, isolated communities.
Throughout the continent, many healers have been discredited and blamed for spreading AIDS by using contaminated knives, blades and probes in treatment and rituals. Some even advocate sex with a virgin as a cure for AIDS.
But many provide useful care, researchers said.
Traditional and Modern Practitioners Together Against AIDS, a Ugandan organization, found tribal healers ease the suffering of AIDS patients and use rituals to bind affected communities that otherwise would be torn apart by the stigma of AIDS-related illnesses. Herbal remedies are cheaper, and healers offer community support deeply rooted in cultural traditions that is unavailable in public health facilities, said the group’s director, Dr. Donna Kabatesi.
Treatment for Related Ailments
Western-trained doctors say the age-old recipes are made from pounded roots, leaves, crushed tree bark, fruits, calcium-rich bone and many other jealously guarded secret ingredients. They have long proved their efficiency in relieving AIDS conditions like diarrhea, coughing associated with tuberculosis, fever and weight-loss.
Others heal skin sores and mouth and genital lesions. One herb used in Zambia contains a protein that helps kidney infections, while another is rich in vitamin B and is given to sufferers of liver ailments.
Both are virtually identical to modern drug treatments.
Mizyu Chinyemba, a Zambian tribal healer — or “ng’anga” in the local Nyanja language — says his remedies “wash the stomach, the blood and the soul.”
He says diagnoses are made not only from a patient’s appearance, but also using feathers, animal skins and other charms that divine the state of a person’s soul, invoking the help of ancestral spirits.
Seeking a Higher Profile
His organization, Zambia’s Traditional Healers and Practitioners Association, is campaigning for greater recognition from the nation’s government.
Erick Gbodossou, a Western-trained physician who also practices as a traditional healer in Senegal, believes African governments must promote research into traditional potions and help standardize them, as well as include healers in medical funding and policy decisions.
“In Africa, AIDS is like a water pot with many holes. Our communities are draining out. Traditional medicine closes some of the holes and can do much more,” he said.
Fai Fominyen Ngu, a tribal healer from Cameroon, challenged governments to include traditional medicine in health regulation legislation.
“Every African knows one plant. People who lose their jobs set up as a healer on the side of the street. This must be stopped,” he said.