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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| African traditional medicine | 4/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_traditional_medicine | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:16:42.803926+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Learning the trade === Some healers learn the trade through personal experience while being treated as a patient who decide to become healers upon recovery. Others become traditional practitioners through a "spiritual calling" and, therefore, their diagnoses and treatments are decided through belief in supernatural intervention. Another route is to receive the knowledge and skills passed down informally from a close family member such as a father or uncle, or even a mother or aunt in the case of midwives. Apprenticeship to an established practitioner, who formally teaches the trade over a long period of time and is paid for their tutoring, is another route to becoming a healer.
=== Importance === In Africa, traditional healers and remedies made from indigenous plants play a crucial role in the health of millions since as many as 85% of African routinely use these services for primary health care in Sub-Saharan Africa. The relative ratios of traditional practitioners and university trained doctors in relation to the whole population in African countries underscores this importance. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, from Ghana to Eswatini there are, on average almost, 100 traditional practitioner for every university trained doctor. This equates to one traditional healer for every 200 people in the Southern African region, which is a much greater doctor-to-patient ratio than is found in North America. In many parts of Africa there are few practitioners trained in modern medicine and traditional healers are a large and influential group in primary health care and an integral part of the African culture. Without them, many people would go untreated. Medications and treatments that Western pharmaceutical companies manufacture are far too costly and not available widely enough for most Africans. Many rural African communities are not able to afford the high price of pharmaceuticals and can not readily obtain them even if they were affordable; therefore, healers are their only means of medical help. Because this form of medicine is "the most affordable and accessible system of health care for the majority of the African rural population," the African Union declared 2001 to 2010 to be the Decade for African Traditional Medicine with the goal of making "safe, efficacious, quality, and affordable traditional medicines available to the vast majority of the people." Excessive use of plants is an ecological risk, as this may lead to their extinction.
== In relation to women == Women in Sub-Saharan rural African communities are almost entirely responsible for domestic work in their households. These women are often at higher risk for disease and poverty than their male counter-parts and have less control over their daily lives than them. A literature survey from 2001 found that these women defined 'good health' as the ability to perform domestic duties and the state of being disease free. Furthermore, the study found that they attributed poor health to supernatural, evil forces, that illness is seen as a form of punishment from spirits. In another study, which explored the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ghana, women identified HIV/AIDS with reprobate behaviour, such as "prostitution, promiscuity, and extramarital relationships", or traveling to areas outside the community. These women endure arduous conditions and a traditional healer plays an instrumental role in their daily lives. The traditional healer provides health care to the rural communities and represents him/herself as an honorable cultural leader and educator. An advantage of the traditional healer in rural areas is that they are conveniently located within the community. Modern medicine is normally not as accessible in rural areas because it is much more costly. Older rural women particularly tend to utilize traditional healers in their communities. Younger women and the urbanized have been found to be renouncing the use of traditional healers. A 2001 study of rural Ethiopian women where HIV was present found that they rejected the presence of HIV in rural villages and claimed it was an urban illness, despite the presence of HIV in the rural communities. However, these women also claimed that their communities did not advocate for prevention, but rather treated an illness once it was present.
== Traditional African healers and HIV/AIDS ==
=== Role === For patients with HIV/AIDS, traditional healers provided a local, familiar, and accessible option compared to biomedical personnel who were usually overbooked and located farther away. Traditional healers were seen as having an authoritative role in physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of health. In the early 1980s in southwestern Uganda, it was reported that many locals infected with the disease ("Slim") after showing symptoms of diarrhoea and weight-loss would consult traditional healers due to their belief in the connection between the disease and witchcraft.