When we tell the truth about ourselves and our past we are set free!

There is a conflict between doctors and herbalists in Uganda and the whole of east Africa. But when you look at it properly, it is a pointless preoccupation. Are both not equally engaged in the fight against diseases and human suffering?

When an herbalist is afflicted by a disease best treated by a doctor, he runs to the doctor. Equally when a doctor is afflicted by a disease he feels can best be treated by an herbalist, he runs to the herbalist.

The source of this pointless conflict is routed in our past.

The colonialists, in order to rule over us, made it a point to undermine our culture. Our knowledge of medicine was one of the cultural arrears most affected by this ill will.

In Teso region of Uganda, school children were taught in school a song that talks of one ‘Aducho’ (a female herbalist) being ‘Ibangana’ (stupid).

When we gained independence, we did almost nothing to reverse this. Our doctors are not taught about African medicine in our medical schools. When you do not know something, you tend to fear it. And worse still, you can hate it.

But having said this, there are contradictions I would like to observe in Africa. Surprisingly, where there has been the strongest oppression against the African culture, like in southern Africa, is where the belief in African medicine is strongest.

In Uganda, herbalist were in the forefront in the fight for independence. Today, they are the most vilified. Understandably, like in any profession, there are con artists masquerading as herbalists. This should not call for a blanket vilification of all herbalists. The bad ones should be weeded out.

One thing that becomes obvious is that Africans need to respect one another. As an 80 year old, I was thrown in a police cell with people I could call my grandchildren, while waiting to be taken to court. My ‘crime’ was that I had molded African medicine into tablets.

Apparently in the mind of the arresting officer, it’s only medicine from the western world that should be in tablet form. This is something we do to preserve the medicine, and remove the bad taste common to medicine and also to make it easier for us to measure the dosage.

Incidentally, the medicine I was being accused of molding into tablets was very instrumental in fighting syphilis in the Lango region in the 1990s. Luckily, the case against me was dropped. But I had suffered humiliation and financial loss.

For thousands and thousands of years, African medicine was part and parcel of our lives. Let us respect herbalists. We deserve respect. We have saved thousands of lives.

Gard Okello

Lead Researcher

Medicine Africana Consortium.