On 31 August every year for the past two decades, we have marked African Traditional Medicine (ATM) Day, to honour the integral role of traditional medicine in the health and welfare of generations of people on the continent. ATM was used and trusted by ancestral generations in living history and falls under the category of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), which was passed down verbally from generation to generation. Traditional medicine has been used throughout the world by a variety of populations across continents way before the introduction of western medicine. Traditional African medicine (ATM) is a holistic discipline involving the use of indigenous herbalism combined with aspects of African spirituality.
ATM is recognised in some African countries and in South Africa, it was gazetted in 2007 through the Traditional Health Practitioners Act 22 of 2007. Natural indigenous herbs as medicine are recognised as a trusted method of healing without side effects.
The ATM Day celebration
MPWC celebrated this day in Bushbuckridge on the 8th of September 2022 by going on a field trip to the forest to extract medicinal plants that are not available in our immediate vicinity anymore. This is very important for traditional health practitioners (THP’s) because they get to find medicinal plants that are not available in the environments where they usually extract their medicines. MPWC has been celebrating this day since 2014 now and it is one of the favourite days and activities for the THP’s. There are other favourites like water and rivers days celebrations, as well as indigenous knowledge revival.
Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been led on a path to think about health and the value of traditional medicine once again. When COVID-19 emerged, the first herb that was thought would help, was wormwood / umhlonyane -- an indigenous herb used to treat influenza, colds and other respiratory diseases like tubercolosis and asthma.
Senegal was the first African country to suggest to its citizens that they should use wormwood to deal with COVID19 symptoms and then other countries followed in the steps of the Senegalese – so we can assume the successful use of traditional herbs in assisting in the treatment of ailments.
The rest is history, comparing the number of casualties from overseas countries against Africa. The record speaks for itself. One can safely assume that the Africans used traditional herbs to respond to any ailments.
Traditional indigenous medicine – a pathway for people’s health
The MPWC notes that it is becoming clear that traditional medicine will be the only pathway for people’s health as the health system is not equipped to respond to the current needs of the people. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that western medicine alone cannot deal with or prepare populations for climate change-related diseases.
Our ancestors responded better to health outbreaks using natural herbs and medicine. Traditional knowledge systems (TKS) and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) of medicine using natural herbs and nutrition are one of the best ways (safe and cheap) of preparing peoples’ immune systems for new diseases. It is of critical importance that we Africans need to re-learn this knowledge and grow these medicinal resources.
Many South Africans will be locked out of receiving medicine and treatment in the government and private health service sector due to inequality of access, poor services and lack of income.
The MPWC states with urgency that we cannot pretend as if it is business as usual, we need to incorporate as much IKS and TKS into our daily activities as possible.
Traditional medicine is tried and tested
Our ancestral generations did not have all the infrastructure and emergency facilities that we have today like clinics, hospitals, supermarkets and cars, but the ways of living and culture were more interconnected, with respect for nature and knowledgeable use of herbal medicine and understanding of the human system. We have seen a huge rise in ailments and diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes, which have been linked to poor diet (lack of nutritious food including herbs due to poverty), lack of exercise, overconsumption of bad foods and stress.
Traditional and indigenous medicinal systems have a long history of treating many ailments and diseases for people (and animals!). Herbs for medicine were obtained from forests, grasslands, wetlands and riverbanks.
The establishment of large-scale industrial timber plantations (ITP’s) like gum trees in Bushbuckridge has contributed to the rapid loss of medicinal plants. There are many medicinal plants that are extinct now because of over-extraction for selling purposes and obviously the impacts of gum trees in the Drankensberg Mountain range.
Gum trees in the ITPs use about 120 litres of water a day, it has a strong root system that pierces through the water table and steal underground water. The MPWC believes it is very important that we start to collect medicinal plants that we no longer have from afar in the mountains, and plant them in our gardens so that we can try to reintroduce all the medicinal plants that are going to go extinct.
There were a lot of medicinal plants that the THPs got access to on this day and they were very happy to have been given such an important opportunity by the MPWC.
