Small News/Politics Graphic Integrated Medicine Increasingly Popular in Namibia
From Natural Healthline by Peter Barry Chowka


Absalom Shigwedha, a correspondent for Africa Information Afrique, reported earlier this month from Windhoek, Namibia, a country located between Angola and South Africa on the Western, Atlantic coast of Africa. Shigwedha noted that the country's traditional healers are flourishing with the full support and recognition of the government, which has helped establish the Namibia Eagle Traditional Healers Association. The association is charged with keeping records of all registered traditional healers in the country, organizing workshops and seminars for traditional healers, and collecting traditional medicines for research. It is also being called on to look for potential traditional healers and to contribute to plans for development and promotion of traditional healing practices as well as acting as a link with scientific researchers. The association was formed in 1990 and now has more than 4,000 members according to its president, Dr. Eliphas Iyenda.

Iyenda says that although some people continue to ignore the role played by traditional healers, they are as important as medical doctors. "What doctors in hospitals are doing is the same job we are doing," he said. "Sometimes people are even discharged from hospitals with diseases and they come to us and are treated."

In a sign that integrated or complementary medicine, which is increasingly popular in the U.S., is not limited to the West, Iyenda noted that Namibia's traditional healers also send their patients to conventional hospitals if they are unable to treat them. "So we are really working together with the Ministry of Health," he said. "Our association is fully recognized by the government and we are playing a very important role in primary health care."

A spokesperson for the association pointed to some problems, however. "The lack of a properly organized pharmacological research institute means that the herbs collected and submitted are not yet analyzed. Lack of transport has also obstructed the research unit regarding the collection of herbs from rural based healers." Correspondent Shigwedha quotes the director of the Southern Regional Health Directorate in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Jack Fries, who noted that no traditional healers have registered with the ministry. "That is not to say that the Ministry does not want to work with traditional healers," Fries commented. "We are still in the process of working things out. Traditional healers should be regarded as people who have a role to play."

Somewhat typical of the country's traditional healers is Veronica Shikombera, 40, who works from her house 60 km north of Windhoek. She became a traditional healer when she was 18, having been taught by her father. "Healing has been in our family for generations," she said. "When a child is born, the elders have a way of seeing to it that he or she will carry on with the tradition." According to Shikombera, she treats about 15 patients a day for ailments such as infertility, both in men and women, swollen legs, tuberculosis, constipation, and impotence.

At a health workshop recently, Namibian Health Minister Dr. Libertine Amathila reminded the participants that traditional healers in Uganda had reported discovering a drug which allegedly kills the HIV virus. However, she said that, typically, whatever is found in Africa is usually not taken seriously by the Western world. "Also, people from the West have a tendency to come to Africa, take what the Africans have done themselves, give it their name, and claim it as theirs," she said.


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