Historical Perspectives on the State of Health and Health Systems in Africa, Volume I by Mario J. Azevedo

Author:Mario J. Azevedo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Was this a mere coincidence? The author is not sure that one can ever convince his family and the community that it was. Similar examples abound and are seen all over Africa daily. African criticism of the work of a traditional healer seems meaningless because, as noted earlier, many of the physicians themselves, whether Christian or Muslim, continue, often secretly, to seek the services of healers in the hundreds of villages of this former Portuguese colony. One needs to always remember that when sick, for safety, the African might take two types of medicine: Western and traditional African. In fact, a survey conducted among the educated elite and the less privileged traditional groups revealed that 20% of them consulted the traditional healer for treatment, particularly when seeking traditional drugs (Jong 1991).

One must ask, therefore, the following question: What is wrong with the services of a traditional healer if one takes his prescription, which cures him or her, and ignores the rest that is said to contradict the teachings of the Western Church? If the desired result is cure, and someone feels or gets cured, then the purpose of medicine is successfully and sufficiently met. Obviously, not every missionary or high clergy was in agreement with such behavior. John Iliffe, in his The African Poor (1987), which earned him the African Studies Association book award, quotes Catholic Sister Maria Helena Martin founder of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, as saying after the Vatican decreed that nuns could be fully trained medically:Medical Mission work presupposes doing physical good to all who ask us—as Our Blessed Lord did. The question of conversion or change of life may come later…It is not for us [nuns] to go out preaching the Gospel—although we are always ready to answer our patients’ enquiries—we pave the way for the acceptance of Our Lord’s teaching…True, we baptize infants in danger of death, unless we have been expressly asked to by fervent Mohammedans or Hindus, but the pediatrician goes all out to save life and with modern scientific nursing the results seem almost miraculous and the cure rate is so high. (Iliffe 1987: 196)

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