COVID-19
REALITY CHECK; African Herbalists Should
Be Given The Chance To Find The Remedy For The Corona Virus
 |
| Tanzanian president John Pombe Magufuli's suggestion for African herbalists to covid-19 is a good idea |
This week
German radio Deutshwelle managed to post a question on their social media page about
Tanzania president john Pombe Magufuli’s suggestion that African herbalists can
help find the cure for covid-19.
Although most
of the respondents were skeptical about the possibility of an African solution to
the cure of covid-16 , there is a lot of evidence to show that its highly
possible for African herbalists to play a role not only in the fight but in
finding a cure for covid-19.
This is
mostly premised on the fact that before the advent of European exploration of the
African continent, there were health innovations started by the Africans themselves.
Despite of
the fact that the Europeans considered Africa to be a dark continent, the
Africans had a thriving and effective world of medicine that cured their
diseases.
The African
herbalists managed to deal with minor and major medical cases including child
birth, surgery and healing of chronic diseases.
In fact it
would be foolhardy to say that medicine was first introduced to Africa by the Whiteman.
African herbalists extracted medicine from roots, leaves and stems of trees.
They also managed to extract medicine from soil.
In fact
pregnant women were easily managed using those soil extracts. This guaranteed
safe birth for African women.
This safe
birth was the reason why the Whiteman found a fairly large population on the
African continent. This large population was the reason why the western power
managed to find a big hunting ground for slaves.
This was
because the African herbalists had managed to contain the infant mortality rate
to manageable levels.
African
medicine worked so well that it contained very dangerous epidemics like fever
and malaria which blossomed in African forests. The problem was that when the European eventually
managed to conquer the continent , they refused to recognize African medicine.
Why African Population Grew Despite
Of Slave Trade And Tribal Wars
When you
look around you find that the red Indians failed to grow their population
because they were relatively poor in the field of medicine.
That’s why
they easily perished and surrendered America to the Europeans.
The same
case is applicable to the aborigines of Australia.
Some
historians claim that the red Indians and aborigines perished because of the
advanced military might of the Europeans. Although that is partly true, it’s
just part of the story.
The red
Indians and the aborigines were never subjected to slave trade. This means that
their population should have grown in massive numbers. How come they are almost
extinct today?
Many African
societies that have faced military confrontations have blossomed after defeat.
Most African tribes were poached for slaves to very small numbers but the
sustained growth in population.
In addition
to that, African tribes were almost engaged in tribal wars almost all the time.
These wars like the Shaka-Zulu wars, the Buganda-Bunyoro war, the Shona-Ndebele
wars , to mention but a few, claimed so many lives of the Africans.
You can also
add the effect of the colonial wars of conquest that the Europeans imposed on
the Africans which also claimed many lives.
In fact
history tells us that the imperialists had tried but failed to penetrate the
African continent because of the various diseases that hindered their penetration
of the African jungles. The mosquito alone was a big source of danger to the
Europeans.
They had to
first find a vaccine for malaria to explore the African continent.
But there
are no cases of a single African tribe that perished completely on account of
the malaria and diseases together with the tribal wars or slave trade. Instead the
Africans regained their footing form the challenges of the 18th century
and have thrived into the 21st century.
This growth
of the African population despite the adversities of slave trade, tribal wars
and various diseases is certainly attributed to the unique and more organized
African herbal medicine.
The Defeat Of African Herbal Medicine
But it’s
important to note that African herbal medicine was defeated when the
colonialists emerged and confused it with African witchcraft. To date most educated Africans with Eurocentric
tendencies think that African herbal medicine is equal to witchcraft because
they were conditioned to think like that by the Europeans.
When you
look at the medical challenges of the 21st century, you realize that
the modern scientists have failed to live to their expectations.
Up to now
the modern scientists have not found the vaccine for the Zika virus, the SARS
virus, and the corona virus which has decimated large numbers of mankind.
They are busy
speculating that the vaccine (of covid-19 ) will be found 18 months from
now. This simply means that the earliest
we can expect the vaccine for the corona virus is 2022.
Should we
wait up to that time or give unconventional medical outlets a chance?
Certainly
NOT, we shouldn’t wait for the vaccine from the European scientists we should
embrace President Pombe Magufuli’s idea that we try African herbal medicine. His
suggestion is as timely as an idea whose time has come.
As stated
earlier, African herbalists have treated more devastating diseases. They have
overcome epidemics before.
When you
look at the corona virus, it’s not as sophisticated as, let say, malaria, that
has killed mankind for years. Malaria continuously kills more people around the
world than this covid-19.
Yet African
herbalists have a herbal solution for malaria.
If they could find a remedy for medical
toughies how can they fail to find a vaccine for a respiratory disease like
covid-19?
Let’s give
the African herbalists a chance to fight covid019.
The author Fred Daka
Kamwada is blogger and social critic and political analyst.
kamwadafred@gmail.com
Good piece Fred Daka Kamwada
ReplyDelete