Use of traditional medicine on the rise as indigenous knowledge gets recognition
ZIMBABWEANS are embracing traditional medicines as an affordable and easily accessible source of treatment in the primary healthcare system.
For the past four decades, Sekuru Stephen Duri, a professional herbalist from Kuwadzana, Harare, has applied his knowledge of indigenous medicinal plants to cure various ailments.
Sekuru Duri has teamed up with youths from the area to establish a herbarium with more than 500 medicinal plant and fruit tree species under a community-based initiative.
“In my 45-year experience as a herbalist, I have knowledge of how all these indigenous trees are used to cure various ailments. However, these indigenous trees face extinction if we continue cutting down trees randomly. So I urge communities to plant more trees, including indigenous fruit trees, which are medicinal,” he said.
The team leader of the Kuwadzana Greening Project, Tafadzwa Gwini, underscored the need to amplify Indigenous therapeutic systems.
“We should preserve our tangible cultural heritage by planting indigenous plants and fruit trees. Traditionally, it was basic knowledge that if the head or stomach is aching, you just go out in the bush and take a specific leaf or root, but it seems we have subcontracted our health to foreign-based pharmaceuticals. This tendency of depending on foreigners to cure ailments while we have our own traditional knowledge systems must come to an end,” explained Gwini.
There are, however, growing calls to demystify misconceptions around traditional medicines.
“As a practising herbalist, I know these Indigenous trees come with a variety of healing properties. One species may be an antibiotic, another can be an antidepressant or may cure insomnia. However, there is a need to convince communities about herbal treatment. Most people think if you are a herbalist you are a traditional healer who specializes in witchcraft,” noted a herbalist.
Another said, “During the colonial period traditional healers were normally despised or shunned. Colonialists wanted to destroy our traditional knowledge systems while taking them to their countries. Right now they take our herbs and bring them back as modern medicines. Many people shun indigenous medicines because of the way they were socialized. I urge people to go back to our traditional foods and medicines.”
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 80 per cent of people on the globe rely on traditional medicine for their primary healthcare needs.