Heritage Based Medicine and

Medical Sciences in Zimbabwe

 Recap; What is culture?
There are several definitions:

• A whole way of life, encompassing material and spiritual

aspects that is shared by a group of people

• knowledge, beliefs arts, morals, laws, norms, customs

and any other capabilities and habits acquired by
human [man] as a member of society’
• every society has views and practices regarding health
• our ancestors were in these parts of Africa for thousands of years. How did
they maintain health or respond to diseases or injury?

• these views and practices derive from the culture of the particular
community

• it also is influenced by the heritage of the society

• culture is shared
• culture defines what is acceptable in a particular community
• culture is viewed as normal and is taken for granted
• culture is not static
• culture is socially constructed, it is not biological
• culture is learned through socialisation
• culture is linked to identity
• culture shapes our behaviour as it is tied to traditions, customs,
norms, values and beliefs. culture influnces how we experience health
and illness
medicine and culture
• culture inform the causes people attribute to illness
• how do people maintain health and prevent diseases
• how do people treat diseases
• how is the body understood and cared for
Culture,Heritage and Biomedicine
• Sources of knowledge on medicine
• archives
• oral traditions
• archaeological research
• ethnographic contexts
• scientific experimentation/research
Biomedicine (allopathic medicine)
• derives from certain cultural contexts and is an embodiment of a
cultural view
• views health, illness and treatment in certain ways
• illness is seen by signs and symptoms
• the body can be repaired
• causes of illness can be clearly identified (virus, bacterial, germs)
Other forms of Health care
• Traditional Medicine
• Chinese Medicine
• Ayuverda
• Yoga
Traditional Medicine
• The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as
“the sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices based on the
theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures,
whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health, as well
as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical
and mental illnesses.” WHO 2000.
• WHO has acknowledged that “traditional, complementary, or
alternative medicine has many positive features, and that traditional
medicine and its practitioners play an important role in treating
chronic illnesses, and improving the quality of life of those suffering
from minor illness or from certain incurable diseases.”
Importance of Traditional Medicine
• Traditional medicine is not only a vital source of health care, but also
an important source of income for many communities.
• Traditional medicine may even form an integral part of a community’s
identity.
• Pre-industrial communities have been responsible for the discovery of
most of the medicinal plants in use today, and many communities are
still involved in the wild collection, domestication, cultivation and
management of medicinal plant resources.
• This economic activity supports many indigenous peoples and local
communities, a benefit that in turn provides incentives for the
conservation of TM.
• While some medicinal plants are cultivated commercially, most
continue to be collected from the wild.
• TMK may also contribute to a community’s way of life and spiritual
beliefs. For example, traditional African medicine is characterized by
a holistic world-view that embraces people, animals, plants, and
inanimate objects in an inseparable whole from which all beings
derive their life force.
• Traditional African medicine may involve spiritual healing, a process
thought to be mediated through spiritual or divine powers.
• Herbal treatment is on the rise
TMK in Zimbabwe
• In Zimbabwean traditional medicine and therapeutic herbs are
sometimes considered supernatural.
• However, magical properties only become effective when a healer
incorporates a system of rituals, divinations and symbols into
treatment.
• In addition to the traditional healer, the entire local society plays a
role in the effectiveness of the healing magic.
• There are some changes to these perspectives but in some
families/communities this is still the case.
• Access to the traditional medical system begins when a healer selects
a family member to assist in practice.
• The apprenticeship teaches a future practitioner how to identify,
prepare and use traditional herbs, a system for diagnosing and
treating illness, and lessons in cultural and social practices.
• Elders grant access to TMK through ceremonies where knowledge is
revealed as a gift.
• While general knowledge of the healing properties of medicinal
plants may be widespread, only a select group of trained practitioners
knows exactly how herbs are used in the traditional system.
END