Stella Nakakande
26 March 2008
column
Armed with the art of psychology, witchdoctors devised ways to ensure that the secret of their non-possession of supernatural powers would be known only to a few trusted practitioners," writes Br. Anatoli Wasswa of the Banakaloli Brothers in his book Unveiling Witchcraft. Br. Wasswa is a traditional herbalist.
In Uganda, herbalists are frequently confused with traditional healers commonly known as witchdoctors. Herbalists are often criticised because of the negativity the latter portray. They on the other hand insist that their approach to disease treatment is scientific with no mystical power to their medicine.
According to Mr Elijah Ntege, they like in modern science, have laboratories where they carry out tests to ascertain the nutrient content of leaves, animal bones, ash, soil and their curative powers in relation to the disease.
Traditional medicine is at the core of the matter. In many places in the country are structures with posts reading Herbal Research Clinic. These have been on the rise lately; you are often lost for choice in places like Katwe where every shop has this label.
And like it is said, necessity is the mother of invention; the initiator of all this research seems to have been the HIV/Aids epidemic in the early 90s.
Dr Abubakar Rashid Lukwago of the Dr Yakubu Lukwago Herbal Research Clinic in Kasubi says that his late father Dr Rashid Lukwago who focused on HIV treatment founded the clinic in 1990 on William Street.
"It begun in 1990 with the onset of the HIV epidemic," he explains, adding that "our father was mainly handling people living with the virus mainly." These doctors are true medical personnel as per the public eye.
They wear white clinical coats, examine patients, and prescribe doses; the clinics are jammed with patients seeking healing for their ailments. They are even referred to as 'doctor'; you do not have to swear by the 'Hippocratic oath' after all to earn the title.
Nonetheless, what is traditional medicine all about and why is the herbal research sector suddenly mushrooming?
Based on research
Dr Yakubu Lukwago explains that theirs is treatment and research that has grown over the years. "We have moved on from HIV/ Aids treatment we can now handle all diseases apart from cancer and sickle cells where we can only offer tranquilizers since these have no cure." "We even check for UTI, which is by far the commonest infection in women," he adds.
When it comes to HIV, Dr Lukwago says, they have the right medicine to boost the immunity and get rid of unwanted symptoms like lip ulcers commonly called "red lips", loss of appetite, chronic diarrhoea, Herpes Zoster (kisippi) and cough among others.
For the lip ulcers and Herpes Zoster, the clinic has a powder and medicated Vaseline applied on the infected area. "It takes five to seven days for these to disappear," he clarifies.
They even have antibiotics for cough infection as a result of Tuberculosis.
The authenticity of all this of course can only be proved by a user although one wonders why these medicines have no names.
In Kamengo Herbal Research Clinic in Katwe, every bottle has a label of the diseases treated apart from that containing medicine for HIV/ Aids. The attendant knows it by the liquid's colour perhaps and its positioning on the shelves. Like ARVS, one should never run out of stock of this, the doctors tell me.
Mysterious
They are also hesitant to reveal the contents of their medicine. "We mix a couple of things," they say. For each disease, there is a complex set of ingredients. The contents are given names like "red liquid" or "black powder". The source of these is also mysterious.
"We get trees from Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Somalia, Tanzania and so many other countries," Dr Lukwago says when asked to explain their origin and names. "We name the species ourselves so they have no definite naming."
To an onlooker, it is as if they are reluctant to reveal their "magic mixtures"; they want to stay around much longer and no kind of coercion is enough to make them name these species. They only restrict themselves to the ingredients noting that the main composition of red liquid is magnesium, zinc and potassium required to boost one's immunity. The explanation ends here.
More interestingly, these herbalists have scientific labs not only for research but also for analysis of one's health. They like with modern medicine diagnose and check for the disease, before any prescription is made.
Prices range from Shs4,000 to Shs70,000 for the CD 4 count performed for people living with HIV. They also have pregnancy tests.
Interestingly though, only one of these herbalists, Elijah Ntege of the Banakaloli Brothers said they do not offer HIV/Aids treatment. "What should we treat in HIV?" he wondered.
Well, that begs the question, what do others treat?
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