“What about our ways of living?”: Traditional Health practitioners describe the tenets of African Traditional Medicine.

Abstract

Background: African Traditional Medicine continues to strive and contribute to health care for many indigenous people in Africa. Within this system, Traditional Health Practitioners are the custodians of traditional health, knowledge and practices and play various roles such as counselling and teaching. There are unique ways to name, diagnose, treat, and manage ill-health in African Traditional Medicine, which makes this system unique. However, most concepts are loosely used or translated literally by researchers and scholar without their proper application and contextualization. This study was undertaken to explore and describe how Traditional Health Practitioners define African Traditional Medicine, in their own accord and understanding.Methods: Qualitative, explorative and descriptive design was adopted. Data was collected from eighteen (18) Traditional Health Practitioners who were sampled using snowball technique. Individual semi-structured interviews were done and audio recorded with consent of participants. Data was analysed using qualitative content analysis. Trustworthiness was ensured through principles of credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability.Findings: The findings revealed two themes: 1) The features of African Traditional Medicine and 2) Elements of practice in African Traditional Medicine. The findings revealed that African Traditional Medicine is intertwined with the everyday life for Africans and cannot be detached. It emerged that there are different and unique ways of naming and understanding concepts with African Traditional Medicine. Spirituality, ancestral calling and the language used plays an important role in qualifying as a Traditional Health Practitioner. However, participants raised concerns regarding the quality of training for Traditional Health Practitioners.Conclusion: Being a Traditional Health Practitioner is directly linked to ancestral calling. However, spirituality plays and important role in African Traditional Medicine where practitioners undergo rigorous training to learn the craft of traditional healing such as the use of language, connecting with ancestral spirits and harvesting of plants. Dialogue must be facilitated among Traditional Health Practitioners in different specialization, to reach common understanding on the names, concepts and processes in African Traditional Medicine. This will contribute immensely in the efforts to standardize the practice of African Traditional Medicine in line with global standards.