African Medicine Men Losing Their Power

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29245, 1 July 1960, Page 15

African Medicine Men Losing Their Power

(From a Reuter Correspondent)

The powers and numbers of African medicine men are dwindling in Central Africa. Continuous propaganda and accomplishments at dispensaries have so shattered faith in traditional remedies that the social standing of African practitioners in many areas has been reduced to that shared by blacksmiths and basketmakers. The extent of the changes has been assessed in one remote area of Northern Rhodesia by Mr S. A. Symon, who, as a district commissioner at Mankoya, in the north-east of Barotseland, assem-

bled a mass of material about practices among indigenous Nkoya and Mashaha and immigrant Wiko tribesmen. His findings have been published by the Rhodes-Livingstone Insititute for Social Research. Lusaka. He said that the number of “witch doctors” had been considerably reduced in the Mankoya area because of growing confidence In the efficacy of the European medicines. The changes were particularly noticeable In areas near the headquarters of the provincial administration. The few “witch doctors” who

continued to practise in such areas adopted an attitude of ipeaceful . opposition, soliciting custom, from those who regard treatment with European medicines as too .slow. Mr Symon listed Symptoms and treatments for about 50 diseases —which Included a simple cold in the head, itch and earache, and more serious conditions such as tuberculosis and leprosy. One complaint was described as "foot-ball-football.” Some treatments involved the use -of: charms and drums, but the most successful “witch doctors” used combinations of charms and medicines prepared from leaves, flowers, grasses, foots, bulbs, barks,.or bones. One specific Includes earth from a wasps’ nest, and among ingredients of other prescriptions ' are burned lizard’s tail, fat from a python, and the burned feathers pt a fowl.