“MEDICINE MEN" SEEK PROTECTION

Evening Star, Issue 22896, 2 March 1938, Page 14

“MEDICINE MEN" SEEK PROTECTION

HEALING WITH AID OF AFRICAN HERBS Native “ medicine men,” who held ■their second annual conference in Bloemfontein under the segis of the Free State African Herbalists’ Association have passed a resolution ' asking the Minister of Justice to investigate the indiscriminate arrests of some herbalists for “ practising as doctors.” The resolution also submits that members of the association “ have a naturaland inalienable right to make use of natural African herbs which have been proved efficacious in healing disease.” The association has decided to ask for legal protection and the issue of permits to members for the unrestricted sale of herbs and herbal medicines on the same lines as those supplied to herbalists in Natal, Zuhiland, and the Transvaal. “ We have no record of ever having abused our knowledge and tried experience in the art of herbs either by wilful, careless, or indiscriminate destruction of life, and this fact alone discredits the assumption that we are a menace to public health ” was the tenor of another resolution. Congress asked for an impartial inquiry into the general status and constitution of the association in relation

to the petition for recognition which was refused by Parliament in January, 19 37. In his presidential address, Mr Daniel T. Mafata said; “ Most of you of the African race are able to testify that natural herbal roots and medicines have given relief to thousands of people—many such medicines being the same as those used by our ancestors, who helped people afflicted with disease. “ These herbs are our natural healing media, and it ii not easy to discard them. Some European medicines are made of the same African roots that you medicine men are using.”