SIGNIFICANCE OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS MEDICINES TO FAMILY WELL-BEING AND NIGERIAN ECONOMIC UPLIFT

Abstract

African Traditional Religious Medicines are the traditional medicines of Africans that have stood the test of time and have been used to cure numerous diseases before the advent of Europeans to Africa. The medicines coincide with the religious beliefs and practices of Africa as Africans believe that the physical and the spiritual work together, which have made them believe that any physical illness that afflicts any member or members of a family has spiritual connotation and must be fought both spiritually and physically. In African religious setting, diseases are not contagious, but caused by malignant spirits, that is why more emphasis is placed on traditional medicines as some of these herbalists cure illnesses through spiritual means as well as physical. Though African traditional medicines have been relegated for Orthodox or modern medicine as some people including the government perceive them as primitive and unsearched, many people still perceive them as the last resort when confronted with incurable diseases like stroke, hypertension, diabetes,  viral and stubborn bacterial diseases like staphylococcus auras, syphilis, gonorrhea, et cetera. These phytochemicals produced by plants are used to cure diseases that have defied modern medicines. The chemicals can be found in plants’ leaves, stems and roots which the herbalists use to cure illnesses as these can be blended singly or with other items and given to patients or even squeezed, boiled or infused and drunk by patients. Two theories were used for the research namely Symbolic-Interaction Analysis and Structural-Change Theory. The method used was participant observation. It is recommended among others that government should sponsor herbalists in producing these traditional medicines by building factories where these medicines are produced and modernized as in form of capsules and tablets and sold to other countries to improve the economy. Government should also help in sponsoring researches on the efficacy of traditional medicines