African Traditional Religion and Medicine in Contemporary Times

Abstract

This paper examines traditional religion and medicine in Africa. Little credence is given to quality healthcare through traditional medicine in Africa and Nigeria to be precise. Every nation is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring quality healthcare delivery for its citizens. Regrettably, as a result of inconsistency in policy, misplacement of priority and corruption, healthcare indices in Nigeria and Africa generally are among the worst globally. Preventable diseases like malaria, diarrhoea, measles, typhoid, tuberculosis, diabetes and hypertension, among others, often lead to avoidable death. These are diseases which traditional medicine had been effectively providing remedies and cure for from time
immemorial to the present period but this system has been neglected by the government. This is the problem that this study is meant to bring to the fore and thus be solved by proving ways in which traditional medicine can positively impact Nigerian society and Africa at large. Adopting the phenomenological, historical-analytic and direct observation methods, the article covers the use of herbs for healing purposes, medicine men and traditional practice in Africa, aspects of traditional medicine practised in Africa, divination, medicine and healing, medicine and taboo, and traditional medicine in modern society.