The changing role of traditional medicine in the provision of health care in Tanzania from precolonial to post-colonial period

Abstract

This paper aims to present the changing role of traditional medicine in the provision of health care in Tanzania. The paper covers the time from precolonial societies through colonialism to postcolonial period. The paper is organized in two sections; the first section of the paper discusses the concept and the use of traditional medicine in Tanzania by outlining how the traditional medicines are prepared and the issue of transfer of knowledge from one generation to another. Moreover, in this section the paper outlines the diversity and commonalities of traditional medicine in Tanzania. Furthermore, the second section of the paper discusses about the role of traditional medicine in pre-colonial societies; also the paper in this section presents the complex relationship between traditional medicine and biomedicine during the colonial time. However, before the conclusion, the paper presents the changing role of the traditional medicine in postcolonial period in Tanzania and its challenge in the provision of health care. Therefore, the paper concludes with the discussion on the need for the government to invest on the traditional medicine in order to incapsulate the use of traditional medicine in the national health system.