ABSTRACT
In some developing countries, parts of southern Africa for example, legislation has made the practice of traditional medicine illegal. Having enacted the legislation, however, those Governments were not able to provide approved health services that adequately covered the population, were reliably supplied with drugs and other essentials, or were adequately appealing to health needs as people perceived them. Professional medical associations examine candidates, and if they reach an agreed standard, legitimise their right to practise medicine. Primary health care planners must have a clear idea of what they would like traditional practitioners to do in the health service. Healers who practise under a mandate of traditional legitimacy derive their legitimacy from membership in a congregation, sodality or lineage, not necessarily an association of the type envisaged by the World Health Organisation. Turning from purely individual choice to planned collaboration, some small-scale programmes may suggest further avenues for collaboration.
