ABSTRACT
The various cultures of Africa have practiced their own systems of medicine from time immemorial, and these traditional methods persist today, in spite of the infiltration of Western culture and medical practices. The traditional experts are known as healers, while the practice is referred to as healing. According to Tessema, an African traditional healer is someone the community recognizes as “competent to provide healthcare by using vegetable, animal and mineral substance and certain other methods based on the social, cultural and religious background as well as on the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs that are prevalent in the community regarding physical, mental, and social well-being and the causation of disease and disability.” Healing, on the other hand, is “the sum total of all the knowledge and practices, whether explicable or not, used in diagnosis, prevention and elimination of physical, mental or social imbalance and relying exclusively on practical experience and observation handed down from generation to generation, whether verbally or in writing.”
