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Indigenous medicine- Is there a doctor in the bush?

2009
"The World Health Organization estimates that the majority of the population of most non-industrial countries still relies on traditional forms of medicine for everyday health care. In many countries up to 80-90% of the population are in this category".(1) African countries have a long tradition of medicinal plant use. Traditional healers play an enormous role in providing health care to the majority of Africans. Often they are the first health care providers to be consulted, especially in rural areas. Communities all over Africa are faced with the challenge of incorporating indigenous medicine into mainstream medical care. We will focus on the challenge in South Africa where traditional medicine and consultation with healers is part of the fabric of the cultural and spiritual life of the majority of people. It is estimated that at least 70% of all South Africans consult one of the more than 200000 Traditional Healers practicing in the country. We need to find out what what Indigenous medicine is and whether or not it could be incorporated into mainstream health care. We aim is to use Critical thinking to explore: *alternatives to western type medicines- worldviews that take into account mental, social, physical and ecological dimensions of health and well being. *different cultural/medicinal practices and remedies *incorporating traditional indigenous medical practices into mainstream Medicare. *engender cross-cultural understanding through finding out about different cultural/medicinal practices and remedies (1)"Indigenous Medical Knowledge:the Law and Politics of Protection"Dr Gerard Bodeker Green College University of Oxford). http://www.oiprc.ox.ac.uk/EJWP0300.pdf

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Team

SaniIrene Primary School, Gauteng, South Africa


KayleyIrene Primary School, Gauteng, South Africa


JenniferIrene Primary School, Gauteng, South Africa


TinaIrene Primary School, Gauteng, South Africa


LuluIrene Primary School, Gauteng, South Africa


KarinaIrene Primary School, Gauteng, South Africa


Age Range

15 & under

Coaches

Shirley-Ann OldnallIrene Primary School, Gauteng, South Africa


Category

Social Sciences & Culture > Indigenous Peoples

Audience

All ages

Language

English

Team Collaboration

We had lots of team meetings and went through the tasks and everyone chose what they thought they would be good at. At the beginning of the project we thought we had divided up the work quite well , but every task had to have team approval before it was uploaded. So of course there was a lot of discussion – sometimes we got irritated with each other when things were not done on time. Half way through the project our teacher gave us a team work rubric and we had to honest about scoring each other. Actually this was a good thing because it forced us to look at our own, and team weaknesses

and strengths .You might think it would be horrible having a team meeting like that, but the positive and negative evened out. So then we realized that to work as team you need to be tolerant and have constant feedback about the progress of the project.

We had to rethink who would do the tasks, and this boiled down in the end to pooling resources. Tina and Lulu,they stay at school late waiting for transport, so they were in charge of the KWWL chart and the Thinksheet and could work in the computer room. Karina, Sani and Kayley had cameras so they took the pictures for different tasks. We all did our own editing . At the last minute Sani made a video of us to put on the reflection page which was a nice spontaneous idea. We were quite nervous but think he did a good job. Karina, our group leader stayed calm and helped us keep on track. She is very good at thinking out of the box but also fussy about citing sources properly because she is also an academic. We chose Karina to upload the Sangoma interview because she is a good thinker and very open. Lulu and Tina did lots of action research and gave us insight into proud tribal heritage because they asked elders in their families and home villages about traditional healing. Jennifer became our editor because she is good at spelling and going through every ones’ work really kept her on track ( sometimes she is a bit scatter brained).

Now, today on the day we have to submit ,we are all checking each others work to make sure it is perfect.

Team Diversity

I Sani just want to say this comment, that in South Africa it is OK to say someone is black or white as we are proud of our races and its our races that make us a proud "rainbow" nation. Being of different cultures really makes a project like this interesting, because we all have a point of view that is rooted in the way we were brought up.So when the team has discussions we see many points of view and think about things from different angles.

Tina,Sani and Lulu are Black so know so much more about how the majority of South Africans live.

Karina , Kayley and Jennifer are white and so they have a completely different perspective from the others (not knowing about traditional things.)We have one language in common which is English .Tina speaks Sotho , her mother is Xhosa and her father is Tswana. Jennifer is Afrikaans,Karina is English and Kayley English/Welsh and Sani is a Zulu.

We each shared stories which helped us get to know each others' cultures better. Sani told us a story about going to a traditional African wedding. He said that if you saw a wedding, you didn’t need an invitation and could just attend even if its a person you talk to only once in a while. They would prepare a lot of food and people would pile up their plates and join in the celebration. I think I want a traditional African wedding!

Kayley then told us that in her culture, you only catered for a specific number and if you weren’t invited there would be no food for you. She told us if you have a large family with 7 children, and the invitation didn’t say, “And children”, you got the message.

We worked well together, and there was no nastiness. We all respected each others thoughts, and were able to do this project on time. We would love to do a project as a team again and have many more laughs and learn more.