Page 64 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 16

Community Community

TRADITIONAL AFRIKAN MEDICINE DAY

AN INTERVIEW WITH DR JACK GITHAE

Chioma Phillips

We had this interview in honor of mittee on Traditional Medicine, Afrikan indigenous knowledge and
Afrikan Traditional Medicine Day based in Congo Brazzaville, around wisdom, because, without it we
2021 in Dr. Githae’s botanical 2000, 2002-2003 or thereabouts, would not have been the cradle of
garden of indigenous plants all of when the Afrikan heads of gov- the human race.
ernments realized that we in Afrika
which are potent to protect the body need Afrikan Traditional Medicine Afrika is the cradle of human civili-
from sickness and disease. more than anything else. That it is zation, it is the cradle of organized
the medicine that has sustained us education, the oldest universities
for long, and that it is the medicine in the world are the University of
Dr. Githae, we have learnt of the future. Khartoum, University of Cairo,
from books, but now we want here in Afrika. The oldest organized
to learn from you about the The Afrikan heads of government medicine was started in the old
history of the traditional med- realized that there was need for us empire of Ghana and spread to the
icine day and how it came to to create a forum within which we Middle East. So, indeed, we are the
be and its state at the moment. can celebrate our heritage, tradition- initiators of humanity and human
civilization and we celebrate Afrikan
al medicine heritage, the medicinal
Afrikan Traditional Medicine Day plants of Afrika, the traditional traditional medicine, especially we
was a day that was agreed upon by medicine practitioners of Afrika, are celebrating at a time when we
the WHO Regional Experts Com-

64 | we tell the true afrikan story