Page 30 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 2

ISSUE TWO | SEPT/OCT

although she was totally illiterate. I they would stay there for a night or been overwhelmed by borrowed
encountered the Maasai medicinal two in the cold, with no shelter. I knowledge and borrowed
plants, Turkana medicinal plants, decided, along with the committee, resources. We have forgotten
medicinal plants of the Pokot and I to decentralize the operation so that we are the cradle of humanity
made a lot of photocopies because that I would get closer to the people and the cradle of civilization. We
it was the first time I was really instead of people coming to me. are the father and the mother
encountering professionalism in By doing this, I ended up with 16 of the entire human race, this is
what my grandmother was doing. centers all over Kenya. I did that unchallengeable. Archeological
for 30 years. Literally for 30 years, evidence globally confirms that. I
When I came back again, I was I lived in my car. I used the sick told them that my comparison was
recruited to head an FAO/UNDP –the better ones - to organize the telling me that we are losing much
national sheep and goat project, people so as to make it affordable. more than we are gaining; and I
now covering the entire Kenya, My charges were the same for all pleaded with them to organize a
the Maasai, the Kalenjin and diseases. Sickness is an accident; continental exhibition of indigenous
the Turkana. Out in the field I I find it unethical to profit on knowledge of Afrika, where people
encountered more sick people people’s misfortune. I decided to who have knowledge, Afrikan
than the livestock, and people make it as affordable as possible, indigenous knowledge, who want
are more precious than livestock. standardizing the charges, some to exhibit and demonstrate would
While I was working on the project, medicines like the ones for TB be given a chance. I asked that
every time I would go home there and HIV/AIDS are very costly, but, they constitute subject specialists
were people waiting for me. In again, if people cannot afford the in medicine, in engineering, in
the morning, there were people medicine, it is just as useless to nutrition, in architecture, so that
waiting for me. In the office, there them as to the one that is cured. as these people demonstrated,
were people following me. The subject specialists could critique
authorities couldn’t allow me The criteria for assessing any what they manifest, and out of it
to have people come; 200-400 medicine are safety (short-term, pick that which is applicable and
people waiting for treatment. I mid-term and long term), how then develop it, as we research for
was not authorized. There was effective it is in addressing the more.
no provision for it then, traditional condition for which it is alleged to
medicine was still stigmatized. treat, how affordable it is to the ones They were very impressed by
it is intended for and how readily my thinking because I gave very
In 1982 I decided to go full time available it is. With that, and with good examples, but they said I
into treating people, as opposed our documentation, I have been would need to talk to the Board of
to animals. I can treat both able to sustain my practice for 50 the National Council of Science
humans and animals with herbs, years now, through our network of and Technology to get consent. I
because our people used the clinics that cover Kenya and the talked to the Board, from 4 up to 8
same, the Maasai, the Kalenjin region. I have patients in Uganda, at night. They were overwhelmed
used the same. That’s when I Sudan, Ethiopia, Canada, the US, by my thinking, I was saying if we
went back to Kinangop, I had a and Korea. I am proving what I do. are the oldest civilization on earth,
small place where I used to treat sustainability of any civilization
people over the weekend and Colonized minds portrays sustainability of the
I made it almost a daily affair After going to Australia, then knowledge that is used, because
for free for 10 years. Then the coming back, going to the US, culture is a way of people’s
number was overwhelming, it being exposed to their knowledge life and they evolve as people
was unmanageable in Kinangop, system, and after also being realistically interact with the reality
it was getting up to 2000 a day. I through our college here, I realized of their ecosystem. I said, if we are
didn’t have adequate shelter for some of the knowledge we are older than others, and we have
them; I didn’t have the personnel borrowing is inferior and much continued living the way we do and
to help me because I didn’t have less sustainable and compatible we have clean water, clean rivers,
the money. I recruited some of with our ecosystem than what we natural forests, clean air - cleaner
the sick people to constitute a abandoned. That is how I went to than anywhere else - it means
committee to help me make the the National Council of Science the lifestyle and the knowledge
fire, boil the medicine, organize and Technology in 1978 to tell system we hold and we apply is
the people; but still the number them who I am, what exposure much more sustainable and much
was not manageable. I have outside and locally, and more useful now than ever before.
that because of my traditional That fascinated the Board and
Kinangop is very cold and people background - I can compare the they told me they would call me
came from Mombasa and Kisumu, two. I told them that indeed we have later, having reflected on it and
30 HEALING - RESTORING - REBIRTHING - AFRICA