Page 56 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 9
P. 56
HEALTH & WELLNESS
THE AFRICAN BACKGROUND OF
MODERN MEDICAL SCIENCE
By Fr Anselm Adodo
he origin and evo- a Greek, is the real “father of first great edifice in stone,
lution of healing as medicine”. the step-pyramid of Saggara.
a special skill long Hippocrates was said to have
Tantedates other im- The excavated Ebers papyri and descended from a long line of
portant human invention such the Edwin Smith papyrus are “Asclepiads”, that is, devotees of
as agriculture and animal the most important medical the Greek healing god Asclepios,
domestication and might as well textbooks of ancient Egypt, now often identified with Imhotep.
deserve consideration as ‘the known as the Ebers papyrus and Imhotep’s father was Kanofer,
oldest profession’. In 1930, J.H. the Edwin Smith papyrus. They a distinguished architect in the
Breasted translated the Edwin date back to pre-pyramid times, service of Pharaoh. His mother
Smith papyrus, which antedates over 4000 years ago. Imhotep was Khreduankh, from Mende.
Hippocrates by over 2500 years, was an adviser to the Pharaoh Although he served and excelled
and it became clear that Imho- Djoser. A political leader, de- as prime minister, chief scribe,
tep, an African, not Hippocrates, signer and builder of the world’s ritualist and architect under
56 | Heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika
