SPIRITUAL AND INDIGENOUS HEALING PRACTICES AMONG THE ASANTE PEOPLE OF GHANA: A TESTIMONIAL FROM TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PRACTITIONERS AND RECIPIENTS IN KUMASE
SAMUEL ADU-GYAMFI *
Department of History and Political Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
In their editorial, “Safety of traditional medicines, complementary and Alternative Medicines in Africa, C. O Adewunmi and J.A.O Ojewole have argued that plants have been used for medicinal purposes in Africa many centuries and African plants used medicinally are widely assumed to be safe but many are potentially toxic [1]. Yet Roland Van der Kooi and Sally Theobald include diviners and those who use bone throwing for diagnosis and herbalists as traditional medical practitioners [2]. Developed and developing countries have resorted to the use of not only orthodox medicine but also to herbal and other forms of alternative medicines. This study paid attention to the need to advance the growth and development of alternative and holistic medicine in Africa and Ghana in particular. This article pays attention to the roles of spiritual healers in twentieth century Asante and how they contributed to the healing and curing of persons within the period. It pays attention to evidence from archival, oral and secondary sources to suggest that spiritual healing has been an essential part of the medical practices of the Asante people of the Gold Coast and Ghana, hence the need not only to incorporate alternative/spiritual treatment into formal medical streams in Ghana but also the need to continue to look at practical ways of using holistic medicine (spiritual and physical cure).
Keywords: Indigenous Priest Healer (IPH), traditional birth attendants, herbalist, spiritual healing, orthodox/western medicine, witchcraft