Traditional Knowledge and Community Healthcare

To produce a classified written description of the traditional treatments used for common ailments in local communities, staff of Fantsuam collected information from local healers about communal hygiene, types of fevers, 'bad back', leprosy, female genital mutilation, dysmenorrhoea, diet-control in diabetes and hypertension, non-sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS through use of unsterilised razors for circumcision and facial tribal marks, and hygienic preparation of traditional recreational drugs. Common treatments included in the catalogue are the emollients and local anesthetics of the traditional bone setters, and the use of herbs as an inhalant during labor, to stimulate lactation, and to treat ringworm. To bolster the information provided by local healers, Fantsuam regularly consults the health channel of the WorldSpace Radio, Satellife, WHO fact sheets, and numerous discussion lists. These materials are then translated into the local dialect and shared with the women. Sections of a health reference text are also translated into local dialects.

After this information is collated, the catalogue remains the property of the communities.

A Medical Database is under development for each participating community. Initially conceived as a vital registration database (births and deaths), the database now incorporates a traditional pharmacopoeia specific to that community. The information is stored on CDs and hard disk and is in the custody of the Village Head.

Health, Women.

Programme organisers note that Nigeria has a population of about 120 million, 70% of whom live in rural communities where there is limited access to health information. With little disposable income, and the prohibitive cost of hospital bills and medication, many people in rural communities have turned to traditional medicine. Much information is common to other rural communities and is usually freely shared among members of the tribe and to outsiders as well. However, Fantsuam contends that traditional healers feel threatened by dissemination of their knowledge and skills. In Nigeria the healers now have an association that acts like a trade union primarily to regulate how information is shared with non-practitioners. In order to allay suspicion of any attempt to undermine traditional medicine, the Fantsuam programme relies on community participation.