Dedication:

I will like  to  dedicate  this  article and  the previous  one titled 'Culture, Freedom & Poverty'  to Mrs. Lola Onafowora. Lola, as  she  was  fondly called, was my lecturer in 1979/80 as  well as the  head  of  department of  business  administration.  She taught  us  Introduction to  business and principles of  Management with  a project work on  culture-oriented management.

Lola  is  a black American. It was  Lola  who  lit   the fire  of  schorlaship inside  of  me and  I  will  forever  be  grateful  to  her  for  the  immense  contributions  she  has  made  to  my  life; in  the area of  the  development of  my intellect Lola is undoubtedly the foremost contributor.

She had extraordinary passion for  her  job and  her  students. I have not  seen the  level of  her  commitment, dedication to  duty, spirit of  sacrifice, discipline and  above all desire to  see us  excel and succeed in any  other  lecturer that I  have  met in  my adult life.

Her dresses  were  immaculate reflecting an angelic inner  being.

Madam, wherever  you  may  be I wish  you God’s blessings and protection.

You  are indeed  a rare gem; an achiever and I will  continue to remember you for teaching me  how  to  fish in  an  excellent and disciplined manner.  God bless you and  your family

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“This man with culture again?” will be a natural question from anyone who has read some of my articles lately.

My response will be – YES O. The Yorubas say that the fingernail will continuously be soaked with blood as long as the hair is filled with lice.

I have a strong conviction that until we weave our economic models round our cultures and traditions, our people will continue to be poor.

I have also had contacts with papers presented by prof. Ali Mazuri and Ellen Bortei-Doku Aryeetey of Ghana  on the same subject. My thoughts have been greatly influenced by these authors.

Also recently, I watched Dr. Abati anchor PATITO’S gang during which the discussion about traditional and orthodox medicine took place.

And finally, I have decided to write this article based on a personal experience of over ten years. The experience?  

A colleague of mine complained to me that she was down with malaria and that she wanted to go and visit her doctor. I told her not to bother wasting her time and money. I advised her to go down the road to Jankara market in lagos and that with just  N200.00 she will get a basketful of herbs that will cure her in three days. I even went on to tell her that malaria is a tropical disease and so the best cure will be those indigenous herbs and roots.

Before I could finish she yelled “God forbid” and later told everyone present in the department that I was not only a bushman but that I was also a herbalist.

She wondered why an educated person like me from Lagos Island will advise her to take herbs. I felt embarrassed and kept quiet.

But the matter of herbalist will not just go away and I had to practically turn to a lecturer on the subject. I explained to them that taking herbs is not to be mixed with occultic practice. That was when a new chapter was added to the argument – “how can a child of God be involved with herbalists or herbs”, “God forbid”, “This Mr. Anibaba sef etc etc”. I kept my cool and later asked them if they knew that chloroquine is actually made from Dongoyaro which grows almost everywhere in Nigeria.

I will return to the story sometime later Insha Allah.

This encounter ran through my mind as I watched Patito’s gang last week.

And I have come to the conclusion that Ignorance about ourselves and our environment which make us disregard our customs and traditions (not the fetish or occultic traditions) is responsible for our inability to develop sound economic systems with the resultant effect that majority of our people are poor. Everybody’s attention is focused on oil, banking and manufacturing.

Ignorance also about the teachings and tenents of the faith that we profess has also helped in making us classify as unlawful or forbidden, those things that God has made lawful for us.

I performed Hajj for the first time in 1995 and one unforgettable thing I saw on the streets of Mecca and Medina were markets where roots and herbs were sold.

Yes. Herbs, roots and medicines from different countries, curing such diseases as pile, hypertension, etc were on display everywhere despite the fact that, that country, Saudi Arabia also boasts of some of the best orthodox hospitals in the world and is an Islamic State.

Indeed there was Ekana Fatima ( Fatima’s Finger) in Yoruba and Gadali in Hausa. This root is reputed to be a cure for all manner of diseases and disorders.

The Quran is clear and specific about what a Muslim should not eat or drink. Herbs and roots are among the halal (permitted). Also the only medical prescription for diseases in the Quran is honey and there is no doubt about the claims of its efficacy even in the orthodox medical world.

Finally, I also came across habatu saoda. These are  small black seeds  that  the  noble prophet (SAWS) recommended for use in curing ailments. Indeed there is  a book on prophetic medicines.

So from the Islamic perspective, it is permitted for a muslim to use herbs and roots.

From the biblical point of view, Genesis chapter 1 verses 28-30 are  very clear on this.  Verse 29: And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

So from the perspective of Islam and Christianity, there is no hindrance in any form in the use of roots and herbs. But it is amazing that some religious organizations still discourage and sometimes prevent their followers from curing physical ailments through the use of herbs or even tablets! May God open our eyes to the truth concerning His commandments.

However, I do not want to pretend that in an African setting, the demarcation between herbal medicine practitioners and occultists is  sometimes difficult to discern.

Man is made up of three parts- the physical, the intellectual and the spiritual.

Indeed some physical problems are manifestations of a spiritual disorder. Both the Quran and the Bible also recognize this. And it marks the dividing line between herbal medicine practice and occultic practices.

For a Muslim or Christian there is nothing wrong with taking Dongoyaro for Malaria, Effirin for indigestion or poroporo oka baba as blood tonic but where the matter is diagnosed to be spiritually induced then such a believer must revert to the Pastor or Alfa, if he/ she cannot handle the situation on his/ her own.

However, to continue to mix the two and to shun our African herbal medicines is to shut down all economic activities in that area.

It is amazing to find Nigerians scrambling to buy such products as Tianshi Tea, slimming tea, sugar reducing tea, forever living products etc, when the raw materials are in their own backyards.

The Mambila Plateau in Jos is reputed to be producing one of the finest teas in the World, yet our markets are filled with tea products from other countries.

Can you imagine the number of people that will be employed if each of the 774 local governments in Nigeria cultivates 20 hectares of land to produce herbal teas, ginger, dongoyaro and other herbs.

I am of the firm belief that Tianshi and other herbal teas can be produced at lower costs in Nigeria. Indeed, unlike the manufacturing sector, the capital outlay and overheads will be much lower, though cost of labour may be high. However, if this is done on a large scale, the unit cost will be lower in addition to the fact that it will generate employment especially in the  primary  health  care  sector.

In addition to this, our pharmacists will benefit immensely while the indigenous pharmaceutical companies will have steady sources of raw materials. The  current  ratio  of  one  doctor to  20,000 patients  will  also  be  improved upon.

It is disheartening to note that I have been buying Swedish bitters for over 10 years now (I started when it was about N200) and recently Living Bitters from Ghana. In fact, the Nigerian market is now flooded with neatly packaged herbal medicines from Ghana. In the spirit of ECOWAS we should allow them but Nigerians need to wake up to produce ours on a large scale.

At this junction I will like to salute the efforts of Late Madam Kafaru, Late Dr. Olowu (Bulldozer), Yem-kem and others.

These are private initiators, but we need the input of governments at the local, state and federal  levels to realize the potentials in this area.

Some other issues that discourage our people from patronizing our traditional medicines include: activities of quacks, dosage, cleanliness, packaging etc.

These can be taken care of by empowering regulatory agencies and the establishment of boards of traditional medicine practitioners in each state of the federation.

This article is not about the technical details involved in herbal medicine practice. It is about the developmental, economic and social gains that can be derived from developments in this  area.

There was a time in this country when Cadbury was importing Cocoa beans for the preparation of Bournvita. However, a ban on the importation of Cocoa beans made the company to look inwards and the benefits are there for all to see today.

Until we appreciate what God has endowed us with, do away with colonial mentality, misinterpretation of the scriptures and develop economic models that will have our peoples, cultures and traditions as the center piece, we will continue to be another distributive channel and our people will continue to be poor.

And the poverty will be self- inflicted because money can be picked even from our botanical gardens.  What is required  is a national economic plan, the enabling  legislation and the organization of the people into economic units based on specialization. If we truthfully commit ourselves to these, China, Japan and Singapore will cease to be our reference point after about ten years.

Finally,  I  will  like  to  leave  you  with  some of  the  conclusions  reached  at  the  presentation of  ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, WHAT  HAS CULTURE  GOT TO DO  WITH IT?  By ESI SUTHERLAND-ADDY (August, 2004).

To some extent, this discussion points to the fact that more research is required to deepen our understanding of how Ghanaian culture in particular interacts with economic growth, development and well-being variables.

Such ground work would, indeed, facilitate the Golden Age of Business. Obviously the visioning and preparation for the implementation of this grand plan should include a clear perspective on where we as a people wish to take our cultural transformation.

In conclusion, I wish to reiterate that, indeed, culture has a lot to do with economic development, either to build it or to sink it. Every society possesses the power to choose how much wealth it will create with the resources available to it, through the way it appreciates, transforms and protects and projects its cultural strengths, or how it undermines its institutions of survival.

If culture is truly the sum total of values, norms, material goods including artefacts of a people, then the enhancement of knowledge and skills in all of these areas must be seen as critical contributions of culture for economic growth and development.

Thanks  for  having  read  this  article, 
Taslim  Anibaba(FCA) 



























  6^th February,  2006

Comments  are  welcome  and  can  be  forwarded  to tanibaba@yahoo.com  or tanibaba@nigeriavillagesquare.com.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Dedication:I will like to dedicate this article and the previous one titled 'Culture, Freedom & Poverty' toMrs.Lola Onafowora. Lola, as she was fondlycalled, was mylecturer in 1979/80 as well as the head of department of business administration. She taught us Introduction to business and principles of Management with a project work on culture-oriented management. ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 07.02.2006 16:13