(By Rueben Abati) - The
other week, July 20 to be precise, I was the reviewer of an important book on
herbal healing. Herbal healing is often dismissed as a form of sorcery and in
these days of obsession with Pentecostalism, many Africans still consider
traditional medicine a taboo. To disprove this, a Catholic monk, Fr. Anselm
Adodo began an experiment in 1996 when he set up in Ewu, Edo state, an
institution titled Pax Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories “to serve as a
centre for genuine African holistic healing that blends the physical and
spiritual aspects of the human person, and to serve also, as a research centre
for scientific identification, conservation, utilization and development of
African medicinal plants.”
Pax
Herbal since then has produced over 32 products, listed and certified by
NAFDAC. These include Pax Beauty Cream, Bitter Tea (an antibiotic), Diatea (for
the treatment of diabetes, cholesterol, and hypertension), blood tonic, BK
caps, cough syrup, herbal soap, potensine capsules, logotine caps, kilodine,
pain cream, skin ointment, and Pax herbal colour therapies. Many of these
products can be found and purchased at Catholic churches across the country.
Fr
Anselm has been able to establish that traditional medicine is a viable
business and that alternative medicine, properly modernized can indeed be a
useful contribution from Africa to the world and a major source of constructive
engagement.
