Traditional Medicine: A Panacea For Promoting Human Security

Abstract

Among the Africans, life is regarded as the most precious gift of Supreme Being which must be 
protected and prolonged as much as possible. Whenever there is a threat by disease and other 
misfortunes, steps are taken to eliminate the sources of danger and get total security. The measures 
adopted by the traditionalist to ensure wholesome treatment of diseases have been criticized by 
foreigners and some Africans who, through education and Christianity have been influenced by 
Western culture. Such critics have questioned the rationale behind some aspects of traditional 
treatment as well as making some allegations which tend to undermine the sacred functions of the 
traditionalists. There are not yet enough efforts in form of systematic research to investigate this 
allegation among various traditional groups. The problem of this paper now remains how trues is 
this allegation that the measures adopted by the traditionalist are faulty and bad in their attempt to 
show traditional medicine, as a remarkable versatility over the centuries in meeting the wide range 
of human health. This paper adopts method of literary analysis with descriptive phenomenology. 
Arising from the findings of this paper, it is therefore recommended that, demonization of 
traditional medicine should stop. Because traditional medicine work better for some illness such as 
pile, rheumatism and so on.