21/04/2024
“Bring d Vicks and come let meh rub yuh down” “Here, drink this tea” “D child get maljou, yuh have to carry she to jharay” “Come een the house backwards, leave them jumbie outside". I know us Trinidadians have heard at least one of these phrases a million times from either our granny, mother or nenen. Some might say it is all superstition, some might agree with these phrases, and some may not, but all of these practices are what we formally call traditional medicine.
Traditional medicine (TM) as per the World Health Organization, is defined as the culmination of knowledge, skills and practices derive from indigenous theories, beliefs and experiences across various cultures whether these can be explained or not. It is used to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat physical and mental illnesses as well as maintain overall health. (Che et al. 2017, p. 15).
With that being said, we can note that all the bush tea that us Trinidadians drink, from fever grass (lemon grass) and bacano (Cecropia peltata) to zebapique (Neurolaena lobata) and Mary Mary close the door, all the herbs like sage, bay leaf, thyme and rosemary, to practices such as jharay, cleansing the house of the dead, burning incense, using holy oil to anoint persons and using red lavender for protection or for gas (colic) in babies and going to ‘rub’ for a body ache, all of these things are traditional medicine practices.
Fossil evidence dated back to at least 60,000 years ago suggests that humans have employed natural resources such as plants, animals, microbes and marine life as medicine to treat illnesses. (Yuan et al. 2016, p. 1). There is an array of distinct types of traditional medicine with practices emerging from countries mainly Africa, China, India and Japan. Each of these geographical locations possess diverse cultures and beliefs, hence they have variations in their use of traditional medicine, methods of preparation, dosage and application. Interestingly, Trinidad and Tobago is a multicultural nation due mainly to its encounter with slavery and indentureship decades ago, as well as industrialization and cultural globalization with influences coming from immigrants and international relations. This multiculturalism has led to Trinidad and Tobago having a rich and diverse assortment of traditional medicine practices.
In conducting my research on the topic of traditional medicine, my aim was to explore persons' views and beliefs towards traditional medicine, delve into their use of it and to investigate possible factors that influence the use of traditional medicine. The main themes which arose from conducting interviews were; a) intergenerational transfer of knowledge on traditional medicine, b) personal experience and efficacy of traditional medicine, c) accessibility and affordability of traditional medicine, d) skepticism towards modern medicine and e) combination medicine. This indicates that persons have gained knowledge of traditional medicine from older folks, i.e., grandmothers, and have used TM (Traditional Medicine) since their childhood. Participants expressed their confidence in TM as they rarely get side effects from TM compared to modern medicine and even find it more effective. People collectively agreed that materials needed for TM are accessible and mostly free of charge. They acknowledge modern medicine as treatment as they use a combination of TM and modern medicine, but they have some skepticism toward possible toxicity of modern medicine.
The literature that was reviewed found that there are many factors that influence the use of traditional medicine, some are sociocultural, geographical or health system structure. Sociocultural factors such as religious beliefs, social class, income/wealth distribution to name a few, all affect the use of TM and can either make it flourish or hinder its development. Many persons believe that some illnesses can be cause by evil spirit and cannot be treated by medical doctors as they are unable to comprehend the spiritual realm of TM (Simpson 1962, 326-340).The geographical factor contributes to the use of TM as being in a rural area, or a location that may be near forested areas which makes herbs and bushes easily accessible. Furthermore, if there are challenges when going to establishments within the modern health system such as long waiting times or lack of equipment, or if it is a long distance from where one lives, this also affect their use of TM (Savatagi, Srinivas and Payyappallimana 2022, 214-22).
Another factor that greatly affects the use of TM is perception, it is mentioned in a considerable number of articles and studies based on the use of TM from many different countries. Some persons believe that modern or conventional medicine maybe be toxic for their bodies and perceive TM as pure or natural and good for them (Bahall and Edwards 2015, 1-10), while there are persons who believe that TM is more effective than modern medicine (Abdullahi 2011, 115-123). Lack of scientific evidence has been found to be a hindrance to traditional medicine and its development as it is a concern to members of the modern scientific medical community. Some medical practitioners believe that traditional medicine does not align with scientific procedures hence it is difficult to integrate and standardize TM into the established health care systems. Even though the physical aspect of TM can be tested by science, the spiritual realm and aspect cannot (Abdullahi 2011, 115-123).
From my perspective, the modernization of the health care system in Trinidad and Tobago is the greatest hinderance to some TM practices. Do not get me wrong, I acknowledge the many benefits of this modernization, being able to take vaccines to prevent outbreaks, having more persons capable of conducting sanitary surgical procedures and being able to accommodate and treat numerous persons at once. However, when it comes to traditional medicine like those practiced by Spiritual (Shouter) Baptist were suppressed with the modernization of the health care system because of colonizers beliefs. They were stigmatized until they were legally banned for many years before those bans were eventually lifted (1917-1951) (Simpson 1962, 326-340). This suppression period hindered those TM practices as they were forced to be done underground. The Baptist were one of many groups of people which underwent stigmatization because of colonial beliefs being injected into our nation causing persons to experience segregation and displacement of culture. Luckily, in today’s society, some bans have been lifted allowing persons to engage in their cultural practices freely but there is still some stigma associated with certain practices as we have been influenced and socialized with those colonial beliefs. This was a big highlight of my research and has helped me to take a closer look and question the reasoning and origins of some of the beliefs in our society. This shows that you cannot fully understand a phenomenon without investigating all aspects of it individually and as a collective body to see how things have come to be the way that they are.
Thanks for reading and please leave a comment down below expressing your thoughts on the content above. 😊
Bibliography
Abdullahi, Auwal. 2011. “Trends and Challenges of Traditional Medicine in Africa.” African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines 8 (5S). :115–23
Che, C-T., V. George, T. P. Ijinu, P. Pushpangadan, and K. Andrae-Marobela. 2017. "Traditional medicine." In Pharmacognosy, pp: 15-30. Academic Press.
Bahall, Mandreker, and Mark Edwards. 2015. “Perceptions of Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Cardiac Patients in South Trinidad: A Qualitative Study.” BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 15 (1).
Savatagi, Shivanand Basappa, Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas, and Unnikrishnan Payyappallimana. 2022. “Factors Influencing the Emergence of Self-Reliance in Primary Health Care Using Traditional Medicine: A Scoping Review.” Indian Journal of Public Health 66 (2): 214–22.
Simpson, George E. 1962. “Folk Medicine in Trinidad.” The Journal of American Folklore 75 (298): 326-340.
Yuan, Haidan, Qianqian Ma, Li Ye, and Guangchun Piao. 2016. "The Traditional Medicine and Modern Medicine from Natural Products" Molecules 21, no. 5: 559.
