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Yorùbá medicine
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Yorùbá medicine
Yorùbá medicine, or egbòogi, is a Yoruba system of herbalism practiced primarily in West Africa and the Caribbean.
According to A D Buckley, Yorùbá medicine has major similarities to conventional medicine in the sense that its main thrust is to kill or expel from the body tiny, invisible "germs" or insects (kòkòrò and also worms (aràn) which inhabit small bags within the body. For the Yoruba, however, these insects and worms perform useful functions in the healthy body, aiding digestion, fertility, etc. However, if they become too powerful in the body, they must be controlled, killed or driven out with bitter-tasting plants contained in medicines. Yorùbá medicine is quite different from homeopathy, which uses medicinal ingredients that imitates pathological symptoms. Rather, in a similar manner to mainstream Orthodox medicine, it strives to destroy the agents that cause disease.
Buckley claims that traditional Yorùbá ideas of the human body are derived from the image of a cooking pot, susceptible to overflowing. The female body overflows dangerously but necessarily once a month; insects and worms in the body can overflow their "bags" in the body if they are given too much “sweet” (tasty) food. The household is understood in a similar way. As agents of disease overflow their bag, menstrual blood the female body, and palm oil the cooking pot, so women in the marital household tend to overflow and return to their natal homes.
As well as using bitter plants to kill germs and worms, Yorùbá herbalists also use incantation (ọfọ̀) in medicines to bring good luck (àwúre), for example, to bring money or love. Medicinal incantations are in some ways like the praise songs addressed to human beings or gods: their purpose is to awaken the power of the ingredients hidden in the medicine. Most medicinal incantations use a form of word-play, similar to punning, to evoke the properties of the plants implied by the name of the plant.
Yorùbá traditionalists claim in their oratory history that Ọ̀rúnmìlà taught the people the customs of divination, prayer, dance, symbolic gestures, personal, and communal elevation. They believe he also advised his people on spiritual baths, inner reflection, and herbal medicine in particular.
Oyelakin suggests that the major difference between Yorùbá medicine and orthodox medicine is that the former is homeopathic in nature while the later is allopathic.
He goes on to say that the orthodox methodology for the treatment of diseases is based on what he called "the contrary principle,"
which states that: illnesses and diseases should be treated with chemical agents that produce effects that are in opposition to those exhibited by the illnesses being treated.
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Yorùbá medicine
Yorùbá medicine, or egbòogi, is a Yoruba system of herbalism practiced primarily in West Africa and the Caribbean.
According to A D Buckley, Yorùbá medicine has major similarities to conventional medicine in the sense that its main thrust is to kill or expel from the body tiny, invisible "germs" or insects (kòkòrò and also worms (aràn) which inhabit small bags within the body. For the Yoruba, however, these insects and worms perform useful functions in the healthy body, aiding digestion, fertility, etc. However, if they become too powerful in the body, they must be controlled, killed or driven out with bitter-tasting plants contained in medicines. Yorùbá medicine is quite different from homeopathy, which uses medicinal ingredients that imitates pathological symptoms. Rather, in a similar manner to mainstream Orthodox medicine, it strives to destroy the agents that cause disease.
Buckley claims that traditional Yorùbá ideas of the human body are derived from the image of a cooking pot, susceptible to overflowing. The female body overflows dangerously but necessarily once a month; insects and worms in the body can overflow their "bags" in the body if they are given too much “sweet” (tasty) food. The household is understood in a similar way. As agents of disease overflow their bag, menstrual blood the female body, and palm oil the cooking pot, so women in the marital household tend to overflow and return to their natal homes.
As well as using bitter plants to kill germs and worms, Yorùbá herbalists also use incantation (ọfọ̀) in medicines to bring good luck (àwúre), for example, to bring money or love. Medicinal incantations are in some ways like the praise songs addressed to human beings or gods: their purpose is to awaken the power of the ingredients hidden in the medicine. Most medicinal incantations use a form of word-play, similar to punning, to evoke the properties of the plants implied by the name of the plant.
Yorùbá traditionalists claim in their oratory history that Ọ̀rúnmìlà taught the people the customs of divination, prayer, dance, symbolic gestures, personal, and communal elevation. They believe he also advised his people on spiritual baths, inner reflection, and herbal medicine in particular.
Oyelakin suggests that the major difference between Yorùbá medicine and orthodox medicine is that the former is homeopathic in nature while the later is allopathic.
He goes on to say that the orthodox methodology for the treatment of diseases is based on what he called "the contrary principle,"
which states that: illnesses and diseases should be treated with chemical agents that produce effects that are in opposition to those exhibited by the illnesses being treated.