Healing Powers

The woman I met in the Brikama market selling medicinal herbs and helping with healing


Selling traditional herbs for healing and health

Here in the Gambia, the idea of choosing what type of healthcare one wants takes on a totally new life. There are neighborhood clinics, diagnostic centers, one large hospital in the capital, several regional hospitals outside the urban area run by the government, and of course, traditional healers. The country’s President continues to make national and international news as he is shown healing AIDS and asthma patients using traditional herbs and faith.

I was fascinated during a trip to the regional market in Brikama to spend some time speaking with a woman who trades in traditional herbs. I found out that women’s work is to supply the herbs (women are the “gatherers,” after all) and sell it on the market. Men do the healing. This particular elderly woman, estimated to be around 70 years old (few people know their exact age) sometimes also takes on “man’s work” and gets into the practice of healing. To supplement the work of the herbs, most people, particularly children and new-borns, wear beads or bones or stones in the form of a necklace or belt, known as jou-jou’s to ward off evil spirits.

In the photo, the herbs she is sitting with in her area of the market are (in Mandinka language), from left to right:
* Konkutu-mandingo: used for chest problems (probably breathing, asthma issues). This, as with the others, is boiled in water and drunk like a tea. It tastes extremely bitter, so it is advisable to add sugar.
* Kinkiliba: for stomach and general body care as a preventive medicine.
* Jamba-Kataw: these big leaves are used for blood adjustment, which means those people with conditions like anemia (very frequent here) should take this.

There was no local consensus over whether or not these actually work, but the general opinion is that since the elders endorse it, the herbs should be taken. With all the advances in modern medicine and the introduction of various providers (often supported by outside donor or voluntary agencies), she doesn’t think this has adversely affected her business. People still buy the herbs at the same frequency they did years ago. Nonetheless, her income is miniscule. She earns 10-12 Dalassis per day, or 30 – 40 CENTS per day. With this sum, she buys rice and food to feed ten people in her compound. She explained that her husband died many years ago and so she supports the family (I could not ascertain if others in her family help out, but I suspect they do, at least to some extent).

Then, a few stalls away from her patch on the ground, we came upon a marabout, a traditional healer (and sometimes, a spiritual leader). This particular one did not command the level of respect that many village marabouts do. In fact many of the women selling groundnuts nearby treated him as if he were crazy, and wanted him to stay away from them. The man was demonstrating that he drinks BATTERY FLUID and various other toxic acids. As a result, his tongue is dyed completely black, he has few teeth remaining, and they also are black, and he had a wide-eyed look of someone high on something illegal (but I’m not sure what!). Our Gambian guide, the respected trader, tried to convince me the guy is the “real deal” with real powers, but ladies selling the groundnut seemed to have a good deal of logic and wisdom on their side. Most marabouts command considerable respect and carry an almost noble air. This one did not, and I was advised to not publish his photo, for fear of offending the more respected marabouts in communities all over the country.