The Power of Medicines in East Africa

Abstract

In East Africa, as elsewhere in the developing world, Western pharmaceuticals have been readily accepted and widely disseminated. But the ‘drugging’ of East Africa is not limited to an enthusiasm for Western medications. It is part of an increasing interest in ‘medicines’ of all kinds, both as explanations of misfortune and as modes of treatment. The awareness of medicines is evident in African concern about increases in the use of sorcery medicines. That concern has in turn stimulated an enormous growth in anti-sorcery medications and movements. More recently, the new consciousness of ‘traditional’ healing has been characterized by a pharmaceutical emphasis, clearly visible in the pharmacological analyses of herbal medicines upon which a number of the new Institutes of Traditional Medicine have concentrated. African healing is being seen as a medicinal exercise.