Homegrownremedies

African traditional medicine remains untapped despite infinite potential

FOR Samson Soyoye, 2016 was a year of two landmarks. He says his son got married, exiting from the “Bachelors’ Association,” and two batches of students graduated from the African College of Traditional Medicine (TM), the organization he founded in Nigeria’s Ogun State almost two years ago.

Soyoye, who is also president of the Ogun State Traditional Healers’ Association, has started three-month and six-month courses to introduce students to traditional herbal medicine, diagnosis and cure of general as well as hereditary diseases, and how to prepare and administer TM. The 68-year-old, who learned TM from his parents and then honed up his knowledge by attending then National College for Natural Medicine and attending workshops and seminars in other West African countries, outlines the many reasons Africans will continue to use indigenous medicines despite the advent of the Western medicine.