TradMeds4

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In Folder: buu-ojong-0564

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TradMeds4

Session Information

Session Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/45fbcd93-9e2c-4e5f-87b1-bf49285a427a

Title: Traditional medicines (4)

Description: This is a collection of thirty medicinal plants/herbs/foodstuff in five languages of Lower Fungom-Buu, Kung, Biya, Mundabli, Ajumbu. In Lower Fungom, just like in many parts of rural Africa, traditional medicines are most easily accessible and affordable. The use of traditional medicines (plants, herbs, fruits, flowers, oils) is an aged and incredibly fundamental component of the Cameroonian culture that is passed down through many generations. This was the case with John Cho who was the traditional healer available for this study. Traditional medicine to him was an inheritance; his father was an influential traditional doctor in Lower Fungom. A traditional healer by and large is a person who has no formal medical training but is recognized by the community in which he/she lives as being endowed with the supernatural gift of healing and he/she is by that means competent to provide health care by using plants, oils, parts of trees and other substances such as wood ash. There are many diseases that are thought of by the vast majority of Cameroonians in general and Lower Fungom in particular, with a high degree of certainty as curable only traditionally. These diseases range from the ordinary typhoid, through the uncommon enuresis, to those which are believed to be witchcraft related such as madness. John Cho went together with his father to harvest herbs for treatment of diverse ailments and he was habitually present at his father's shrine when he treated sick people right from the very tender age of seven. By the time he was twelve, he had started treating some sicknesses by himself albeit at his father's behest. According to John Cho, when he was born, his father bit the tips of his fingers with some traditional 'medicines' he had chewed and this was one of the ways to transmit the healing powers he had to his son. John declared that he had been 'spiritually injected' and that was why he was certain of the spiritual connection he had with his ancestors and his treatments. John started fully treating all kinds of diseases (ranging from common cold, passing through tropical diseases such as malaria, to tumours) when his father passed away in Buu. At that time, John reported to be the only person who could treat side pain in children in the whole of Buu, Yemgeh and Koshin. In fact, aside being endowed with spiritual powers right from his birth by his father, John Cho claimed that it was his prerogative to request for more medicine from other villages where he had blood relations. An example of such a village is Fang. John claimed that he had a right to traditional medicines in villages where his father had blood relationship, based on the fact that his father was a renown traditional doctor too. In such villages, John is considered as their son. I visited John where he habitually carried out his treatments behind his house; he had no particular shrine as he said that a shrine was not a prerequisite to traditional treatment. John Cho most often prepared medicines for patients on request; the patient(s) just came to his house and collected their medicine. For example, for the treatment of malaria and typhoid, the patient did not need to be physically present, a relative could come and request for it and then return to collect it. If he had to handle more serious and complicated diseases (believed to be) related to witchcraft such epilepsy and madness, the patient would live with him in a special room where he would be strictly and privately monitored and treated. John told me that as a woman, I would not be allowed to witness this kind of treatments. Also, such treatments John reported are typically done in the rural areas and not in a semi-urban location such as Bassa.

Date created: 2019-06-03

Location

Continent: Africa

Country: Cameroon

Region: Dibombari Subdivision, Moungo Division, Littoral Region

Address: Yato

Project

ID: SG0517

Name: 0564-SG0517

Description: The project aimed at documenting Buu from the perpective of actual communicative practices observed from people originating from Lower Fungom, by focusing on three different contexts: a multilingual individual, a multilingual traditional ceremony and a traditional medical doctor. Aside these, proverbs and traditional medicinal plants/herbs/seeds/oils typically used in Lower Fungom were collected. These allowed for both the documentation of Buu as a distinct language and an opportunity to develope best practices to intergrate ancestral code and communicative practices modes of documentation in one and the same project.

Topics

Topic: Harvesting

Access: O

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