Angola Traditional Medicine: An Age-Old Cure

The use of 'traditional', 'alternative' or 'complementary' medicine is now a multi-billion dollar industry around the world. This type of medicine, when adopted by non-indigenous populations, is often labeled as the ‘medicine of the poor' and still an estimated 80% of the populations in some African and Asian countries depend on this traditional medicine for basic health care.

In Angola, the use of traditional medicine goes back around 4000 years, according to Rosário Fernandes, a traditional medicine researcher. She discovered that most of the practices originated in the primitive culture of the tribal communities called Sam (Hottentots) and the Bantu.

Some examples of traditional medicine: the tea from the Mbrututu root does not need boiling water, and is ideal as a cure for hepatitis;  a mix of honey and lemon is recommended for the flu and sore throats; other local-gathered herbal products have 'power' to cure, like tea from Caxinde, Chandala, Gipepe, and Ngandiadia; all initially labeled in the local people's languages.

For recent mothers, the Angolan pharmacist recommends “closing the wounds from the birth” with a bath made from a lukewarm infusion of the plant called capim de Deus ('God's grass'). For the new-born, drinking Mukumbi is good for colic. It is also a remedy for anemia and blood loss. Additionally, the bark of the ‘Timba-Timba’ tree is apparently the African version of Viagara.

Traditional medicine is defined as, 'the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures that are used to maintain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat physical and mental illnesses.”

The basic theory underlying traditional medicine in Angola  “arose from the empirical observation of how man reacted with the environment. Primitive man watched natural phenomena and managed to create a conceptual structure that could be transposed to the human body."

According to the researcher, before the arrival of the Europeans who disembarked on Angolan shores, the local peoples (Hottentots, Bantu, and others), solved their own health problems, including the plague, epidemics, spiritual and emotional illnesses, by recourse to traditional medicine. “The Imbanda (practitioners), could diagnose, prevent, treat and cure illnesses that occurred in their times, whether hereditary or otherwise. (adapted from TAAG Austral Magazine)

African Folklore: The Day Baboon Outwitted Leopard

(A Zulu Folk Tale) Long, long ago, Baboon and Leopard were friends.  One day, Leopard had chased Hare until Hare had taken refuge in an anthill.  Leopard called her friend Baboon and asked him to stand guard over the anthill while she went down to the river for a drink.

Baboon agreed and settled down with his back to the side of the anthill, next to the hole where Hare had disappeared. It was a warm day and fairly close to noon. After a while, Baboon started to doze off and was soon snoring gently.

Hare heard the snores and crept quietly out.  As he was leaping away to safety, Leopard came back.  She saw Hare disappearing over the hill and, in a rage, she charged up to sleeping Baboon and slapped him awake.

"O worthless monkey!" she roared. (This is a terrible insult, as baboons just hate being called 'monkey.') "You have let that fine fat Hare escape. That's my lunch you have lost, you foolish ape!" And her eyes blazed in anger.

Now an angry, hungry leopard is not a very reassuring sight and Baboon started to back away in fear. Leopard however, had not finished with him. She grabbed the frightened Baboon and was about to scold him even harder, when the warm flesh between her paws suddenly made her stop in mid-sentence. Her eyes gleamed, and she licked her lips.  "Hmm... As you have lost me my meal, I think that you will do very nicely instead!"  And, forgetting their past friendship, she opened her jaws to take a bite.

Momentous Goals Reached in Mine Clearance

Angola has long been known as having a significant number of residue landmines as a result of the 27 year-long civil war.   United Nations estimates in 2008 listed the number of Angolan landmines range between 10 and 20 million, which equates to at least 1 to 2 land mines for every person in the country.  The U.N. estimates put the number of Angolan amputees resulting from the silent killers at over 100,000. Land mines have a devastating effect upon the environment by restricting the movement of people, deterring farming, disrupting economies, and killing and mutilating many innocent men, women, and children .

Active landmine clearance is continuing and in 2010 a total of 5,512 landmines, 4989 of which were anti-personnel and 523 anti-tank mines, were cleared and destroyed in Angola's 17 provinces.

In conjunction with the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, Monday, April 4th, The HALO Trust, the world's oldest and largest humanitarian landmine clearance organization, has released the results of a study it conducted on how previously mined land is used after HALO has cleared it. The study verified the tremendous impact that mine clearance has on food security in rural communities in Angola: 100% of HALO-demined land was put back into productive use: the vast majority for agriculture (72%) followed by animal grazing (16%). The release of former minefields to some of the world's most vulnerable people enables communities to become food self-sufficient and less reliant on aid . 

Other key findings include the fact that cleared land is normally put into productive use in about three months as well as the fact that 32% of beneficiaries interviewed reported selling crops (most commonly beans, maize and potatoes) they have grown on cleared land. 

In addition to making arable land safe for cultivation, HALO's mine clearance has opened over 3,250 miles of roads in Angola. This has enabled aid and development projects to occur in previously inaccessible areas and has helped farmers get their goods to market.

Angola Humor 4

See another example of a daily comic page from Journal de Angola, a daily Angolan newspaper.  This comic strip highlights the daily challenges that Angolan's have with the developing electrical grid, which is routinely out of service.

Translation: "Are you without electrical power?"


                                        "On the contrary.  I can't habituate myself with having it! (electrical service)"

New Sickle-Cell Initiative Draws Medical Partnership

March 22, Luanda — The Angolan Health Ministry (MINSA), the US Oil Company "CHEVRON" and Baylor International Pediatric Aids Initiative (BIPAI) from Houston, Texas announce the creation of a sickle cell anemia screening program in the country.

Sickle-cell disease usually presenting in childhood, occurs more commonly in people (or their descendants) from parts of tropical or sub-tropical regions where malaria is or was common.  One-third of all indigenous inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa carry the gene.  Angola has one of the highest rates of infection of falciform anemia (sickle-cell disease) in the world. It is estimated that 10,000 Angolan children are born every years with the disease, which contributes to the aggravation of the death rate of children less than five years of age. 

United Nations statistics record that 220 out of every 1000 Angolan children in the country are born with sickle cells anemia and die before reaching five years of age. Sickle-cell disease, usually presenting in childhood, occurs more commonly in people (or their descendants) from parts of tropical and sub-tropical regions where malaria is or was common.  One-third of all indigenous inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa carry the gene. 

Sickle cell anemia is a disease passed down through families in which red blood cells form an abnormal crescent shape. Red blood cells are normally shaped like a disc.  Sickle cell anemia is caused by an abnormal type of hemoglobin called 'hemoglobin S' which distorts the shape of the red blood cells, especially when exposed to low oxygen levels.  Almost all patients with sickle cell anemia have painful episodes (crises), which can last from hours to days. These crises can increase the prevalence of strokes and affect the bones of the back and the chest. Patients with sickle cell disease need ongoing treatment, taking supplements of folic acid, antibiotics and vaccines to prevent bacterial infections, and blood transfusions to ultimately treat a sickle cell crisis. 

The screening program, as part of Chevron's social corporative responsibility in Angola, will start in late in 2011 with an estimated USD $4 million budget. (Angop, UN WHO Reports 2011)

Stemming the HIV Tide

With an estimated 2% of the adult population living with HIV, at the moment Angola has one of the lower HIV prevalence rates in sub-Saharan Africa as deemed by UN health agencies.  During the 1975–2002 Angolan civil war, cross-country travel was nearly impossible, impeding the spread of HIV/AIDS. Since the war, however, movement has become less restricted, and the likelihood of HIV reaching once-isolated communities has increased dramatically. In 2009, UNAIDS estimated that 200,000 people in Angola were HIV positive.

With a relatively young population, coupled with widespread high-risk sexual behaviors and an ambivalence toward safe health practices, puts Angola in danger of a more severe HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This trend was experienced first-hand by Dr. Nicholas Comninellis, visiting doctor to CEML Hospital.  He writes:

"I first worked in Angola during its civil war and encountered all the injuries and disease of poverty one can possible imagine: gun shots, land mines, measles, malaria, typhoid fever.  What i did not see was HIV disease.  While the rest of Africa was being ravaged by HIV, Angola was spared - largely because no one from neighboring nations had any reason or courage to travel to Angola.  But now peace has come, so has commerce and tourism, and HIV.  For several days I've been caring for Paula, a young woman with TB infection in her lungs. Her vomiting has been constant, and malnutrition worsening day by day.  Her arms and legs are literally skin and bones.  I'm treating her with TB medications and IV fluids, but she's just not getting better.  This morning I tested Paula for HIV, and her positive result helps explain why Paula continues to decline.  Some in the US are lured into thinking that we're overcoming this disease - but its true of wealthier nations. Here the epidemic continues to be explosive.  Indeed, life in Angola is far better than during the war, but HIV reminds me that both peace has its costs, and peace also allows us to effectively mobilize again this and the other heartbreaking diseases of poverty!" 

In Angola, tuberculosis (TB) co-infection with HIV is a major concern. TB is the leading cause of death among people who are HIV positive. After decades of civil war, the country’s health infrastructure is not adequate to address the TB epidemic. In 2008, TB incidence was 290 cases per 100,000 population, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Nineteen percent of newly diagnosed TB patients are also HIV positive. (USAID Angola Report 2011)


Check out Dr. Cominellis' blog inmedblog.us/nicholascomninellis and website for more information on international medicine INMED  www.inmed.us