Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T19:24:52.842Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nineteenth-Century Asante Medical Practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

D. Maier
D. Maier
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Dallas
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Most of the literature concerning traditional African medical practice has dealt with aspects often deemed ‘irrational,’ such as the role of priests, shrines, magic and religious ritual. M. J. Field's work demonstrates convincingly that these aspects of medical treatment in Ghana are essential in mitigating and curing psychosomatic illnesses as well as controlling neuroses. The emphasis on religious and psychological methods of treatment, however, can often lead to less perceptive conclusions, such as those of U.S. doctors visiting Ghana in 1960 who stated flatly that traditional medical practices there consist solely of ‘ignorance and superstition’ and that ‘witchdoctor … medicine man and native doctor are synonymous terms.

Type
The Practice of Medicine
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 1979 , pp. 63 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Research for this paper was made possible in part by a grant from the Northwestern University Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Science and Technology. I am also grateful to Ivor Wilks of Northwestern University for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this paper:

1 See, for example, Ackerknecht, E., Therapie vor den Primitiven bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (1970)Google Scholar; bo, T. Lam, African Traditional Beliefs: Concepts of Health and Medical Practice (1963)Google Scholar; Pappoe, V., Ghanaian Traditional Concepts of Disease and Medical Practices (MD dissertation, Yale, 1973)Google Scholar; Mensah-Dapaa, W. S., ‘Observations on traditional healing methods in Ghana,’ Ghana Journal of Science (10 1961)Google Scholar; Twumasi, P. A., ‘Ashanti traditional medicine and its relation to present-day psychiatry,’ Transition (1972).Google Scholar

2 Field, M. J., Search for Security (1960).Google Scholar

3 Thomas, L. and I. D., Medical Impressions of Ghana, mimeo report for Smith, Kline and French Foreign Fellowship (1960).Google Scholar

4 Maclean, U., Magical Medicine (1971)Google Scholar; Harley, G., Native African Medicine (1941)Google Scholar; University of Ibadan Seminar, ‘The Traditional Background to Medical Practice in Nigeria,’ Occasional Publication No. 25 (1971)Google Scholar; Dalziel, J., Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa (1937).Google Scholar

5 Warren, D., Bibliography and Vocabulary of the Akan (1976), p. 163.Google Scholar

6 Dupuis, J., Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (1824), pp. 84–85.Google Scholar

7 Hance, W., The Geography of Modern Africa (1964), p. 14.Google Scholar

8 Brackenbury, H., Fanti and Ashanti (1873), p. 110, quoting W. Hutton.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., p. 120.

10 Scott, D., Epidemic Disease in Ghana, 1901-1960 (1965), pp. 68–74Google Scholar on smallpox, , p. 95Google Scholar on meningitis, , pp. 125–136Google Scholar on relapsing fever, p. 49 on yellow fever. Comparative information on yaws from American Geographical Society of New York, Atlas of Distribution of Diseases (1955), ‘Epidemiology of Yaws.’ For regional data on onchoseriasis and schistosomiasis see Ghana Government, Report of the Ministry of Health 1955 (1959), p. 30.Google Scholar For leprosy see Stamp, L., The Geography of Life and Death (1964), p. 48.Google Scholar For tuberculosis comparisons see Koch, A., ‘Tuberculosis in Ghana,’ Ghana Journal of Science (10 1961), 20.Google ScholarPubMed

11 H. Tedlie, ‘Materia Medica and Diseases,’ in Bowdich, T., Mission from Cape Coast to Ashantee (1819), p. 374.Google Scholar

12 Meredith, H., An Account of the Gold Coast of Africa (1812), pp. 235–43.Google Scholar

13 Hutton, W., A Voyage to Africa (1821), p. 386.Google Scholar

14 Tedlie, (1819), p. 378.Google Scholar

15 Bosman, W., A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (1705). pp. 221 and 224.Google Scholar

16 Ibid.

17 See, for example, a discussion of the medicines and instruments used by Europeans in Canada in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Rich, E. E., ‘The Fur Traders: Their Diet and Drugs,’ Beaver (1976)Google ScholarPubMed; for Africa see also Hutchinson, T. J., Impressions of Western Africa with Remarks on the Diseases of the Climate (1858), pp. 242–43.Google Scholar

18 Tedlie, (1819), pp. 376–79.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., pp. 371-74; Irvine, F., Botany and Medicine in West Africa (1955), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

20 Hutton, (1821), p. 386ff.Google Scholar

21 Meredith, (1812),pp.235 and 243–44.Google Scholar

22 The presence of B-Quinovine in Crossopteryx febrifuga is claimed by Dalziel but unconfirmed by Irvine. See Irvine, F., Woody Plants of Ghana (1961), pp. 668–69Google Scholar; Dalziel, J., Tropical Plants of West Africa (1934), p. 396.Google Scholar

23 Meredith, (1812), p. 243.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., p. 242; Hutchinson, (1858), p. 63Google Scholar; Horton, J. A., Diseases of Tropical Climates and Their Treatment (1879), p. 638Google Scholar; Reindorf, C. E., ‘Influence of Fifty Years of Scientific Medicine on Beliefs and Customs in the Gold Coast,’ West African Medical Journal (1954), 116.Google ScholarPubMed

25 Tedile, (1819), p. 376.Google Scholar

26 Gros, J., Voyages, Aventures et Captivité de J. Bonnat (1884), pp. 168–69.Google Scholar

27 Reade, W., Story of the Ashantee Campaign (1874), p. 327.Google Scholar

28 Meredith, (1812), pp. 233 and 235.Google Scholar

29 Freeman, R. A., Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman (1898), p. 248.Google Scholar

30 Bowdich, (1819), p. 306.Google Scholar

31 Hutton, (1821), p.237.Google Scholar

32 Reade, W., Savage Africa (1864), p. 44.Google Scholar

33 Bowdich, (1819), p. 306.Google Scholar

34 Boyle, F., Through Fanteeland to Coomassie (1874), pp. 352 and 355.Google Scholar

35 Lewin, T., ‘The Structure of Political Conflict in Asante, 1875-1900,’ Ph.D. dissertation (1974), Vol. II, Interview 21, March 1971 with Domfe Kyere.Google Scholar

36 Brackenbury, (1873), p. 118.Google Scholar

37 Isert, P., Voyages en Guinee (1793), p. 219.Google Scholar

38 Meredith, (1812), p. 11.Google Scholar

39 ‘Mr. Hutchison’s Diary,’ in Bowdich, (1819), p. 409.Google Scholar

40 Herbert, E. in the article ‘Smallpox Inocultaion in Africa,’ Journal of African History (1975) cites this case but makes no attempt to identify the site of‘Guramantee’ except to locate it in West Africa. She assures me now she is in agreement with the Koromantin interpretation.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

41 Kittridge, G., ‘Some Lost Works of Cotton Mather,’ Massachusetts Historical Society-Proceedings (1911-12), 418.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., and Cartwright, F., Disease and History (1972), pp. 123–24.Google Scholar

43 Bowdich, (1819), p. 409.Google Scholar

44 Isert, (1793), p. 219.Google Scholar

45 Bonnat, M. J., ‘Diary,’ in L'Explorateur (1876), 4.Google Scholar

46 See description of this type of occurrence in ‘Osei Denkyenfere vs Kwabena Konadu,’ Manhyia Record Office, Kumase, , Civil Cases Record Book, 27 July 1915-31 August 1926.Google Scholar

47 Ampofo, O., ‘The Traditional Concept of Disease, Health and Healing with which the Christian Church is Confronted,’ Ghana Bulletin of Theology (06 1967), 8.Google Scholar

48 Beecham, J., Ashanlee and the Gold Coast (1841), p. 204.Google Scholar

49 Cruickshank, B., Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast (1853), pp. 146–47.Google Scholar

50 Meredith, (1812), p. 233.Google Scholar

51 Ibid., p. 234.

52 Pappoe, (1973), pp. 68–69.Google Scholar

53 National Archives of Ghana, Kumase, unaccessioned, Agyeman Prempe I to District Commissioner, dd. Kumase, 14 April 1928.

54 Duah, J. Agyeman, Nsumankwa Stool History, Institute of African Studies, Legon, ace. no. As. 22 (1962, p. 8).Google Scholar

55 Wilks, I., Field Note 44, Interview with Opanin Kwadwo Domfe Kyere, dd. 23 Dec. 1958. Domfe Kyere was mmammahene to Nsumankwaahene.Google Scholar

56 I. Wilks, Field Note 57, Interview with Kwadwo Domfe Kyere, dd. 5 April 1960.

57 Ramseyer, F. and Kühne, J., Four Years in Ashantee (1875), p. 309Google Scholar; Lewin, T. (1974) Interview with Domfe Gyeabo III, dd. 23 Oct. 1970; D. Maier, FN 115, Interview with Domfe Gyeabo III, dd. 15 June 1977Google Scholar

58 Nasr, S., Science and Civilization in Islam (1968), p. 192.Google Scholar

59 Agyeman Duah (1962).

60 Ibid.

61 Gros, (1884), p. 169.Google Scholar

62 Robertson, G., Notes on Africa (1819), p. 151.Google Scholar

63 Reade, (1874) op. cit., p. 327.Google Scholar There is a link between medical skill and the reputation of Islam in Asante still today. A herbalist from Krachi, interviewed by the author, went to Asante to learn his skill and converted to Islam, the better to learn from Muslim practitioners. He associated with the Asante Nkramo people who taught him much of his knowledge and was thus known by the name of ‘Kramo’ when he returned to his own area of Krachi to practice herbalism. See Maier, D., ‘Kete-Krachi in the Nineteenth Century,’ Ph.D. dissertation (1975), Vol. II. Field Note 42.Google Scholar

64 Ramseyer, and Kuhne, (1875), p. 118.Google Scholar

65 Tedlie, (1819), p. 377.Google Scholar

66 Freeman, (1898), p.248.Google Scholar

67 Bosman, (1705), pp. 221 and 223.Google Scholar

68 Bowdich, (1819), p. 99Google Scholar and Tedlie, (1819), pp. 375–79.Google Scholar

69 Freeman, T. B., Journal of Various Visits to the Kingdoms of Ashanti, Aku, and Dahomi (1884), p. 155.Google Scholar

70 Lewin (1974) Interview with Kokofuhene Barima Osei Asibe III, dd. 19 March 1971.

71 Bowdich, (1819), pp. 97–99.Google Scholar

72 Hutchison, (1819), p. 417.Google Scholar

73 Huydecoper's Diary, 1816-1817, trans, by Irwin, G. (1962), pp. 21 and 31.Google Scholar

74 Freeman, T. B. (1844), pp. 166–67.Google Scholar

75 Irvine, (1955) op. cit., p. 2. The book was entitled African Medicines but I have been unable to locate it.Google Scholar

76 Ibid.

77 Tedlie, (1819), pp. 375–76.Google Scholar

78 Reindorf, C. C., History of the Gold Coast (1895), p. 148.Google Scholar

79 Wilks, I., Asante in the Nineteenth Century (1975), p. 180Google Scholar; Boyle, (1874), p. 64Google Scholar; Bowdich, (1819), p. 245.Google Scholar

80 Robertson, (1819), p. 151.Google Scholar

81 Hutchison, (1819), p. 384.Google Scholar

82 Hutton (1821), frontispiece, and see McCaskie, T. C., ’Innovational Eclecticism,’ Comparative Studies in Society and History (1972), 37n, which first drew my attention to this case.Google Scholar

83 Rattray, R., Ashanti Law and Constitution (1929), p. 124.Google Scholar

84 Tedlie, (1819), pp. 376–77.Google Scholar

85 Bowdich, (1819), p. 301.Google Scholar

86 Boyle, (1874), pp. 92–96.Google Scholar

87 Ramseyer, and Kuhne, (1875), pp. 136Google Scholar and 256; Dupuis, (1824), p. 241Google Scholar; Wilks, (1975), pp. 86–87.Google Scholar

88 Ibid., p. 55.

89 Wilks, (1975), pp. 90–3.Google Scholar

90 See Tedlie, (1819), p. 371Google Scholar; Rattray, R., Religion and Art in Ashanti (1927), p. 55Google Scholar; Dalziel, (1937), p. 35Google Scholar; Irvine, (1961), pp. 693–94Google Scholar; Christaller, J., A Dictionary of the Asante and Fame Language (1933), p. 21Google Scholar; Maier, (1975), n. 42.Google Scholar

91 Tedlie, (1819), p. 379.Google Scholar

92 Rattray, (1927), p. 39.Google Scholar

93 Alland, A., When the Spider Danced: Notes from an African Village (1975), p. 166.Google Scholar