African Traditional Medicine

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AMONG SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS: ? Revealed that African traditional medicine could be used in the explicable or inexplicable form. ? Examined the veracity of the claim that the practice and use of African traditional medicine amounted to idolatry, ? Identified the patterns and extent of the practice and use of traditional medicine among the Seventh-day Adventists in particular and Christians in general, ? Analyzed the social, economic and spiritual impacts of the practice and use of traditional medicine on Seventh-day Adventists and other Christians. ? Discussed the interplay between African traditional medical practices and Western medical practices in the health care delivery system of the Seventh-day Adventists. ? Discovered that Seventh-day Adventists use the explicable form of African traditional medicine to meet their health needs because it was affordable, available and effective to meet their health needs. ? Demonstrated that using the explicable form of African traditional medicine to meet the health needs of Seventh-day Adventists is supported by the Bible and Ellen G. White, who said among other things that: God has caused to grow out of the ground, herbs for the use of man, and if we understand the nature of these roots and herbs, and make a right use of them, there would not be a necessity of running to the doctor so frequently, and people would be in much better health than they are today. (Selected Messages, bk. 2, pp. 297-298)