Conceptualization of Traditional Healing System in Yoruba Worldviews

Notion of Healing

The Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria were once predominantly traditional worshippers, believing in supreme God calls Olódùmar E and several gods and goddesses call OrìsAs. OrìsAs are deities created from Yoruba interpretation of spirituality resting on the belief that cosmic elements are spiritual entities whose existence goes beyond ordinary but having forces to cause certain actions that are beyond human creation [3]. Among the deities, certain humans possess spiritual power that made them to become deities over time, but mostly after their demise [4]. As part of the people’s worldviews, certain everyday happenings are also associated with some spirits. The people, thus, hold the belief that both health and ill-health can be influenced by these cosmic forces. Health, according to Yoruba is the complete state of wellness, which includes ability to eat, drink, sleep, play, walk, work, talk, laugh, breath, defecate among others. It also includes ability to be emotionally stable. The state of health is confirmed with the expression of ability to do all the basic day to day engagements well enough in such a way that guarantees happiness. Thus, according to Jegede [5], all the inabilities in human, are illness in Yoruba construction of wellness. Illness is AìsAn (not being well). As described by Jegede [5], this is a specific symptom against wellness and healthiness, which is not applicable in all senses of illness. For instance, in child health, when children are teething, they often express certain discomforts which may hamper their ability to sleep, eat and play; but Yoruba parents do not consider such as illness since it is a developmental stage which every human being undergoes. Similarly, some aspects pregnancy caring such as inability to eat well and fatigue, except when complications set in, is not regarded as illness. Nonetheless, like in Parsonian sick- role model, the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria construct illness as a phenomenon interfering with normal daily activities (healthiness) and for which immediate intervention from competent agencies must be sought [6]. The process of intervention is healing, which involves application of knowledge about disease and health and the use of biological and non-biological including ideological resources to prevent and ward-off illness. Based on organized knowledge of fauna and flora and their usage to protect human against illnesses, traditional healers having competent knowledge of healing are recognized.

As identified by a key informant1, Yoruba healing practitioners establish the causation of ill health before assuming the healing processes. Typically, the Yoruba worldview recognizes preter-natural, natural and cultural causations of illness. In preter-natural it is believed that cosmic agents such as God, gods and goddesses and certain spirits can cause illness on human being, when they are angry against human conducts and when they are not propitiated. For instance, disaffection between human and god of iron (Ogun) can cause fatal road accident while desecration of ObAtalὰ, the Yoruba god of creation can cause small pox. The natural causation is attributed to harshness of weather, changing climatic condition and infection from other biotic elements in the environment. For instance, fever can be caused by exposure to solar heat. Cultural causation has to do with human conducts that lead to ill health. Through observation of healing process among Ifa priests who are traditional healer, spiritual consultation using Ifa is engaged to investigate preter-natural causes of illness and medical history in addition to observation of the patients are used to investigate both cultural and natural causes of illness.

Generally, healing measures involve a diagnosis, which in Ifa healing practice, the use of Ifa divination is mostly relied on. The process involves placing the divination materials on the body of the patient usually when patient is in a critical condition. If the patient can still talk, he or she is requested to whisper his request on the divination materials. Then Ifa healer inquires the causation and extent of illness by casting the divination materials. Divination materials can either be OpElE (Ifa rosary) or Ikin (16 pieces of divinatory palm kernel) [7]. Diagnosis also involves medical observation of the patient and taking the medical history of the patient. Following the diagnosis, treatment begins. The Ifa healers mostly source the treatment from Ifa verses, as most of the verses contain herbal recipes meant for the treatment of a good number of illnesses. Since the use of Ifa divination in diagnosis is accompanied by certain verses of Ifa, which are rendered and interpreted to understand the causation of disease, the verses also contain appropriate treatment recipes which Ifa healers engage. Such herbal/treatment recipes contain herbs and animal components. Ifa verses are compilations of day to day encounters of Orunmila, who Yoruba regards as the founder and deity of Ifa. During his lifetime, he was endowed with enormous wisdom in medicine and fond of healing people. During

1An interview held with Chief Ifadairo who is a Ifa priest and traditional healer in Oyo township. The interview was held in Oyo on 23rd of July 2015.

his healing enterprise, Orunmila would teach his disciples the materials he used in healing of different types of diseases and how he used those materials. As a poet and singer, Orunmila uses poetic means, song and mythological stories to transmit his knowledge to his disciples2. It is the collections of such poems, songs and myths that now form Ifa verses. However, Ifa verses are not only limited to healing practices, as lots of verses are based on philosophy of life, ethno-science and technology, peace building, morality and orderliness in society, mythology of creation, political and economic lifestyles as well as tourism among others.

Healing may last for some hours and days depending on the severity of the illness and patients’ responses to the treatment. In most cases, Yoruba healing is out-of- clinic, and on rare occasion like in mental illness, the patient admitted in healer’s home. It is also seen as service to humanity, as Yoruba healers do not charge heavily for treatment. Payment of treatment fees is not tied to healing. Usually, Yoruba traditional healers command respects in the society and are mostly compensated through generalized reciprocity, whereby a farmer that was healed would voluntarily compensate the healer with some farm products such as palm oil, yams and cereals. Some young healed female patients may be given out in marriage to their healers. According to Ifadare Alabi3, this aspect of Yoruba traditional healing system is fast changing as many healers now charge their patients and run clinic mode of treatment.

Beside Ifa priests/healers (Babalawo), there are other traditional Yoruba healing practitioners. These are herbalists (Onis Egùn) and meta-physicists (Adahunse). Herbalists have vast knowledge of herbs and animal components and how they can be used for healing. While Ifa healers exclusively rely on Ifa verses to draw their healing knowledge, herbalists do not rely mainly on Ifa and neither are they Ifa practitioners/adherents, they cut across different religions. Meta-physicists mostly engage the use of incantations, spiritual forces and verbal renditions to ward off illness, but in few cases may also use herb and animal components in healing. However, the three categories of Yoruba traditional healers are interwoven in healing methodology. An herbalist may engage both Ifa and metaphysical mode of healing and Babalawo and Adahunse may also engage the use of

2Opinion of Chief Ifayemi Eleburuibon, the Chief Ifa Priest of Osogbo and Ifa healer, in an interview in OsogboSeptember 17th 2017.

3Ifadare Alabi isa traditional healer in Ilobu. He was interviewed in Ilobu on September 18th, 2017.

herbal medicine. The distinction is however marked by predominant mode engaged in healing to establish type of healer.

Epistemology of Healing

Yoruba worldviews suggest that the god of healing is Osanyìn, from whom the knowledge of healing begun. According to Yoruba legendary myth, Osanyìn, taught Orunmìlὰ (Ifa deity) the art and science of healing. Orunmìlὰ was regarded as the first student of medicine under the founder of Yoruba traditional medicine (Osanyìn,). Osanyìn, was reputed for vast knowledge of botany, human physiology, and application of botanical elements on healing. While Orunmìlὰ is the chief link among the gods and goddesses, Osanyìn was also reputed for his prowess in appeasing other gods and goddesses when they cause afflictions on human. With his power of appeasement, he spiritually pleads with other gods and goddesses to forgive their human victims. In the preliterate and ancient time, both Osanyìn and Orunmìlὰ started community medicine, by moving from one community to another to heal people, albeit Orunmìlὰ was more popular as he visited more communities than Osanyìn4.

Source of Knowledge in Yoruba healing system is highly expansive. It includes organized training, inspirational acquisition, mouth-to-mouth acquisition, inheritance, learning in truancy, scientific observation of nature and constant healing experience. Knowledge of Yoruba healing can be acquired through organized training where individual interested in learning the practice lives with a master practitioner and acquire the knowledge. The apprentice is tutored and involved in practices of healing. Duration of training is not fixed; it terminates when the apprentice feels satisfy. However, in Ifa herbal practice, the apprentice graduates upon satisfactory conducts determine by the master practitioner. There is also a process of inspirational acquisition of knowledge in Yoruba healing system, where individuals are inspired on the art of healing. In this mode, inspired individuals acquired the knowledge of healing through sacred revelation, which occurred to such individuals in his or her daily conducts. Such revelations may also occur in dream5. Another source of knowledge in Yoruba healing system is mouth-to-mouth acquisition, which involves sharing of healing knowledge among practitioners.

4Opinion from Ifayemi Elebuibon interviewed in Osogbo on August 13th, 2018.

5Opinion from Ifasola Anikinikun interviewed in Oyo in December 21st, 2018.

Individual may also inherit the practice of healing from their old parents. In most cases, there are often documentation of healing practice and such documentations can be inherited by the children of an old practitioner that are interested in healing practice. Another source of knowledge in Yoruba traditional healing include the acquisition of medical herbs by the traditional itenery hunters. During their voyage in the bush, according to Fagunwa [8], Yoruba hunters examine the nature of plants and how they respond to different circumstances in the bush. They therefore sum up their findings if such plants and animals can be used for healing. Sometimes too they can receive inspiration from unseen spirits about the use of herbs for healing. Inspiration receives from ancestors about healing and examination of etymology of names ascribed to herbs and plants are sources of knowledge in healing. Part of Yoruba beliefs suggests that ancestors can tutor one in the art of healing especially when it is highly desirable mostly when the beneficiary is confronted with serious illness defying solution.

Healing knowledge is also acquired through truancy, whereby the truant is led to a secret place unconsciously and taught the art of healing by unseen forces. In a case study account by an herbalist in Iragberi in Osun state of Nigeria, the truant narrated his ordeal in truancy, which he experienced in 2003. The incidence was in the afternoon after returning home from his daily farm work in Iragberi. He was having a siesta, when he woke up suddenly and was unconsciously led into a bush by unseen force. In the bush, he was shown different herbal plants and informed about their uses for different types of ailments. He experienced truancy for three days without eating or drinking with the unseen force continually showing him different herbal plants. The truant memorized all the revelation and when he was out of truancy and returned home, he documented the revelations and began healing practice6. Acquiring healing knowledge through truancy among the Yoruba is a common practice. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of key informants used in this study revealed that they had experienced truancy.

Other sources of knowledge in healing system are scientific observation of nature and constant healing experience. In scientific observation of nature, the healing practitioner observes the reactions of herbs to the natural actions and animal reactions to the consumption of

6Case study analysis of truancy experience by Chief Babalola Ishola, Aare Baseegun of Iragberi, Osun State. Interviewed in Iragberi in May 11th, 2018.

certain plants. The reactions observed after the plant consumption is taken to be the reaction that human being will experience if such herb is consumed.

Knowledge of healing is preserved through oral transmission and documentation. However, due to the problem of patenting in indigenous knowledge, Yoruba healing knowledge is mostly preserved and transmitted orally. When documentation is done, it is shared among very close associates like parents and favoured children, and among very trusted friends who are also practitioners. Knowledge sharing is sacred and mostly among the trusted practitioners.

Categorization of Healing

Yoruba healing system can be categorized into experimental, metaphysical and spiritual healing. Experimental healing is more scientific and more rational. It involves application of verifiable knowledge of healing, in which the processes are replica and can be reengaged elsewhere with same degree of result. Experimental healing is mostly engaged among the herbalists who use herbs and animal components in healing. Through their herbal knowledge, they produce powdered and liquid herbal remedies with which they heal their patients. In metaphysical healing, which relies on incantation and verbal renditions to heal, the processes may not be entirely verifiable and replicated. As it involves cursing the disease and illness to leave the patients; substance remedies are mostly ignored in metaphysical healing. Spiritual healing involves propitiation of gods and goddesses through rituals and the use of scriptural verses in healing. This category of healing is mostly associated with religions and squarely rest on belief system. The patients are made to believe that observation of rituals will heal them and ward off their disease and illness.

Professionalization and Specialization in Yoruba Healing

Healing practice among the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria features professionalization and specialization in service delivery. This involves the general practitioners who have knowledge of healing several diseases and applying such in healing their different patients. Beside general practitioners, there are the specialists who show expertise in certain illnesses. Notably, the Yoruba traditional psychiatrists are commonest example that specializes in psychiatric issues. Other than psychiatrists that constitute 9% of the traditional healers interviewed, other specialists located during the course of investigation were Obstetrics and Gynecologists (17%) majoring only on reproductive health care; traditional cardiologists (3%), abdominal illnesses specialists (12%), pediatricians (19%) and orthopedics specialists (14%). The general practitioners constitute 26% of our respondents who are traditional healers.

Traditional healing system also features botanical pharmacologists who specialize in the collection of botanical elements used in healing. They have vast knowledge of herbs and animal healing components and their healing potentials. They are experts in preservation of herbs and other herbal recipes and are commonly found in mostly all Yoruba towns and cities where they publicly displayed herbal recipes, which they sell to traditional healers [9]. Through ethno-botanical survey of these professionals in Yoruba healing system, it is established that they possess adequate local knowledge of plants and animals. They are commonly call tewe-tegbO. They source for herbs from forest and preserve them for sales.

Social Change and Yoruba Healing

Factors of social change that greatly influenced traditional healing system in Yoruba society are introduction of western education, trend of urbanization, introduction of foreign religion and advancement in technology. A synchronic analysis of change in traditional healing system suggests new development in cultural practices related to Yoruba traditional healing system.

Introduction of western education provides opportunity for the emergence of new crop of traditional healers who are educated and practicing traditional healing [10]. While majority of them did not read medicine in school, some that are from parents who are traditional healers, take to traditional healing with some innovative ideas that has caused changes in healing practice. Among the educated healers, there is more formalization of healing practice characterized by formal establishment of healing clinics and official registration of such clinics with government agencies. Such clinics operate as commercial entities with some level of bureaucracy where clinic services are well organized [11]. The educated practitioners also formed associations of practitioners to defend their common interests and seek collective growth of their profession. In Osogbo, associations like Ifa N’ SekisA and Association of Herbal Healers were established by educated practitioners of Yoruba traditional healing. Most members of these associations have officially registered clinics. The educated practitioners also specialized in a particular aspect of healing such as maternal and child caring, orthopedics and mental healing.

Southwestern Nigeria has experienced increased rate of urbanization within the last 60 years or so; and this is not without effects on Yoruba traditional healing system. Urban communities have more population and more health challenges beyond the capacity of western medical services. Against the traditional practice, where traditional healing was more concentrated in rural communities of Yoruba society, the urban communities are opened to more operation of Yoruba traditional healing practices [12]. Commonly practiced in urban locations is traditional orthopedics which is increasingly connected with prevalence of road traffic accidents among commercial cyclists in many Nigerian cities [13].

Introduction of foreign religions such as Christianity and Islam in Yoruba society has attracted cynicism against Yoruba traditional healing system. Among the Pentecostal Christians and Tablighi Moslems, Yoruba traditional healing practice is seen as satanic practice and preached against. The practice is regarded as unclean and fetish. However, orthodox churches like Anglican, Baptist and Catholics and Ansar-u deen Moslems do not preach against the use of Yoruba traditional healing. The attitudes of the orthodox churches and that of Ansar-u- deen Moslems strengthen the resilience of Yoruba traditional healing system.

Technological advancement has not also spared the Yoruba traditional healing practice from being influenced. Traditional healing clinics in Osogbo, Ibadan and Oyo are using stethoscope for diagnosis, thermometers for measuring body temperature and also having medical records in their clinics. As formal clinics are established, clinic infrastructure such as hospital beds are introduced in Yoruba traditional healing clinics, while crutches and Plastic of Paris (POP) are used in some traditional orthopedic clinics in Ibadan. Most traditional healers now have drug management skill through regulation of herbal drugs by prescribing and monitoring effective dose in drug dispensation [10]. They also develop capacity in drug protection and preservation, with the use of preservatives and refrigerators to store their formulated herbal drugs [14, 15, 16].