South Africa 

South Africa's history of diverse traditional medical practices gives rise to an emergent bush ethnomedicine in the Western Cape, where the consumption, trade and sale of herbs are dominated by Rastas. Rastafari, a sociopolitical movement and eco-religion, is combined with Khoisan healing tradition to synthesize an alternative lifestyle to dysfunctional township realities. Bush doctors lead this syncretic movement by gathering knowledge of medicinal plants from community elders. Local plant materials are collected to provide affordable medicines to the disadvantaged. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a third of the estimated 200 bush doctors during 2006–2010. This homogenous group of middle-aged coloured urban males have transformed from gangsters to herbalists with a stated mission “to heal all people.” To the mixed race coloured community, who rejected their Khoisan indigenous ancestry during apartheid, bush medicine reasserts indigenous rights to resources, instills pride in coloured traditions and reclaims positive male roles. Rasta bush doctors employ indigenous healing methods as a method of legitimizing this historically marginalized community. Bush medicine presents a racially equitable socialist platform for health care within the shifting racial milieu in a post-apartheid South Africa. 

Lisa E. Aston Philander "Hunting Knowledge and Gathering Herbs: Rastafari Bush Doctors In the Western Cape, South Africa," Journal of Ethnobiology 32(2), 134-156, (1 September 2012). https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-32.2.134

Published: 1 September 2012

Jamaica -

 For more than 40 years, Isaiah Thompson has been using his special mixture of herbs to heal people in his Burnside Valley, Red Hills, St Andrew, community.

The 65-year-old, who is hailed as the 'Bush Doctor' in the area, believes God laid the gift of healing on his forefather.

"Me come see me grandfather a do the same bush thing and people run to him fi help and me say me wah fi help people too because my grandfather was all about love and humanity," he told THE STAR. "But him pass off before me turn big boy fi show me the real set-up bout the different bush dem."

"Me still never stop, me go in a it myself and find out certain things pon me own," he added.

Thompson said he has managed to change many lives with the remedies he brews at his home. He revealed that he has been making his special mixes since age 21.

"Anybody can tell you how much people me heal wid my bush dem. Up to yesterday (Tuesday) a man come to me for a remedy say because everybody know say dem work," Thompson told THE STAR. "A man next door me sick, him get a stroke and a me a heal him. About three years since him get sick and a just me him a ask fah from the day him sick."

Thompson said his herbs are known to cure a range of complaints, and said that it brings him joy when his patients give him pleasing feedback.

"Man a bawl and bend up fi him back and pain all bout and a me him call pon fi help. After him drink one bokkle a my remedy everything gone man. All woman wah cyah pass out them afterbirth, me give them bush and them pass it out fast," he said. "Dem things make me feel good man because me know God bless me fi heal people. Anybody who me help dem feel renewing and me nuh really take money from people but if them choose fi give me a thing me will take it."

Thompson made it clear that he has never given any of his patients a 'wrong remedy' and has benefited from his own mixtures.

"Base pon wah dem tell me say wrong with them, me know wah fi give dem. A whole different thing me boil up man like guinea hen weed, ginger and vervain, moringa, medina and doctor black bush," said Thompson. "Me go doctor wid ulcer stomach and dem couldn't really help me. Is after me come out a hospital and start drink me bush dem me find out seh me a get better."

Paul Black, who also had stomach ulcers, said Thompson's remedies changed his condition in less than a month.

"Him a bottle a thing fi drink and me a tell you it help. Me happy him could a help because me did a deal wid the problem fi a while. Him know him craft but a just because him not really out in the world fi more people see him," he said.

  Akera Davis - STAR WriterMay 20, 2021