THEY CALLED OUR HEALERS “WITCH DOCTORS” — AFTER CENTURIES OF LEARNING FROM THEM
One of the deepest wounds left by colonial history was not only the taking of land.
It was the destruction of memory.
Before colonial hospitals spread across Africa, African societies already had systems of healing, specialists, herbal knowledge, bone setting, midwifery, spiritual care, and forms of surgery developed through generations of observation and practice.
Across parts of Africa and other ancient civilizations, evidence of trepanation carefully opening the skull for treatment has been found. This reminds us of something uncomfortable:
Human knowledge did not begin in Europe.
African healers were not simply people chanting over illness. Many studied plants, understood seasons, observed the body, treated wounds, supported childbirth, set broken bones, and passed knowledge through disciplined traditions of learning.
Yet when colonizers arrived, many looked at these knowledge systems and gave them one name:
“Witch doctor.”
Not because they fully understood them.
But because naming someone primitive makes replacing them easier.
Once a people begin to doubt their own knowledge, they begin to borrow identity from others.
It is a reminder that Africa contributed a lot humanity’s medical story.
Our ancestors were not anti-science.
They were observers of life.
They experimented.
They recorded through memory.
They healed through relationship with nature, community, and accumulated wisdom.
