Opinions of Monday, 30 August 2010

Columnist: Quaye, Stephen A.

Ghana, Land Of Powerful Traditional Herbalists And Herbs.

From: Stephen A. Quaye, Toronto-Canada.

In recent times reports in the media has given a wrong impression about the way some herbalists in Ghana and for that matter Africa have been using herbs to cure many diseases.
But in all these false impressions many people have come out to give testimonies to the fact that they were taken ill but were cured from their ailments after taking herbal medicines.
This wrong impression came about as a result of the way some persons did not believe in the potency of Ghanaian or African herbal medicine and condemned it to the general public asking them not to go for medical treatment where these herbalists administer it to them, rather report at any western type hospital for treatment.
What could be described as wonderful is that now those who were condemning the usage of herbal medicine in Ghana and Africa as a whole are now propagating the usage of it after they have been treated from diseases by taking herbal medicines.
There are so many traditional herbalists in Ghana but one particular herbalist this reporter can bear testimonies of his potent herbal medicines to the effect of able to heal so many people from various diseases is Opanin Kofi Budu ,an Adventist, who resides in Akwadum near Koforidua in the Eastern Region.
Speaking to this reporter on his cell phone from Ghana, this 78 year old herbalist said, the knowledge of application of herbal medicine to persons with ailments was impacted to him by his late father whom he lived with and train him to become a herbalist since he did not want to die and be buried with the knowledge of herbal potency.
But he started to practice herbal medicine in the year 1983 after he had realized that he could heal a lot if persons with the knowledge of the herbs his late father blessed him with.
Accordingly, he has powerful herbal medicines that can cure diseases such as piles, control hypertension to the low level, urine retention, hernia, tuberculosis, and infertility in women or barrenness, weakness in manhood, rheumatism and birth.
Opanin Kofi Budu also said he has powerful herbal medicines for treatment of diseases such as white, jaundice, breast cancer, epilepsy, and cancer in the head, dysmenorrheal, heart attacks, strokes, typhoid fever, diabetes and others.
The man who has practiced herbal medicine for more than 25 years says he has been receiving a lot of people from within the country and even those from the diasporas who come with various diseases and want treatment so they can return to continue their work.
He said after healing them they return to their destinations where they write to thank him and even propagate the good news of their cure to others who in turn consult him for treatment of their ailments that they might be suffering from.
As to why it takes one a very long time to locate them, he explained that some herbalists who are not true herbalists claim they have cure for diseases. Others try to defraud innocent people by charging very high fees whiles others add fetish spirits to the application of herbal medicines but are not suppose to do so thereby losing the potency of the herbal medicines.
The herbalist made it clear that, the herbs were created by God therefore adding fetish spirits makes them impotent and loses its powers of healing diseases.” So we that do not add fetish spirits to our practices and also do not want to amass wealth by defrauding people do not want to make noise of what we can do but those who we cure bear testimonies to others who follow in suit to seek herbal treatment from us” he explained.
This registered Physic and Herbalist Association [PHA] member said, it is not true that out of shear wickedness they do not want to impact the knowledge of the herbal medicine to their children, grand children or others and die with the knowledge.
Rather it is the youth who do not want to learn because of the perception that herbal medicine kills rather than healing diseases or apart from Western medicine no other medicine is safe for consumption unless satisfied by certain medical authorities.
He said he is ready to receive anyone who has any diseases as aforementioned to consult him for treatment so that they can bear testimonies to others to contact him on 011-233-24-5519462 and book an appointment.
End.