Author(s) :

Assefa Balcha.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

Based on local Amharic and Ge'ez medical manuscripts and secondary source materials, along with a wide-ranging oral data that have been gathered over an extended period, this study makes a critical examination and thoughtful analysis as to how healers mastering an extensive knowledge of therapeutically valuable herbs provided their expert medical services to their community members in Wāllo, Ethiopia. The main objective of this study is to reconstruct the multifarious role herbalist-healers played in the fight against plethora of human and animal diseases. How herbalist-healers learned and/or inherited the requisite medical knowledge and treatment skill is the other facet of this historically-informed research. Additionally, why the society upheld mixed attitude towards herbalist-healers has been explored in the wider socio-cultural and religious contexts. The impact of modern western medicine as a major reason for the decline and marginalization of the indigenous therapeutic wisdom is also examined. Despite the enormous challenges facing indigenous medicine, the study proposes the need for salvaging this valuable medical lore in a speedy, multi-faceted, calibrated, and extensive manner before it is irretrievably lost.

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