Many Batswana use traditional medicine but ashamed to admit it
- We help a lot of people, including your leaders
- Pastors come to us to help their congregations grow
Chairperson of the Reference Committee, Traditional Health Practitioners under the Ministry of Health, Banyatsi Setilo says Batswana are hypocrites for claiming that they do not use traditional medicines nor consult traditional healers.
He is failing to understand why there is so much shame attached to the use of traditional medicines in Botswana. Yet the very same nation that looks down on traditional healers are ready to buy herbs and concoctions from other countries.
Or perhaps it is the English word ‘herbs’ that makes the medicines appear more modernised or fancy enough to be consumed, he wonders!
But one thing that bothers him greatly is those that sneak into houses of traditional healers at night pleading for help only to bash the same healers the next daylight.
“We have high-profile people in society coming to us on a daily basis, including pastors. They come to us asking that we help make their churches popular.
“We assist them and once numbers increase at their churches, they turn around and tell people that we are witch-doctors thereby preventing people from coming to us,” Setilo explained.
The traditional healer said that a majority of Batswana know the power behind traditional medicine but will never publicly admit so. This is why many are quick to say ke a loiwa (I am bewitched) - almost every Motswana says that.
And when asked who is bewitching them the answer is always ‘traditional doctors,’ - o ntsamaela dingaka is very popular among Batswana. This, in Setilo’s view, means that many know what traditional healers can do but choose to play ignorant.
Moreover, some people paint both witches and traditional healers with the same brush.
Setilo explained that the existence of traditional healers is not to bewitch people but to provide healing and protection from all sorts of evil.
“We admit that there are rotten tomatoes among us, those who are instructed by their clients to kill and they proceed to do so. We advise against such because those are some of the practices that make Batswana shun us,” Setilo said. However, he said that does not give Batswana an excuse to be ashamed of being associated with traditional doctors.
“Our nation is lost and we are losing out on a lot of things that we could be tapping on. I have always said that the Chinese make billions out of traditional medicine but we have the same plants here that they do not want,” he said. Although they are not recognised by law, Setilo said that they do have people working in government offices coming to them for help.
“They are human and prone to pain, so they do come, when I say Batswana come to us, I do not mean a selective group, I mean even those holding high and influential positions in society,” he said.