Herbal Medicine & Healing Traditions

Brackenhurst Workshop

In collaboration with PROMETRA Uganda and Twaweza Communications (Kenya), TICAH co-hosted an unprecedented gathering of traditional healers and kindred scientists to share their experiences and knowledge about AIDS and AIDS-related illnesses. We brought together over 100 participants, including traditional healers, Native American healers, scientific researchers and others who are interested in herbal remedies and holistic approaches to AIDS care.

Brackenhurst Traditional Healers' Workshop: Sharing Knowledge, Experiences and Challenges in Providing Treatment and Care to HIV/AIDS Patients. (Brackenhurst Conference Centre, Nairobi, Kenya - 17-20 September 2003)

During the three days of the workshop, we shared our answers to the following questions:

  • Why do we have AIDS in the world now?
  • What are our experiences with AIDS in our communities?
  • What are our experiences caring for and treating those affected and infected?
  • What have we achieved in terms of treatment? How have we tested and shared these achievements?

During the workshop, we spent time in a nearby forest to share plant remedies and knowledge, we met with a group of HIV+ people from Kibera to share advice and treatment strategies with one another and with them. We talked about the experiences we have had in our communities with AIDS and related illnesses, and discussed our attempts to work with the international AIDS community, donors, and the global public health world.

We strategized together about how to improve our partnerships with one another and with the biomedical world for the betterment of health in Africa. We shared research which we have undertaken on herbal medicines, we told stories about our treatment experiences, we shared spiritual approaches to care, we ate, laughed, cried, danced, and dreamed together.

We ended the workshop with the African Traditional Healers' Celebration Walk, a parade of over 1,000 people through the streets of Nairobi. The parade was blessed by elders including Baba Credo Mutwa (South Africa), Gwendalle Cooper (USA) and Ntambi-zamukama Kiwanuka (Uganda) and ended with the presentation of the Traditional Healers' Declaration from the workshop to the Secretariat of 13th ICASA Conference.

The Brackenhurst workshop has been documented in a publication co-authored by TICAH, A Journey of Connectedness - Workshop on Traditional Medicine and HIV/AIDS.