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 "Certain organizations have rejected traditional medicine because a long time ago it was thrown away." |
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So when my father died in ‘83, that is when I ended my education. My mother took me to a traditional healer who was the best friend of my parents. I stayed there from ’83 to '88. Then I started working independently. I married that year, and have been married up to now, about fifteen years.
I have learned more, especially being with Theta. I learned how to write papers and present them in conferences in about five languages. I have training and qualified in so many topics. First, I took a course on how to communicate with children. I underwent a training on how to use indigenous vegetables. Theta said it was necessary for me to go to that training. They did research here in Uganda and discovered that food and certain medicines boosts the body’s immunity. From there. I went to courses on home-based care, children’s rights, criminal prevention, and counseling, so now I am a full trainer of trainers.
C: Did your parents expect you to become a healer or was it a calling?
A: I think they expected me to become a healer. They passed to me the knowledge of our ancestors.
C: Did any of your brothers and sisters become healers or only you?
A: One sister.
C: What are the diseases that your family traditionally treat?
A: They trained me to treat fever, and to recognize when a spirit has a demand. I use the spirits to treat. There are some practices that I do that I was never trained for by my parents. I can also treat through counseling. They had some knowledge, but not enough. If someone has many thoughts, thinking too much about previous problems, the loss of parents, and other issues, I can treat with drumming.
C: How did you find out about herbs and their usefulness?
A: My parents taught me about herbs. My father died in the 1988 war, but my mother is a TBA, (Traditional Birth Attendant) and she taught me where my father left off. I also learn from other healers and from my dreams. When I get patients and I don’t understand what medicines to give them, I may take one night and dream for the medicine. Then I come back (to the patient).
 Andrew in his herb garden |
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C: Can you give an example of a problem a patient might bring you?
A. For example, if there is a demand and they develop a mental disorder. The cause may be that the parents were hunters and he (the patient) has rejected hunting. So the spirits demand from him and he behaves abnormal. So, If I got a dream of your parents and they were handling spears and hunting nets, I can advise you to buy a spear and put it in the house where you sleep. The spirits that have been demanding that you hunt can now go. Or you can start hunting.
C: So if someone’s ancestor’s were hunters…..?
A: Of course, it is usually the ancestors that demand.
C: So they would be demanding that the young man be a hunter?
A: It is the spirits choice who they demand from in the family. Even us traditional healers, they start demanding. They can cause all sorts of problems. But currently we are treating HIV infections. They are the most cases that we are handling. I handle cough, skin rashes, TB.
C: So there are herbs which can help?
A: Those herbs we collect from plants, leaves, and flowers. We use the nutritional system. When I joined Theta, they brought some botanists from Makerere University and they helped me to learn a lot of herbs.
C: What did they teach you?
A: They taught me how to preserve the herbs.
They gave us many methods we can use: smoking, mixing them in a clay soil (bomba). You can put them in a store and they remain for 50 years.
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C: How have you mobilized the AIDS widows and orphans that have come to you?
A: Mobilizing widows in not difficult because there are many more women than men and the women are more open. Women going to a traditional healer, they are not shy but men are shy, so it is much easier to mobilize women. After we finished training with Theta, I started with (organizing support groups for) women. They have many problems but at least we reduce the number of problems.
To mobilize the orphans I usually start with the parents who have been my clients. Going house to house, door to door, it is not easy to get them (to come and become involved in the support group). When the parents come to get treatment or assistance, I encourage them to come with their children, so when they die, the children know where to start. But (there are) some challenges. When their parent’s die, they may go to some relatives who live fifty kilometers away, it is too far away.
C: What can you do for the orphans?
A: For those (orphans) that are near where I am, about 2 kilometers, they can come here and join the support group. We involve them in activities (such as) dancing and drumming.
 "After they dance, that means the brain has rejoiced." |
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I have here a support group, but now it is very big. There are three sections, one for treatment and counseling, one for income generating activities, and one for music, dance, and drumming. One group today has gone for the funeral rights of a member’s mother. We have many sections. For income generating activities, we have a nursery garden here. (Members of that support group are) the ones that get sub-contracts as senior cooks for funerals, baptisms, and wedding ceremonies.
We meet every two weeks. Now there are 60 people in the group. Today we find 40, another (day) 55, another 35. Some are self-employed, some are government employees. If they are Seven Day Adventists, they cannot come on Saturday. We have five.
Rose: What is the name of your support group?
A: Our group is called Areogans Educational and Aids Prevention Support Group, and it was started in June 1995. After being trained by Theta, I spearheaded it to provide counseling, home visits, community sensitization, some small-scale income generating projects.
C: What are some of the projects?
A: A nursery garden of fruits, one cow, and during the rainy season, we grow vegetables. The group involves 10 widows, widowers, and orphans. We cooperate with religious leaders, Theta, aids support organizations, TASO, also the Christian Caring Community as well as biomedical government workers.
C: How does the community accept you as a traditional healer?
A: For me, I cooperate with the community. When there is a community event, I just go join. If they need to clear the road, I go. So the people, they trust me, They elected me to be their leader here, I am a vice-chairman, so that is an indicator that I am trusted.
C: Are their any problems because you are a traditional healer?
A: I think the problem I have is minor because they know what I do. The problem is from those people who are Born Again. They don’t want people to come and join me. But they do, people come and join me, even if they go to Church. They finish church and come and get treatment. And after they get treatment, they go back to Church.
C: What have you learned from Theta?
A: Many things. At first, what I learned (is that) the biomedical workers, they were hating us. After the training, we are working together. I make a referral, they make a treatment, and they refer the patient back. I have learned that the biomedical and the traditional healer, we all fight against diseases. We are assisting people with their mental and physical health. Secondly, I have learned a way I can communicate with people who have some health problems.
Third, record keeping, and that if you have time and visit a patient at their home, they develop feelings. I also learned that by referring patients to biomedical workers, (it) helps the patients more, because there are some services we cannot provide, like the x-ray. And they can treat some conditions we cannot.
When Theta was starting, I was part of the pilot project. I was trained by a senior professor at Makerere University (on) how you can educate someone through music and drumming. I am the one, if I find someone laughing, I can make them cry in one minute. If they are crying, if they have lost their people, if I start singing a song, they will be laughing.
C: So the benefit of the music, if they are stuck…
A; The benefits of music. Music boosts the morale. If soldiers are going to war, they are thinking they are going to die, but they forget what is going on. We compose songs thinking about the problems the people in the community have, so when we sing, we don’t tell someone something direct. We don’t mention the name, but mention the problem.
C: What is an example you might give to a widow who is HIV positive. What might be the message?
A: That the AIDS problem is general. From 2 years to 108, we have the problem. The message helps to fight stigma.
C: And for someone with no hope?
 "After being trained by Theta, I spearheaded it to provide counseling, home visits, community sensitization, some small-scale income generating projects. " |
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A: Here in Uganda there are no many accidents with vehicles, motorcycles, and steamers. When we give them these examples, they can develop hope. For those who have died in motorcycle accidents, were they infected with HIV? There are two answers, yes, or some of them. If some of them, for those who had HIV/AIDS they died of a motorcycle (accident) and those who did not have HIV, they also died. No one is sure of the disease that will kill him or her. I use story telling and examples. (A person can think) ‘I have had HIV for 5 years and people die of motorcycles, maybe I can survive.’
C: What message might you tell an orphan to give that child some hope for their life?
A: In my counseling to younger orphans, I encourage them to have religious beliefs, to get hope from God. So, the priest or other religious leader can add on. My part is to encourage them to abstain, as they know what has taken their parents. Some don’t know the real meaning of HIV, so, step by step, they have to remain in counseling.
C: When you refer them to the Church to pray, how do you explain what a belief in God can provide?
A: Believing, for me, I am a Catholic, we have the hope of Jesus coming back. My (desire) is to enter heaven, so I have to live a good life. No stealing, I have to keep in line, so when Jesus comes back on Judgment Day. You cannot get tired. So not hope for tomorrow but (for) something that does not have a limit of time.
C: What are some of the challenges working with your community?
A: Many problems, but I can mention at least three. One: We have many quacks. Some (who are) involved in our communities are not well trained. When they make mistakes, they hurt us in general. People cannot know this one is well trained and this one is not.
Two: Most traditional healers are poor. They work in a poverty situation.
Three: Since we have to keep secrets for our patients and we may use another language than they, you have to invite another person to interpret.
C: How do you treat mental disorders?
A: I first take a history of his or her family. I ask if there is any case from their family as some mental disorders come genetically. Then, how long has it been? Have you ever had an accident? Has there been torture with the war or from prison? We also consider anxiety, phobias, if they sleep, or if they eat. I observe the parents behavior.
C: After taking a history, how do you treat a mental disorder?
A: To treat mental disorders we treat in two ways. Counseling/storytelling and we also treat by using herbs. We administer herbs so someone sleeps for a time, that can also work. In other cases, we may find someone who has used drugs. We use the same drug that they used to develop the disorders. The antibodies wake up because the body feels there is a relative of what he has used.
We also put them in support groups that provide some community. Those who have phobias, they can learn through collaborating with those in the support group, they learn how to talk. They sing together. So that is another way to treat mental disorders.
C: Do they dance, sing, drum?
A: Especially dancing. After they dance, that means the brain has rejoiced. Some problems we treat we find contradicting beliefs, especially between the religious (Born Again) and the traditional healers beliefs. There is a contradiction and that is a major problem and illness. The religious ‘Born Again’ will not believe in the ancestors and that will cause problems
C: How can you sustain your groups?
A: Financially, we have not been (able to) get enough. Since 1996, we have composed more than 80 songs, but not one has been recorded. We sing our songs in public places. Those who have money, they pick up songs, and they record. But for us, we have never recorded.
Two years back Theta assisted us, they gave us funding of 750 shillings.
A: In brief that is our group but we do not have the money for costumes.
If you want to threaten young children and you are dressed like I am (now), they do not fear. But if you are dressed like an animal, and you tell them if they go out at night, some big man will take them away, (that will make an impression). So that is what we call making character in drumming.
R: Do you have plans for your group?
A: We want to be trained how to use information technology. That is the only way to make it easier to get some assistance. Getting a chance for other organizations to see what you do is very difficult.
The interview moves outside into the open space beside Andrew’s shrine. Andrew speaks to his support group and to us visitors of the challenges for those with HIV/AIDS:
Why do we cry always? Because western medicine is very expensive. Why don’t we use grasses everywhere we see? Everywhere we see a plant that is a medicine so we should use that before waiting for western medicine from outside the country. Certain organizations have rejected traditional medicine because a long time ago it was thrown away. There were those who encouraged us to throw it away. Yes, now we are partners in treating people with HIV. A big hoe can dig where there is some peas in the garden because these plants grows at a distance but the small one can also dig in a pea garden. Where do you use a particular hoe, the big hoe or the small hoe, because each has a particular activity? Good traditional medicine is like a small hoe (that you) use can use after germination of a plant. Western medicine is the big hoe that you use to cut where the soil is still hard.
So, when we go into a community when they hear they just come (with our drumming and singing), this is a mobilization tool in Uganda. When we find people in the community who are depressed, who are crying so much, when you use music and dance you leave them with hope, so let us leave in hope. Good traditional medicine is like a small hoe that you can use to help people when (they are) depressed. With music and dance, you leave them in hope.
On another day, Rose and I went with Andrew on his home visits. The first patient had HIV/AIDS. Andrew told us that the patient had been ill, went to the clinic where x-rays were taken, and was informed she had TB and was HIV positive. She was put on a drip and found herself in a coma for 3 days. She was then directed to Andrew and told to go and ‘try him’.