Community Voices: Willy Bosco Agaba
Traditional Bonesetter and Herbalist

Lydia Rukundo was translating; she is the Western Regional Program Officer for Theta. The interview took place in Nyabikugu Rugando Sub-County, Rwampara County

Lydia: Willy Bosco was trained by his parent’s Spirit.
Dr Caitlin Mullin: Were both of his parents healers?
T: They were both healers.

Willy Bosco Agaba

C: Was there some special experience that made it known to the parents that you were to be a healer?
T: I just got experience from my parents because I grew up in the home and I was trained. Afterwards I got more training.
C: Were your parents both spiritual healers and herbalists?
T: They were herbalists.
C: Do you do any spiritual healing?
T: No.
C: How did you learn that certain herbs treat certain conditions?
T: I got experience from what my parents were doing.  Then I have been doing research here and there, and have learned more.
C: Do you have certain conditions that you specialize in treating?
T:  I am good in bone setting if there are compound fractures.  I treat herpes and HIV/AIDS.  I treat abnormal bleeding in women and stomach upset.
C: Were your parents bonesetters?
T: Yes, my parents were bonesetters.
C: Do you set arms, legs, what do you set?
T:  Every part.

Bosco examining an patient's ankle bone that he previously set.

C: How many patients do you see a month?
T:  About 40 patients a month.
 Sometimes months pass where there is no case of bone setting and I treat other conditions.
C: After someone has had a boneset, is there any post treatment rehabilitation to strengthen the muscles?
T: I give them a walking stick to keep exercising.  Then, if it is a fracture on any part of the arm, I encourage them to exercise so to avoid the arm relaxing and getting fixed into a particular position.
C:  Were you trained by Theta and when?  Could you speak about what you learned and your training with Theta?
T:  I was trained in counseling, community education on HIV prevention and care, group formation in the community, and encouraging people to meet together and provide home based care for those who are sick.
C: Do you have a support group?
T: Yes, and you shall meet them.  There is also an herbal garden, which we shall see.  He has a clinic as well which we shall see.

Bosco at his clinic at the local biomedical health center. It is rare a traditional health practitioner is given a space.

Because of the good working relationship with the biomedical workers in the community, Bosco was given a space for his work at the parish health clinic.

C:  Who is in the support group?
T:  Community members.
C: Why do they choose to join the support group?
T:  There are traditional healers that he trained. They join after the training.  Then there are community members. Part of his drumming group has orphans from the community.

Three traditional healers in the community garden 

C: Where do the orphans live?
T: They stay with their extended families in the community.
C: What does the support group provide for them?
T:  The group provides scholastic materials for the orphans and they get money from the district.  Then the group provides sugar, salt, and porridge for those who are HIV positive in the group.

Lydia explains the funding: The source is the community, there is a HIV/AIDS initiative, so community members are encouraged to make proposals and when they are successful, they give them some money. Willy is one of those who have been successful. That is how that group has benefited from that money from the district.

Willy Bosco’s young wife (center) and a traditional healer (right) singing with the orphans in the support group.

C: How have you benefited from the Theta training and how do you feel the community has benefited from your being trained by Theta?

T:  Before I didn’t have the information about HIV/AIDS. For example, it was a common perception that if someone gets the infection then death was next. Now, I have a better perception, and, because that information is being passed on to community members, they are learning about positive living and HIV prevention, it has increased their skills.  They are better off than they were before.  And through my trainings for my colleagues, they offer better treatment.  They no longer prepare medicine with unboiled water.  People offer better services. 
C: How do your herbs help people who are HIV positive?
T:  The herbs are useful for treatment of opportunistic infections, chronic diarrhea, and herpes.
C: How does the community view your work and has it changed at all after your training with Theta?
T:  The community is very positive about my work.  It has made an even greater difference because now, whenever I go (to provide) community education, I go with a biomedical health worker.  It has changed people’s attitudes.
C: How has moving around with a biomedical health worker changed people’s attitudes?
T:  As a traditional healer, there are questions I may not be in a position to answer, especially if they are scientific.   For example, concerning the brain or the uterus of women, these internal organs I may not have a clear explanation for.   So, the other person assists to clarify.
C:  How has it been for you to work with biomedical workers?
T: During the Theta training program, there were times when biomedical workers were called upon for joint meetings with traditional healers.  In the process, we came to know each other. They understood the referral mechanism and began referring patients.  By the time, we came together to provide community education we already knew each other, and it wasn’t such a big hassle.
C: Many people associate traditional medicine with witchcraft.  How would you explain to those people that there is a difference?
T:  Witchcraft kills and traditional medicine is not necessarily for killing.
C: Do any of your patients report witchcraft in the community?
T: No.
C: Do you believe that some of the members of your community have been bewitched?
T: I have known about it.
C: Do you feel it was witches that did that or ancestral spirits?
T: The community members.
C: If you heard about somebody who was practicing witchcraft what would you do?
T:  As an individual you can’t do much.  It can be an allegation that someone thinks he is being bewitched, and there is no evidence.  So you can’t do much.  Except if the person alleging he or she is being bewitched goes to government authorities.  It can help, but as an individual, I can’t do much.
Rose: How does he plan to sustain the group?
Lydia:  He has a support group of 40 people who contribute 2000 shillings a month, which is roughly one dollar. They keep it in a pool, so he thinks that they can move on with that money.

C: How many members of the support group are working?
Lydia: They don’t have formal employment.  They are just farmers and whatever they save from their earnings they pull it together.
C: So they save from the sale of bananas and potatoes?
Lydia:  Yes. That is a small number because the orphans are part of the group and they don’t have anything to contribute.
C: Do the orphans have access to other funding through the community?
Lydia: No.

C:  What are some of the challenges to your work?

Members of Bosco's support group for traditional health practitioners in their community garden.

For example, during the dry season, we need to irrigate the herbs but they don’t have things like water cans, things like pangas, to make the garden neat and well maintained. And the number of orphans keeps increasing, but they are short of scholastic materials, uniforms and the like. People with HIV keep asking for support, which is not available.
C: How many wives and children do you have?
T: I have 14 children and 2 wives.

The ‘old wife’ is sitting to the left, the ‘young one’ standing.

Willie Bosco absorbed the Theta training and, like so many of the healers, found unique ways to take what he had learned and give back to his community.  The level of commitment of these dedicated healers to their communities could never be replicated by health workers with their typically short terms of service in the villages.