Traditional Medicine: A Complementary and Accommodating Health Services Delivery System at the Village Level of Tanzania

It is estimated that 60-80 percent of people in African countries including Tanzania use traditional medicine as their primary source of health services despite the presence of the biomedical system. There is scant literature that has paid attention on how traditional medicine coexists with the biom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAfrican studies quarterly Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 1 - 15
Main Author Kabyemela, Matrona
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Gainesville Center for African Studies 01.05.2020
African Studies Quarterly
Subjects
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
AIDS
Alternative medicine
Biomedicine
Case studies
Comparative politics
Councils
Folk medicine
Health care delivery
Health care services accessibility
Health policy
Health services
Herbal medicine
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Institutionalism
Interviews
Laws, regulations and rules
Local government
Medical personnel
Political aspects
Political behavior
Politics
Private sector
Respondents
Rural areas
Rural communities
Traditional African medicine
Traditional medicine
Villages
Tanzania
Africa
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Summary:It is estimated that 60-80 percent of people in African countries including Tanzania use traditional medicine as their primary source of health services despite the presence of the biomedical system. There is scant literature that has paid attention on how traditional medicine coexists with the biomedical system of health services delivery in Tanzania. This article adapts the Helmke and Levitsky model of formal and informal institutions in comparative politics to understand how traditional medicine complements and accommodates biomedicine in health service delivery in Tanzania. It draws on qualitative data from a case study conducted in six villages of Bukoba district, Tanzania in 2016-2017. The study involved traditional health practitioners, biomedical practitioners, household respondents and key informants from the organizations responsible for health services delivery. Data was collected through interviews, key informant interviews, observation, and documentary review. Traditional medicine complemented and accommodated the biomedical system because it addressed various ailments which are hardly treated by the biomedical system at the village level. Traditional medicine does not cause delays in referring patients to biomedical facilities, and it fills the gap of dwindling biomedical facilities in rural areas.
ISSN:2152-2448
2152-2448