When the Physician Meets Indigenous Healers: Oku Ampofo, Herbalists, and the Making of Traditional Medicine Scientific in Postcolonial Ghana.

Describe your research in 1-5 sentences.

This project explores the history of the Center for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine (now Center for Plant Medicine Research (CPMR)). The Center was established in the mid-1970s by Dr. Oku Ampofo, a Ghanaian physician trained at the University of Edinburgh, during the colonial period, with the help of the Ghanaian state and indigenous healers. Using the life of Oku Ampofo, I aim to contribute to the historiography on science and medicine in Africa, to complicate the perceived strict dichotomy between what is considered traditional medicine and biomedicine by showing how elements of biomedicine and indigenous healing techniques became constituted into a therapeutic practice. Importantly, the project asks the question – how
and why did Oku Ampofo win the trust of the healers (who were mostly perceived as reserved and unwilling to share the secrets of their trade with scientists and physicians) and get them to work closely with him? What is the place of indigenous healers in the history of the CPMR? By answering these questions, the project seeks to show how traditional medicine became ‘scientific’ in postcolonial Ghana and the pivotal role played by non-elite actors such as Indigenous healers whose contributions are rarely adequately acknowledged in the literature.

What resonated with you as you conducted your research? What were you most excited or
surprised to find out?

As I entered the compound of the CPMR, I was impressed with the number of outpatients who were patronising the Oku Ampofo Memorial Clinic – a “scientific herbal” clinic. While the center was opened in 1975, its history and that of the clinic dates to the 1940s, when Oku Ampofo began to heal with Indigenous healers. What I found surprising is how the state and managers of the Center and the clinic have chosen to memorialise its past. As could be inferred, the clinic is named after Oku Ampofo. There is also a bust of him at the entrance and hallway of the facility that catches the attention of everybody who visits. Just recently, the Center instituted the Oku Ampofo Memorial Lecture to keep his legacy alive. Meanwhile, there is no visible object/monument to remember and or memorialise the healers whose contributions were pivotal to the events leading to the setting up of the centre. This got me to ask questions regarding scientific knowledge production: who gets to be credited? Why them and not others? Who gets to be eternally memorialised and what does that reveal about class, power, and sociocultural dynamics in science? These are important questions I hope to explore further as this project progresses.

How does this fit into your larger project?

This project will be published as a journal article. It will ultimately also be part of my dissertation which seeks to examine the dynamic relationship between traditional medicine and its practitioners and the Ghanaian (colonial and postcolonial) state, and how these have changed over time amidst socioeconomic, political, and techno-scientific changes. Overall, this project
has significant implications and lessons for ongoing national and global efforts at integrating traditional and biomedicine for improved healthcare.