Celebrated on August 31, the 23rd African Traditional Medicine Day highlighted the need to strengthen the evidence base of this practice, which remains widely used across the continent.
On Sunday, August 31, 2025, the African community celebrated the 23rd edition of African Traditional Medicine Day under the theme “Strengthening the Evidence Base of Traditional Medicine.”
On this occasion, the president of Prometra International, Dr. Erick Gbodossou, emphasized the importance of preserving and promoting this ancestral therapeutic heritage.
The founder of Prometra expressed his gratitude to the World Health Organization (WHO), which established this day in Africa, thus offering traditional practitioners a space for recognition and reflection.
According to him, African traditional medicine, “as old as humanity itself,” served for millennia as a healing art before being marginalized by colonization, the rise of biomedicine, and, more recently, technological advances.
Dr. Gbodossou stressed the need to scientifically document indigenous knowledge in order to prevent its gradual disappearance: “Our healers and their knowledge are slowly fading away. The urgency is to restore value to this medicine in our countries, our sub-region, and across the continent.”
Prometra International recalls that nearly 80 to 85% of populations in sub-Saharan Africa continue to rely on traditional practitioners, not only for treatment but also for health education.
This reality, according to its president, should prompt policymakers and researchers to invest more in research and in the integration of this practice into health systems.
For more than 50 years, Prometra has conducted collaborative research programs with academic and scientific institutions around the world. These efforts have led to several patents, particularly in the treatment of diseases considered incurable by modern medicine.
The organization even announced the discovery of a new “revolutionary” molecule that could transform future medical approaches.
In conclusion, Dr. Gbodossou paid tribute to African healers, urging them to “remain strong in preserving their knowledge and practices, which represent the future and the foundation of tomorrow’s human medicine.”
Babacar Séne Journal Agropasteur -REJOMETRA)