Diffusion of information/ knowledge for growing forest herbs amongst traditional healers: a case of traditional healers at ekwendeni, Malawi

Abstract

The study investigated knowledge sharing practices amongst traditional healers in Ekwendeni, a semi-urban area in Malawi. Findings which were arrived at by soliciting using a questionnaire have shown that traditional healers have knowledge of different plant species of trees, herbs, shrubs and climbers. The traditional healers use roots, leaves, and barks of trees, fruits and seeds in treating patients. The study further revealed that traditional healers are mostly sharing their knowledge amongst family members mainly through demonstrating all the processes of how traditional medicine is prepared. Findings showed that the majority of traditional healers depend on private owned and customary forests as their main sources of medicinal plants. Roles that traditional healers undertake in forest conservation were uncovered and they include providing advice on forest conservation, cultivating their own gardens and discouraging practices that encourage extinction of medical plants. The major challenges that traditional healers face include travelling long distances to fetch medicinal plants, scarcity of medicinal plants, lack of proper storage of traditional medicine, colleagues not willing to share knowledge in their groups, loss of clients to modern medicine, lack of recognition by the government of Malawi and lack of protection of their tacit knowledge.