(Marula Imprint)
AUTHORS: Heather Dugmore, Ben-Erik van Wyk
ISBN: 978-0-9584954-9-3
EXTENT: 128 pages
FORMAT: 260 x 210 mm
Soft cover with gatefolds, Richly illustrated with full colour
photographs.
Also available in Afrikaans
In this book are fifty-two compelling tales that will lead the reader on
a journey of discovery of the African continent. It tracks the ancient
grail of traditional African medicine or muthi. The journey takes one
year, with one story for each of the fifty-two weeks. Many of the
stories inherited through Africa's compelling oral tradition are between
these covers: committed to paper for the first time ever.
The ancient African people were the first aromatherapists who well
understood the effect of plants on the human body, mind and soul.
Innately spiritual, the thousands of lineages of African people across
thousands of years have all used plant medicines for healing, always
with the blessing of their ancestors.
Knowledge of African plant mythology and its associated healing
practices is most certainly a grail because on this great continent we
call Africa, knowledge has always been an oral tradition. Because
it was never written down, thousands of years of healing wisdom and
intelligence have been lost in the transference from one generation to
the next.
This book endeavoures to bring to light the deep history of fifty-two of
the thousands of indigenous medicinal plants of Africa, before it is too
late. The focus is towards Southern Africa because this region
is a hotspot of cultural and botanical diversity. Unlike the healing
knowledge of other ancient cultures, such as India or China, little of
Africa's healing history is recorded.
As you read the stories about fifty-two of the continent's prominent
indigenous plant cures, the authors hope you, too, will experience some
of the magnetism, mystery and wisdom of Africa. They hope it
will help you understand a bit more about yourself and about our
species: the human being.