The CIHA Blog brings you the first lecture of the planned four-series of posts on the Dr JL Dube Memorial Lecture as he celebrates his 150th birthday. These series of lectures are organised by the College of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. This specific lecture was delivered by Prof Nceba Gqaleni.
By Dr. Taruona Kudzai, University of KwaZulu-Natal
John Langalibalele Dube joined the struggle against colonialism which stigmatised African traditional ways of life in order to make Western systems a hegemony, for decolonisation and land repossession, according to Prof Nceba Gqaleni of the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. 
Prof Gqaleni was delivering the first lecture, as part of a four-part series of the 2021 John Langalibalele Dube Memorial Lecture, under the theme African Traditional Medicine and COVID-19 Vaccine, on 13 September.
Colonialism and the accompanying disempowerment had a negative impact on our sovereignty over our own laws, our way of feeding and healing ourselves, and our sovereignty over our own ontologies and epistemologies, including our languages as practical tools for communication and ways of being on the land, Prof Gqaleni said.
“Dube’s publications reflect the conflict he experienced as a mission-educated indigenous person struggling to find a balance between his traditional ethnic roots and Christian teachings. He began to discern that missionaries were conspirators in land dispossession and disempowerment of his people.
“His writings also reflect his motivation to produce literature which would serve him well in leading indigenous people in articulating the battle for their rights. A man with a passion for education with a difference, Dube’s school which he founded (Ohlange) differed from other missionary schools in that the learners were encouraged to read in their own language as well as to concentrate on practical aspects of the curriculum. That way he sought to integrate learning and work, as well as promote self-reliance. A voice of the voiceless, ‘Mkhulu’ Dube’s aim in establishing the newspaper, Ilanga Lase Natali, was for it to be a mouth-piece for the black population, and to propagate the idea of a united African front,” Prof Gqaleni said.
He lamented the fact that Dube’s party, the governing African National Congress, does not seem to have the political will to decolonise western ontologies, epistemologies and medicine.
Prof Gqaleni said, “The issues that Dube confronted more than 100 years ago led him to join the struggle, thus laying a foundation for the ruling elite and our society today. These include African unity, decolonisation, land repossession, and work-integrated education for self-reliance. It is concerning that the current ruling elite have lost touch with these issues.”
He noted that while documents from the governing ANC and its leaders have strongly advocated for the use of traditional medicine, government has not moved a bit to implement such noble ideas.
Prof Gqaleni said, “In 1994, President Nelson Mandela noted that traditional health practitioners often have greater accessibility and acceptability than the modern healthcare sector and should be used as a vehicle for health promotion. The 1994 ANC Health Plan stated that traditional healing will become an integral and recognized part of health care in South Africa and that consumers will be allowed to choose whom to consult for their health care, and legislation will be changed to facilitate controlled use of traditional practitioners. None of that has happened so far.”
He called for the creation of a new government department that will take seriously the traditional medicine sector: “We are calling for a new Department of Traditional Medicine to be dedicated to nothing else but traditional medicine. The current Department of Health has many competing interests. This is why traditional medicine has been falling through the cracks.”
As the cradle of humankind, he said, Africa possibly has the oldest medical system in the world and that the Father of Medicine was actually Aim-Hetep, an African, not Hippocrates, as commonly stated. He added that it is concerning that the continent is lagging behind other parts of the world such as China and South Korea in investing in traditional medicine.
Prof Gqaleni, who has co-authored a book on the Foundations of African Traditional Medicine in an attempt to unearth Africa’s theories and philosophy of its own ancient medical system, said, “In Asia, traditional medicines are a central component of health care and the economy. It is a part of the universal health care and at all levels. It is led by a Ministry of Traditional Medicine. Courses on traditional medicine are offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Research into traditional medicine is done in state funded research councils and universities.
“China and South Korea are very meticulous about preserving their heritage in writing and in museums. Their museums are accessed by students, learners, researchers and tourists. We must reach those levels. We must begin to put prestige to what has been undermined and to preserve our heritage.”
Sharing the research that he and his colleagues are involved in at AHRI, Prof Gqaleni said their work is inspired by Dube and intends to deepen the decolonisation agenda in medicine. He shared that there are signs that some of the herbs offered by traditional healers that they have tested may be effective against the novel corona virus.
“Samples of one plant, Product Nkabinde, have shown good activity to disrupt the SARS-Cov-2 Spike/host ACE2 interaction. Product Nkabinde showed anti-viral activity against SARS-Cov-2 and no cytotoxicity. It actually activates the virus. It did not cause any mortality over the 14-day observation period and no significant haematological effects were observed. It compares favourably with other products on the market.
“The Moringa oleifera leaf is being tested on adult HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy. It shows immune activation of T cells after treatment of Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Product Khumalo has been used by Kaposis Sarcoma patients and improvement was reported by both patients and doctors. Microscopy suggested that Product Khumalo may induce lytic replication in a subset of BCBL-1 cells. We are partnering with the South Africa Medical Research Council (SAMRC) to accelerate Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials on a traditional medicine for COVID-19 and HIV,” he said.
In response to Prof Gqaleni, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Humanities, Prof Nhlanhla Mkhize, said Dube was concerned with the total well-being of the African people.
He said, “Medicine in traditional African society was embedded in a particular epistemology that was holistic. There was no separation between mind and body, between social well-being and spiritual well-being. All these together constituted what we call wellness. To be well in this particular epistemology meant to be embedded in one’s community.”
Prof Mkhize also questioned the wellness of the South African society given the high numbers of people living on social grants, saying, “If you are living in a country where approximately 15 million of your people are depending on social grants, can you confidently declare that you are living in an independent nation or rather a nation of beggars who have been deprived of their sense of independence and are now entirely depending on the state for their state of wellness?”
He also spoke about the state of wellness of the South African middle class in allowing Ohlange High School as the first school to be established by a black people in South Africa, to decay. He said, “We have a moral obligation as an emergent black elite to ensure that African institutions of excellence continue to exist. The fact that we as the middle class are happy with being a class that is satisfied with consumption would not have gone down well with Dube and in fact that reflects a people who are not well in so far as our education is connecting us with the communities that have brought us up in line with the tradition of Ubuntu, selflessness and sacrifice. These are some of the values that were being championed by Ubaba Dube.”
Prof Mkhize also underscored the urgency of the use of African languages for teaching and learning. He said, “The failure to develop indigenous languages as languages of learning, teaching, science, research and technology means we are not equipped to harness the local knowledge that is embedded in the local communities, the values, philosophies and ways of life in general. The scientific, technological and medicinal potential of these knowledges is also under researched. We cannot entertain the argument that there is no scientific vocabulary to teach in African languages simply because that is the intellectual task that the African intelligentsia need to apply their mind to.”
Dube would have celebrated his 150th birthday in 2021.