WITCH DOCTORS

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 35, 23 May 1938, Page 3

WITCH DOCTORS

OUR El baffles SCIENCE TREATMENT FOR TETANUS LONDON, Jan. 11. Dr Cicely Williams, one of the young pioneer women doctors who, nine years ago, went to work on the •Gold Coast, once “the white man’s grave,” and led the attack of science on witch doctors, has found that those black mystery men can still give tips After working among them, seeing as much as they would allow of the strange cures which have been handed down for centuries from one tv itch doctor to the next, Dr Williams feels there is something in this “witchcraft.” She says: “Some of their cures are genuine and convincing; they undoubtedly have some effective treatment for tetanus.” Western medicine has no treatment* which doctors would care to describe as effective. Wife Costs £lO Dr Williams describes tlie witch doctors’ methods ys “.eoipplicated,” but she adds that thcU would ,‘^fepay investigation.”

Writing in the Lancet oi the natives she says:—

“The African male is much addict cd to the habit of sitting in the shade, and playing warri, discussing his or manufacturing political or litigious situations, lie is content "to see hist womenfolk heavily overworked on his farm or to pay wages to an alien labourer. “A wife is an investment one costs about £lO. She works for her husband, cooks his food, cultixates his farm, engages in petty trading, and when there are children she goes home to mother, who brings them up.”