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3 Making Tanzanian Traditional Medicine In 1968, a research officer in the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative Development attended the first Symposium on African Medicinal Plants, which was held in Senegal. Upon his return, he claimed for scientists the role of transforming “the old or indigenous ways of curing diseases” into “new” forms of modern treatment (see first epigraph to Part 1). His argument for transforming “primitive medicaments” through scientific investigation reflected the broader recommendations crafted during this gathering of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) member states (Kasembe 1968). The symposium marked a shift in emphasisfromthecolonialprohibitionagainstsomehealingpracticestothefunding , research, and legalization of traditional medicine in postcolonial Africa. Theontologicalimplicationsofthecolonialseparationofbeliefandknowledge, spirit and substance, and harming and healing have structured the postcolonial search for the scientific truth of traditional medicine. The newly independent Tanzanian government focused its attention on the commodification of plant, animal, and mineral products that might enable Africa to better position itself in a variety of global relationships. The idea that science might convert plant, animal, and mineral products into desperately needed pharmaceuticals found purchase in the highest levels of the first post-independence administration, led by Julius Nyerere. Stocking the new network of clinics and dispensaries that comprised the fledgling national health care service with pharmaceutical drugs ate up a significant proportion of the nation’s hard currency reserves. Tanzanian leaders hoped that scientific research into medicinal plants would offer a solution to the economic challenges cash-strapped African countries faced. By recasting plant material as a resource for an indigenous pharmaceutical industry, traditional medicine held out the promise of greater economic independence. Over time, the ideological and epistemological projects that gave life to this postcolonial (and pan-Africanist) category of traditional medicine have shifted. In the past twenty-five years, economic liberalization and the pressures of global capitalism have transformed earlier dreams of a self-reliant Tanzania that could exploit its natural and cultural resources in the service of a socialist state’s com- Making Tanzanian Traditional Medicine 59 mitment to health care for all. Today, talk about traditional medicine is animated by a spirit of entrepreneurship, a desire to break into the global market for herbal medicine, and the demands of the elite. Even as the politics of modern traditional medicine changes, however, scientists and bureaucrats confront the asymmetries that colonial definitions of medicine and healing originally created. Relations between science and governance continue to shape traditional medicine and the bodies and threats to which traditional healers attend. Furthermore, contemporary perspectives on traditional medicine’s role in development call into being new forms of expertise. The Socialist Roots of Traditional Medicine The consolidation and translation of healing practices into a state-supported and state-monitored Tanzanian traditional medicine was, from the beginning, a product of many international ties and commitments. As the 1968 Symposium on African Medicinal Plants exemplifies, interest in herbal medicine became one arena for cooperation among newly independent African states. Pan-Africanism both fueled and was fueled by interest in the development of herbal treatments in Africa. Funding and expertise to carry out these regionally shared desires, however, tended to come from places outside Africa. Particularly important to the shaping of the postcolonial category of traditional medicine in Tanzania was the country’s multiple connections to China1 (see Figure 3.1).2 China’s influence and the institutionalization of traditional medicine grew in the context of Tanzania’s commitment to non-aligned socialism. In 1967, six years after Tanganyika gained independence from Great Britain and three years after Tanganyika joined with the islands of Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania, the government outlined its pursuit of self-reliance through the Arusha Declaration, an avowedly socialist construction of policies. Making a concerted effort to avoid the more problematic entanglements of Cold War politics , Tanzania adopted a policy of non-alignment (Gordon 1984). The new nation quickly became a model of socialist development (e.g., Barkan 1984). These commitments to socialism and non-alignment not only affected economic policy but also shaped the growth of medical services. Tanzanian officials studied socialist medical systems elsewhere and were influenced by their observations. In 1967, a delegation to China was particularly impressed (Iliffe 1998). One member of this delegation was quoted as saying: We were much impressed by the stage of development of health services, which have been revolutionized and transformed by the new China. In particular the way in which the doctors have to go to the country to serve the broad masses. . . . The combination of...

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