Species extinction, traditional healing therapy, and religious worldview among the Tugen and Marakwet people of Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to investigate how species extinction affected traditional herbal therapy, and how together they affected the religious attitudes of the people involved. This was an ethnographic study conducted among the Tugen and Keiyo people of Kenya in the Baringo and Elgeyo Marakwet Counties. Twenty participants were interviewed, involving 6 medicine persons, 8 people that have received traditional herbal therapy, and 6 experts on traditional medicine accessed through the snowball technique. Findings revealed that among the Tugen and Keiyo people of Kenya, traditional medicine men and women harvested roots, leaves, barks, fruits, or flowers, from indigenous trees, and made concoctions that were served to sick people to give them healing. In the Tugen and Keiyo understanding, healing from traditional medicine came as a package, involving not just the concoction, but also the rituals performed by the medicine persons. Reports have emerged that out of these practices, several ailments, common or chronic, have been successfully addressed. This study concludes traditional herbal therapy, involving the use of rituals and herbs, contributes to both physical healing of the people, spiritual healing of a community in relation to God, social healing of people in relation to their view of nature, and emotional healing of the people. This study recommends that the Christians of the Tugen and Elgeyo escarpment should campaign for the replanting and protection of indigenous trees along the escarpment.