Traditional medicine still plays an important role in Gambian healthcare. In the villages, the 'marabouts' or traditional healers, who are capable of healing what ails a person are often preferred over a conventional hospital.
These healers sometimes overvalue their competences with former president Yahya Jammeh, for example, claiming in the past that he could cure AIDS with plants.
Hundreds of Gambians followed his treatment, and many died. To avoid these excesse, but without losing the beneficial aspects of traditional medicine, the Ministry of Health has been trying for some years to consolidate it with the conventional medicine as Claire Bargelès explains in this report.
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