Tamale

Thursday morning, nine o’clock under a mango tree in the rural compound in the north of Tamale: Prior to the relentlessly early press conference, Dr. Hajia Salamatu Ibrahim Taimaku already presided over an extended family meeting; the elderly lady is rather fatigued, yet just as attentive as she is cordial.

Salamatu Taimaku is quite famous in the north of Ghana and the award-winning, herbal expert and healer has even achieved some fame in Germany. Exactly one year ago, the old lady and her youngest daughter and manager, Faiza Ibrahim Taimaku, travelled to the south of Germany, but her connections with Germany are from an even earlier time. For many years, Taimaku’s formidable family business has carried out a great deal of research and development work in the fields of herbs and healing in cooperation with German friends, including the GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit).

When Salamatu Taimaku was born roughly 79 years ago in Tamale, no one could have predicted her enormous success. Her mother, a “pardorsa horda” or birth attendant, was well-versed in the healing properties of herbs, yet healing in the comprehensive tradition going beyond the hardships of parturient women was a typical male pursuit. Her mother also worked from morning until night as a potter and baker – her father was a butcher – and Salamatu, the middle of her 13 children, had to help out at a very early age. School was out of the question.

At the age of eight or nine, the girl learned from her mother which plants could offer relief from which ailments and where they could be found. Why weren’t all of the siblings instructed in this valuable knowledge? “My mother observed carefully which of us had the greatest interest in and gift for this work – and it was apparently the case for me.”

Careful observation is also one of the main strengths of Salamatu Taimaku, explains Faiza Ibrahim Taimaku, the youngest of Salamatu’s six daughters and three sons. The big mango tree in the courtyard of her estate is surrounded by coops for the chickens and for the guinea fowl. “My mother often observes the behaviour of the farm animals for hours – she sees exactly what they are lacking and watches which plants they eat.” She apparently is still learning new things all the time, even today. “Sometimes she’ll come in with some plant and say, cook this, we’re having it for supper tonight, and we really have no idea what it is,” laughs Faiza Taimaku. Salamatu Taimaku married at about the age of 25. Her husband cared for orphans and his father, like Salamatu Taimaku’s grandfather, was a healer – so a great deal of knowledge merged together as well as the will to allow the inquisitive young woman to take part in it. She first moved to the Kumasi region with her husband. There, an entirely new aspect was added to what she knew of the healing art, but was able to practice only more or less “on the quiet.” In the Ashanti region – unlike in the north – medicine was paid for with cash. She therefore manufactured the medicines from herbs and was lucky that her husband supported her, for example by selling her medicine, which she was not allowed to do on her own.

In about 1967, the family returned to Tamale – primarily because Salamatu Taimaku wanted her children to grow up close to their grandmother. Ten years after their return, her husband passed away and Salamatu Taimaku worked even harder in her healing and herbal studies. Over the years, the industrious one-woman enterprise became a proper family business, in which her children are each involved today in their own capacity. One of the tasks is the growing of medicinal plants. Their natural occurrence has been decreasing so rapidly in recent years that healers either have to travel very far to collect plants or they must grow their own individual set of herbs. A healer without plant production, says Salamatu Taimaku, does not work at all.

She herself planted mainly trees and eventually on such a grand scale that she became active with a teaching and experimental farm through a Rural Forestry Programme that is still expanding and prospering today. In the meantime, the family business not only sells medicines very successfully – “good medicine sells itself,” as the old lady says with self-confidence – but also dried fruit, for example. The same drying units are used for them as for the herbs – racks on which the sun does its work or solar-powered plants in which the sun is given a helping hand, so to say.

Among the boundless number of plants with medicinal benefits, Salamatu Taimaku’s “favourite plant” is a tree: the Maringa. “It strengthens the immune system” she explains, “it purifies water – and is called ‘mother’s best friend’ for very good reason.” Even during the dry season, the Maringa still has green leaves, she commends her favourite tree, which are eaten as a healthy vegetable. From root to crown, every part of the Maringa is used: leaves, seeds, blossoms. “This tree is a true benefactor!” For a long time, Salamatu Taimaku’s knowledge of plants and healing was viewed by academic practitioners in a rather condescending way. “Healing was somehow out,” remembers Faiza Taimaku, one of Salamatu Taimaku’s children who will follow in her footsteps. The neglected and gradually eradicated medicinal plants and the spread of academic medicine were a crisis for the knowledge of traditional healers.

Yet, in the meantime, things have advanced further. A good while ago, the traditional healers founded an association of which Salamatu Taimaku is, of course, a member. She has been working side by side for many years with some physicians and with no reservations on either side, as she emphasizes. It is really not surprising, for over the years her profound work has been acknowledged by far more than her patients. The ministers of health and agriculture have honoured her with medals and five years ago the local university granted her an honorary doctorate. The document praises her as an “eminent indigenous knowledge practitioner, environmentalist and illustrious entrepreneur.” This makes her, the “friend of the poor and marginalized rural population,” it continues, a “role model.” “Big words,” says Salamatu Taimaku, who summarizes her life shortly and sweetly: “To be a healer” declares the grand old lady with a warm smile, “that is a calling and incredibly fulfilling.”