bahamianpride
05-16-07, - 08:48 PM
Bush medicine & Bahamians
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/social_community/307727809259838.php
By Gail Saunders, For The Guardian
From slavery days, West Indians, including Bahamians traditionally used the West African practice of herbal medicine, believed to be curative and contain magical powers. It was particularly prevalent in Out Island settlements, where there were no doctors. European doctors and administrators commented on the high mortality rate and reluctance of Caribbean creoles to go to the hospital. Governor Blake reported in 1886 that "people rarely applied for admission until they had "exhausted the means of cure known to the 'Bush' doctors or obeah men."
Patrick Bryan demonstrated that in Jamaica like the doctors, the Governors did not report on those home remedies that worked, and many of them did. Bahamians, like their Caribbean counterparts in the early 1900s, believed there was a hidden danger in doctor medicine. Amelia Defries told of her visit to 'Aunt Celia', the medicine woman of Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama who cured her of a chill or cold in two days, the usual time her cures are affected. Aunt Celia who boasted that 'nobody never dies of my treatment', picked her medicine in the 'Bush' and freshly boil it for each patient.
Olga Culmer Jenkins in Bahamian Memories interviewed Bahamians born in the early 1900s who spoke about Bush Medicine.
Olive Ramsey, born in 1934 in the Cove, Cat Island remembered:
" We use some bush medicine. We use aloe. I'm a diabetic. I'm going for my checkup tomorrow, I suppose to be in Nassau on the eighteenth of February. The doctor told me that my sugar is down. fighting one another for access to females. A lower center of gravity means it would be tougher for a combatant to be knocked over.
As part of the study, he examined leg size and aggression indicators among nine primate species, including gorillas, bonobos and human aborigines.
In the living primates studied, when males were larger than females, that generally served as an indication that the male of the species was aggressive. In nearly all of these cases, the aggressive species also had proportionally short legs.
Carrier suggests that shorter legs may serve as another indication of aggression. He took this idea from the living primate species and applied it to the fossil record of Australopithecus.
These ape-like human predecessors not only had short legs, but the males were on average larger than the females, he said. Those aggression indicators suggest to Carrier that these early human ancestors likely engaged in fighting between males.
Humans appear to be the exception to the short-leg-aggression theory. Carrier said that although people have long legs, we can still be aggressive toward one another. Early humans may have made a trade-off between fight-related stability and the ability to walk or run long distances. Humans also learned to make and use weapons, meaning they could still be aggressive even with longer legs.
I have to go and take a test. I drink aloe every day. I have a big tree right there. You mix it with – some people call it periwinkle, but we call it sailor's choice. Sometimes I put another bush with it. We call it bitter sage. Boil all three together. Sometimes I drink the aloes alone. I only hot (boil) the water and throw it on the aloes. From November eighteenth, when I come from Nassau, I drank that every day. I was weighing 250 pounds. That's how big I was. But now the doctor says I have to take off all that weight. I'll feel much better. The doctor say that will give me a chance to be back a certain way (to be healthy)."
Alfred Love was born 9 January, 1919 in New Providence. He died on 27 February this year. In an interview in the late 1990s he told Dr. Jenkins:
" When it come to bush medicine, in old times, you either use bush medicine or you die. You didn't have no money. For a stomachache they used to boil catnip and they used to beat that and soak it in water and then drink it – bitter, bitter. It used to ease your pain in the stomach. They used bay rum bush for pain in the stomach too. They had some bush here called turpentine and bay geranium – that was good for stomach pain.
If you had a cut, they had some bush you used to call horse bush. They boil that and wash the sore in carbolic soap. Then you take and you parch some of the leaves. When you parch the leaves, you beat it up and then you take and you dust the sore with that. And heal it.
For a headache, you had to go to the drugstore to get something worthwhile. But they also had guinea hen bush. I get some in my yard. You dig the root of the guinea hen bush and you beat it. And that's very good. Some people used to take it and put it behind their ears. It has a stringing kind of smell because it's strong. Match me if you can was good for that.
If you got mucus from flu or got cancer, cerasee make you better. You pull up the vine and boil it, leaves and all. Put some honey in it and drink it hot as you can."
Bob Dean, born on March 28, 1920 in Love Hill, Andros, reminisced to Dr. Jenkins:
"Let me show you about this bush. This is what you call rice bush. Now, that is good for a woman. This is for a particular woman. You broke it, about twelve heart of these. You break it up and you boil it. You get the root from this and you break that up and put in the pot and you boil it. And when you done boil it, you strain it off and you drink it. That's for women overrun their time. They supposed to go five and they go six. You take two drinks and that and go right back."
Recently, Martha Hanna-Smith, wrote a book Bush Medicine in Bahamian Folk Tradition which built on the work of Mrs. Helen Higgs, Bush Medicine in The Bahamas (1969). I strongly recommend Mrs. Hanna-Smith's book.
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/social_community/307727809259838.php
By Gail Saunders, For The Guardian
From slavery days, West Indians, including Bahamians traditionally used the West African practice of herbal medicine, believed to be curative and contain magical powers. It was particularly prevalent in Out Island settlements, where there were no doctors. European doctors and administrators commented on the high mortality rate and reluctance of Caribbean creoles to go to the hospital. Governor Blake reported in 1886 that "people rarely applied for admission until they had "exhausted the means of cure known to the 'Bush' doctors or obeah men."
Patrick Bryan demonstrated that in Jamaica like the doctors, the Governors did not report on those home remedies that worked, and many of them did. Bahamians, like their Caribbean counterparts in the early 1900s, believed there was a hidden danger in doctor medicine. Amelia Defries told of her visit to 'Aunt Celia', the medicine woman of Eight Mile Rock, Grand Bahama who cured her of a chill or cold in two days, the usual time her cures are affected. Aunt Celia who boasted that 'nobody never dies of my treatment', picked her medicine in the 'Bush' and freshly boil it for each patient.
Olga Culmer Jenkins in Bahamian Memories interviewed Bahamians born in the early 1900s who spoke about Bush Medicine.
Olive Ramsey, born in 1934 in the Cove, Cat Island remembered:
" We use some bush medicine. We use aloe. I'm a diabetic. I'm going for my checkup tomorrow, I suppose to be in Nassau on the eighteenth of February. The doctor told me that my sugar is down. fighting one another for access to females. A lower center of gravity means it would be tougher for a combatant to be knocked over.
As part of the study, he examined leg size and aggression indicators among nine primate species, including gorillas, bonobos and human aborigines.
In the living primates studied, when males were larger than females, that generally served as an indication that the male of the species was aggressive. In nearly all of these cases, the aggressive species also had proportionally short legs.
Carrier suggests that shorter legs may serve as another indication of aggression. He took this idea from the living primate species and applied it to the fossil record of Australopithecus.
These ape-like human predecessors not only had short legs, but the males were on average larger than the females, he said. Those aggression indicators suggest to Carrier that these early human ancestors likely engaged in fighting between males.
Humans appear to be the exception to the short-leg-aggression theory. Carrier said that although people have long legs, we can still be aggressive toward one another. Early humans may have made a trade-off between fight-related stability and the ability to walk or run long distances. Humans also learned to make and use weapons, meaning they could still be aggressive even with longer legs.
I have to go and take a test. I drink aloe every day. I have a big tree right there. You mix it with – some people call it periwinkle, but we call it sailor's choice. Sometimes I put another bush with it. We call it bitter sage. Boil all three together. Sometimes I drink the aloes alone. I only hot (boil) the water and throw it on the aloes. From November eighteenth, when I come from Nassau, I drank that every day. I was weighing 250 pounds. That's how big I was. But now the doctor says I have to take off all that weight. I'll feel much better. The doctor say that will give me a chance to be back a certain way (to be healthy)."
Alfred Love was born 9 January, 1919 in New Providence. He died on 27 February this year. In an interview in the late 1990s he told Dr. Jenkins:
" When it come to bush medicine, in old times, you either use bush medicine or you die. You didn't have no money. For a stomachache they used to boil catnip and they used to beat that and soak it in water and then drink it – bitter, bitter. It used to ease your pain in the stomach. They used bay rum bush for pain in the stomach too. They had some bush here called turpentine and bay geranium – that was good for stomach pain.
If you had a cut, they had some bush you used to call horse bush. They boil that and wash the sore in carbolic soap. Then you take and you parch some of the leaves. When you parch the leaves, you beat it up and then you take and you dust the sore with that. And heal it.
For a headache, you had to go to the drugstore to get something worthwhile. But they also had guinea hen bush. I get some in my yard. You dig the root of the guinea hen bush and you beat it. And that's very good. Some people used to take it and put it behind their ears. It has a stringing kind of smell because it's strong. Match me if you can was good for that.
If you got mucus from flu or got cancer, cerasee make you better. You pull up the vine and boil it, leaves and all. Put some honey in it and drink it hot as you can."
Bob Dean, born on March 28, 1920 in Love Hill, Andros, reminisced to Dr. Jenkins:
"Let me show you about this bush. This is what you call rice bush. Now, that is good for a woman. This is for a particular woman. You broke it, about twelve heart of these. You break it up and you boil it. You get the root from this and you break that up and put in the pot and you boil it. And when you done boil it, you strain it off and you drink it. That's for women overrun their time. They supposed to go five and they go six. You take two drinks and that and go right back."
Recently, Martha Hanna-Smith, wrote a book Bush Medicine in Bahamian Folk Tradition which built on the work of Mrs. Helen Higgs, Bush Medicine in The Bahamas (1969). I strongly recommend Mrs. Hanna-Smith's book.