AIYEMOWA BAMIDELE
Department of General Studies,
Nigerian Army College of Environmental Science and Technology Makurdi,
Benue State, Nigeria
Email: delemen0550413312@yahoo.com
And
ABDULRAHMAN OCHI SUBERU, PhD
Department of History and International Studies,
Federal University Lokoja, Nigeria
Abstract
The idea of medical care and disease prevention has always been a central preoccupation in all its forms and traditions for every society. Amongst the Okun-Yoruba group, its early system of medical care was traditional medical care and evolved out of the social-cultural identity of the people. It was a common belief amongst the people that deities are associated to sickness, healing and death until the colonialist introduced Western medical care which attributed diseases and death to poor hygiene and disease-breeding vectors through the scientific germ theory. It is the aim of this paper to provide empirical facts on the transformation from traditional to Western medical care and its motives amongst the Okun-Yoruba People. The paper x-ray the civilizing nature of colonisation and the development of medical care through cross-cultural diffusions of ideas, diseases and missionary enterprises through a careful review of primary and secondary sources. It is also well accepted that the Okun-Yoruba Group as a case study were not as disorganized as most European colonizers presumed. They had a system of medical care, the traditional medical care which attended to their health challenges.
Keywords: Traditional, Orthodox, and Medical Care.