🩺 PULSE CHECK: Back to the Roots – Reclaiming African and Caribbean Herbal Medicine Traditions

How ancestral healing is regaining respect as Black communities reconnect with herbal medicine and traditional wellness.

By Alwin Marshall-Squire

Long before modern pharmacies, African and Caribbean communities relied on the land—and their elders—for healing. Today, as interest in holistic health grows, traditional herbal medicine is seeing a resurgence across the Caribbean, Africa, and the diaspora. From bush teas in Jamaica to indigenous roots in West Africa, plant-based healing practices are being reclaimed, respected, and re-integrated into contemporary health conversations.

This week in Pulse Check, we explore how Black communities are returning to their roots and how these traditions continue to offer culturally relevant paths to wellness.

The Healing Power of Plants

In Jamaica, bush teas made from plants like cerasee, guinea hen weed, and leaf of life have long been used to treat fevers, colds, and digestive ailments. In Ghana and Nigeria, herbs such as neem, bitter leaf, and moringa are part of everyday diets and traditional medicine cabinets.

These practices, rooted in indigenous knowledge systems, were often dismissed during colonial rule and labeled as “superstition” or “unscientific.” But today, scientific research is beginning to validate many of these remedies, while communities push back against the erasure of ancestral knowledge.

Why Reclaiming Matters

For many Black communities, reclaiming herbal medicine is more than a health practice—it’s an act of cultural pride, resistance, and healing from the impacts of colonization and medical racism.

In the Caribbean, rural communities have kept these practices alive through oral traditions and family teachings. In cities across Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., African and Caribbean herbalists are opening apothecaries, wellness collectives, and community workshops, offering education on the safe use of herbs and connecting diasporic communities to their healing roots.

Modern Meets Traditional

While there is growing recognition of herbal medicine’s benefits, health experts caution that safe use requires education and respect for traditional knowledge. Some plants can interact with pharmaceutical drugs, and incorrect dosages can pose risks.

Organizations such as the Caribbean Herbal Medicine Association and African Traditional Medicine groups are advocating for:

• Research collaborations between universities and traditional healers.

• Policy protections for indigenous knowledge and intellectual property rights.

• Inclusion of herbal medicine in mainstream health education.

The Path Ahead

Reclaiming herbal traditions is not about rejecting modern medicine—it’s about complementing it, and ensuring that Black communities have culturally rooted options for prevention, healing, and well-being.

By honoring the wisdom of ancestors and protecting traditional plant knowledge, Black communities worldwide are ensuring these practices not only survive—but thrive.

This is your Pulse Check.

Pulse Check: Black Health Weekly is Vision Newspaper’s weekly column on health, healing, and equity in Black communities across the Caribbean, Canada, Africa, and the diaspora.
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