Muthi and Myths from the African Bush

In this book are fifty-two compelling tales that will lead the reader on a journey of discovery of the African continent. It tracks the ancient grail of traditional African medicine or muthi. The journey takes one year, with one story for each of the fifty-two weeks. Many of the stories inherited through Africa s compelling oral tradition are between these covers: committed to paper for the first time ever.The ancient African people were the first aromatherapists who well understood the effect of plants on the human body, mind and soul. Innately spiritual, the thousands of lineages of African people across thousands of years have all used plant medicines for healing, always with the blessing of their ancestors. Knowledge of African plant mythology and its associated healing practices is most certainly a grail because on this great continent we call Africa; knowledge has always been an oral tradition. Because it was never written down, thousands of years of healing wisdom and intelligence have been lost in the transference from one generation to the next.This book endeavors to bring to light the deep history of fifty-two of the thousands of indigenous medicinal plants of Africa before it is too late. The focus is towards Southern Africa because this region is a hotspot of cultural and botanical diversity. Unlike the healing knowledge of other ancient cultures, such as India or China, little of Africa s healing history is recorded.As you read the stories about fifty-two of the continent s prominent indigenous plant cures, the authors hope you, too, will experience some of the magnetism, mystery and wisdom of Africa. They hope it will help you understand a bit more about yourself and about our species: the human being."

Heather Dugmore was born and raised in Johannesburg. She moved to the Eastern Cape for her tertiary education and she graduated with a journalism degree from Rhodes University. As a student she was called by a sangoma to take shelter in her home on the Wild Coast. Her subsequent encounters with traditional African healers have been far and wide, and played a guiding role in her previous book Big Cats of Mala Mala. She is still based in Johannesburg, but is often visiting the Karoo where she is writing her next book, a novel. BEN-ERIK VAN WYK is a professor of Botany at the University of Johannesburg with a research interest in systematic botany and plant utilization. He is the author of international scientific bestsellers such as Medicinal Plants of the World and Food Plants of the World.