Pan African Congress of Homeopathy

In May 2012, the first ever Pan African Congress of Homeopathy took place in Kenya. The venue was a school in the village of Kwale designed and built by a young Dutch woman, Marie Magré whose resilience, fortitude and determination established the Kenia School of Homeopathy from scratch (Fig. [1]). She obtained all the necessary funding on her own and dealt with the Kenyan bureaucratic system to set up a school to top all schools for homeopaths. She has 52 full-time residential students and a campus, which includes an internet cafe, library, lecture hall, kitchen, restaurant, residences and a thatched communal space, which can seat 250 people. The provincial chief is a patient at their clinic!

Fig. 1 Attendants Pan-African Homeopathy Congress.

Sixty people found their way to the small village southwest of Mombasa. Swaziland, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, England, Canada, the Netherlands and the USA, were all represented (Fig. 2). Some came by public bus crossing four African countries and haggling through bribes at borders. At a few immigration points, vaccination tents were erected conveniently close by, charging high prices for last minute vaccinations for yellow fever. Another group made up mostly of female homeopaths made an epic trip by minibus crossing five different countries and travelling over 4000 km. A family with three young children drove 1000 kilometres through rough, muddy, potholed roads, and others had departures and arrivals at unsocial hours. The effort was worth it however. Most participants would do it all again for the enriching experience of participating in the congress.

The simple, freshly built hostel accommodation at the Kenia School of Homeopathy, where there was never a dull moment, enabled participants to get to know each other in sickness and in health. A walk at dusk took adventurers to the edge of the Great Rift Valley. Below them lay a vast African wilderness as far as the eye could see, with elephants and hippos in the foreground. Under palm thatch they gathered for delicious, lovingly prepared meals and evening entertainment including a show of ethnic fashion designed by the students, music, performances and cabaret, everyone joyfully dancing to the beat of Africa.

The Sherrʼs who are treating AIDS-like symptoms in Africa, where AIDS is pandemic, have discovered that Africans on the continent became susceptible to this disease due to their disconnectedness to the earth. This is because vast parts of Africa have been dug up, stolen, plundered and dispersed to various parts of the world. Villagers who were given the Bible were told this is your new religion, were forced to surrender their spiritual beliefs, medical heritage and shamanic practices, leaving them without a connection to their roots, the earth from which they obtained nourishment. By some estimates a hundred million slaves were taken from Africa; elephants (representing roots) were killed, ebony trees cut down and taken away. Gold, uranium, copper and diamonds were mined and exported. This left a huge scar of suffering and poverty. Tanzanians for example are so poor that much of the population live hand to mouth with no buffer despite the fact that the country is the continentʼs third largest gold producer. Malawi, the poorest country in Africa, has one million people living with AIDS.

In his opening address, Jeremy Sherr said, “we offer a medicine that strikes a chord with local beliefs and knowledge, that spirit and dreams are the forces behind human health and disease”. On hearing about the Pan African Congress, a mystic said, “It is heartening to hear that there is a growing awareness of the inner and outer damage caused by our sense of disconnectedness from the earth, how we treat it and the effect it has both on our bodies and our souls. It is good to hear this note being struck. And it brings with it a real sense of hope!” It was refreshing to hear that medicines are being directed at such a deep level of cause and inspiring to meet homeopaths working in rural areas in Africa without any sense of personal gain or prestige and sometimes at great personal cost.

Short fifteen minutes lectures enabled many to share their experiences and the intrepid 82-year-old Elvia Bury who trains lay homeopaths in several African countries, spoke about her teaching of 30 remedies to trainees. They in turn treat thousands of patients in rural areas each year with diseases like typhoid, malaria, emaciation, HIV/AIDS-like symptoms, cholera, diabetes, cancer and tuberculosis.

One of the challenges of Africa is to translate the healing art and science into the African culture and context. To this end Jeremy Sherr and Noam Bar are compiling a free classical correspondence course written in language and terms appropriate to Africa. Similarly a group from Homeopaths Without Borders (HWB) train illiterate midwives through the medium of cards and song after which they treat hundreds of villagers effectively with complications in childbirth. Elizabeth von Wedel and Matthias Strelow also spoke about the problem of language and degree of perception when introducing homeopathy to Africa.

Agro-homeopath Vaikunthanath Das Kaviraj demonstrated treatment using homeopathy for plant diseases like fungus, aphids, yellowing leaves and plants that fail to thrive, particularly suitable to small-scale subsistence farming found in Africa.

Richard Pitt spoke about his use of PC Resonances at the Chintheche Homeopathy Clinic in Malawi – which is supported by the Amma Resonance Healing Foundation. He and his colleague Joseph Msumba talked about their work treating malaria and HIV/AIDS with PC Resonances (seeing over 1500 new patients in five months) and how the two diseases, impact on each other. Especially in chronic diseases the clinic integrates PC Remedies with regular homeopathy. Also in malaria important remedies like Aconite, Belladonna, China, Ipecac and Eupatorium perfoliatum are used to complement PC Malaria if clearly indicated. Barbara Braun from Swaziland spoke about treatment practices in 26 rural clinics, and her research into treatment of HIV/AIDS-type symptoms.

Martien Brands gave an address about malaria and his Training of Trainers course. Alize Timmermann spoke about female role changes and the connection with Africa. Julius Berdie gave a talk about the international school for homeopathy in Ghana, which, with the help of HWB, trains the locals to become homeopaths.

Provings were presented: Artemisia annua by Kees Dam, Cassava (plant source of carbohydrate) by Richard Pitt, Baobab by Sagit Ben-Yehuda and Ostrich by Ann Haw. Camilla Sherr gave a case of Adamas (a common remedy used in Tanzania) for a young orphaned boy with a family history of TB, inability to walk and failure to thrive (lost connection from the family, nurturing, mother, earth). Jeremy Sherr spoke about his search for the genus epidemicus of AIDS and their treatment of disease in Tanzania with many references made to Hahnemann and the Organon. Some of the remedies he mentioned were Adamas, Onchorynchus (Pacific Salmon), Ozone, Germanium, Olive and the radioactive remedies.

On the last day of the Congress participants reconvened at the beachside resort of Diani for a swim and talks, ending in a barefoot circle where we held hands under the stars and bid each other and most particularly the fantastic organisers, Peggy Bidé (from Swaziland), Marie Magré and Camilla and Jeremy Sherr, “Asante Sana” one last time. Homeopathy is spreading throughout Africa like bushfire and is here to stay. We have much to learn from the generous, courageous, enterprising work done by our wonderful colleagues in the so-called “dark continent”.