By Ruzindantaro Tadeo
Remembering Kyamaganza of Nyakiju:
Nyakiju is a village in Kabale District, southwestern Uganda. It comprises local government villages, including Kiniogo, Karagama, Kashenyi, and Ntungamo. The main village of Nyakiju is located in Muyumbu Parish, Kyanamira Subcounty, Kabale District.
This is the village where we were born, nurtured, and raised. It is our ancestral home, a place we share with love and take pride in because of its natural beauty and the people who call it home.
When you visit Nyakiju, you are welcomed by hospitable people of all ages. Among the names visitors would often ask about was Kyamaganza, a woman whose reputation extended far beyond her immediate neighbourhood.
The name Kyamaganza was synonymous with healing.
Kyamaganza was a traditional herbalist who possessed extensive knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses in treating various ailments. She treated people across different age groups, particularly children, including newborns. She would examine a child, identify what she believed was the problem, and prescribe herbal remedies in appropriate doses. Many families sought her help when their children fell ill.
Her services extended to expectant mothers, whom she cared for during pregnancy in the hope of helping them deliver healthy babies. Consequently, mothers whose children developed ailments would turn to her for treatment, whether or not they had received antenatal care from her.
Kyamaganza treated a wide range of illnesses, some of which I find difficult to translate accurately into English. Among them were conditions known in Rukiga-Runyankole as omahano, amahungu, obutembwe, and okwirukana (diarrhoea), as well as coughs, intestinal worms, and fevers. She also treated a condition known as akameeme, which affected both children and adults.
The Healing Stories I Remember:
I recall an incident in 1999 involving a family friend named Irene from Kigata. Her child had fallen ill, and she had sought treatment at several hospitals, including Mulago National Referral Hospital. Despite these efforts, she had not obtained a diagnosis or treatment that resolved the child’s condition.
Eventually, we advised her to take the child to Nyakiju to see Kyamaganza. The herbalist examined the child and prescribed herbal remedies. Within two weeks, according to what we observed, the child’s condition had improved considerably. The child eventually recovered and has since grown into a man.
I also remember a college friend, Gordon Byamugisha, who suffered from persistent fevers. He had sought treatment at several medical facilities without finding a lasting solution. I advised him to visit my ancestral village and consult Kyamaganza. She examined him and provided herbal treatment. Gordon subsequently recovered from the recurring fevers that had troubled him.
Another case involved a woman named Chebet, who worked with the Uganda Prisons Service in Kabale in 2003. She had a medical condition that, according to my recollection, had not responded to the treatment she had received from medical professionals. Her condition deteriorated to the point where she struggled to lift her firearm, an essential tool in her line of duty.
She eventually sought Kyamaganza’s help. The herbalist examined her and administered treatment for her condition.
I, too, was among Kyamaganza’s patients. She treated me for akameeme, a condition that had troubled me considerably. Indeed, few people in our village, I believe, had never sought her herbal remedies for themselves or their families.
All my children, too, received her herbal treatment, except the youngest ones, who were born when advancing age had already limited her ability to move about in search of medicinal plants.
When Age Silenced Her Calling:
As the years advanced, Kyamaganza gradually became less able to serve the people who depended on her. Her physical strength declined, and she could no longer travel in search of the plants and herbs she needed to prepare her remedies. Eventually, she stopped treating patients.
However, her declining physical strength was not the only challenge she faced. She also encountered a growing social attitude that discouraged her from continuing to practise her traditional healing.
Nyakiju is predominantly Catholic, and some members of the community associated with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement viewed her herbal practice with suspicion. Some came to regard her services as witchcraft, a deeply unfortunate development for a woman whose knowledge had been sought by families for decades.
This attitude raises an important question: why should traditional African healing knowledge automatically be dismissed as witchcraft?
The tendency to equate indigenous practices with superstition reflects, in part, the legacy of colonial thinking that undermined African knowledge systems, cultural values, and ways of understanding the world. Even after colonial rule ended, some of these attitudes persisted within our communities.
This does not mean that every traditional remedy is effective or that traditional medicine should be exempt from scientific scrutiny. Rather, it means that indigenous knowledge deserves to be documented, studied, and assessed fairly instead of being dismissed simply because it comes from our own cultural heritage.
Kyamaganza’s story illustrates the danger of allowing valuable knowledge to disappear through neglect, stigma, and the passage of time.
A Legacy Lost with Its Custodian:
One of Kyamaganza’s greatest regrets, as I understood it, was that people, including members of her own family, had not taken the initiative to learn the medicinal knowledge she had accumulated over a lifetime.
Her knowledge of plants, their preparation, and their traditional uses remained largely within her own experience. As she grew older and became less physically capable, the opportunity to pass on that knowledge diminished. When she died, much of what she knew was at risk of disappearing with her.
Her story is a reminder that indigenous knowledge is a heritage that can be lost when communities fail to document it or pass it on to younger generations. Elders who possess such knowledge should be encouraged to share it, while researchers and relevant institutions should help preserve and evaluate it responsibly.
Traditional medicine should not be romanticised or accepted without question. Like any other body of knowledge, it must be examined critically, particularly where safety, dosage, and the treatment of serious illnesses are concerned. But neither should it be discarded without investigation.
There may be valuable lessons in the experiences of people such as Kyamaganza, and we have a responsibility to preserve the knowledge they leave behind.
Kyamaganza was laid to rest at her home in Kiniogo, Nyakiju, on September 17, 2016. She was 103 years old.
She lived a long life, served her community through her knowledge of traditional healing, and left behind memories that continue to speak to those who knew her.
At 103, a humble herbalist bowed out. Yet her story leaves us with a question that extends beyond Nyakiju: How much of our indigenous knowledge have we lost simply because we failed to preserve it?
May her soul rest in eternal peace.
The post Kyamaganza: A Humble Herbalist Bows Out at 103 appeared first on Watchdog Uganda.