Research Article

From Yorubaland to Punjab: Culture, Reconstruction in Indigenous Medical Systems and Imperial Medicine, 1900-1928

Authors

Abstract

From the colonial era, settlers ‘technologies including imperial medicine have shaped the social, cultural and economic landscape of the colonies in diverse dimensions.  In the post-modern world, global medicine still has the trappings of health inequities and imperialism, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries and the Global South. In this regard, this research article examines how Yoruba medicine practitioners deployed their cultural sanctity to withstand the domineering influence of imperial medicine in the early twentieth-century. In the same era, we compare this phenomenon with how Hakims and Vaids in colonial Punjab deployed Urdu literati to reconstruct their social relevance. Thus, we argue that Yoruba medicine was a site of cultural reformation while Punjab medicine was a site of social reconstruction. This historical research engaged archival sources and suitable secondary data, and exposed varied reactions of Indigenous medical practitioners to colonial medical institutions in the early 20th century. A study of this caliber highlights the inextricable interface between culture, medicine, and technology in the context of colonialism. It reinforces the significance of acculturation in cultural encounters to forestall cultural emasculation.

Keywords:

Culture Imperial Medicine Indigenous Medical Practitioner Punjab Yorubaland

Article information

Journal

Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Science

Volume (Issue)

2(2), (2025)

Pages

136-145

Published

23-06-2025

How to Cite

Ojo, O. B., Pervaiz, H., & Kamran, T. (2025). From Yorubaland to Punjab: Culture, Reconstruction in Indigenous Medical Systems and Imperial Medicine, 1900-1928. Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, 2(2), 136-145. https://doi.org/10.69739/jahss.v2i2.664

References

Abdullah, A. (2011) . Trends and Challenges of Traditional Medicine in Africa. African Journal of Traditional Complementary Alternative Medicine, 8(5), 115-123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4314/ajtcam.v8i5S.5

Abimbola, K. (2005) . Yoruba Culture: A Philosophical Account. Ibadan: Iroko Academics Publishers.

Akande, A. (2016). Migration and the Yorùbá myth of origin. European Journal of Arts, 1, 36-45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20534/EJA-16-1-36-45

Ajose, O. O. (1957). Preventative Medicine and Superstition in Nigeria. Journal of the International African Institute, 27(3), 269. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1156634

Ali, I. (1988). The Punjab Under Imperialism, 1885-1947. Princeton: Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400859580

Amusa, S. B., & Ogidan, C. B. (2017). Yoruba Indigenous Medical Knowledge: A Study of the Nature, Dynamism, and Resilience of Yoruba Medicine. Journal of Knowledge of Economics, 8, 977-986. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-015-0308-x

Anta Diop, C. (1992). Pre-colonial Black Africa. New Jersey: Africa World Press.

Arnold, D. (1993). Colonising the body: State Medicine and Epidemic Diseases in the Nineteen Century. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Arnold, D. (1988). Imperial Medicine and Indigenous Societies. Manchester: Manchester University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526123664

Baheti, A. M., Swami, A. G., Nimbalkar, M. R., Nimbalkar, R., & Pawar, A. T. (2025). Complementary and Alternative Medicinal Systems. Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry: Principles, Techniques, and Clinical Applications, 67-84. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394203680.ch04 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394203680.ch04

Bala, P. (2016). Medicine and Colonialism: Historical Perspectives in India and South Africa. London: Routledge.

Baronov, D. (2008). The African Transformation of Western Medicine and Dynamics of Global Cultural Exchange. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Bellagamba, A., Greene, S. E., Martin, A., & Klein, M. A. (2013). African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade (Volume 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139022552.002

Bivins, R. (2013). Coming ‘Home’ to Post-Colonial Medicine: Treating Tropical Bodies in Post War Britain. Social History of Medicine, 26(1), 1-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hks058

Borokini, T. I., & Lawal, I. O. (2014). Traditional Medicine Practices among the Yoruba people of Nigeria: A historical perspectives. Journal of Medicinal Plants, 2(6), 233.

Charles, L. (Ed.). (1976). Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Dalziel, J. M. (1973). The useful plants of west tropical Africa. London: Crown Agents.

Deniga, A. (1919). African leaders. Lagos: African Church Press.

Elebute, A. (2013). The Life of James Pinson Labulo Davies: A Colossus of Victorian Lagos (pp. 145-148). Lagos: Kachifo Limited.

Falola, T., & Akinyemi, A. (2016). Encyclopedia of the Yoruba. Indiana University: Indiana University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/11434.0

Falola, T. & Heaton, M. (2006). Global explanations versus local interpretations: The historiography of the Influenza pandemic of 1918–19. Africa Studies Association, 33, 205–230. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hia.2006.0014

Farrow, S. (1926). Faith , Fancies and Fetish, or Yoruba Paganism. London: Oxford University.

Forrester, R. (2016). A History of Medicine. Accessed on 20 May 2025 http://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://philpapers.org/archive/FORTHO-2.pdf

Gazetteer. (1891). Lagos, Executive Order. NAI, CSO4, 169.

Ilifee, J. (2007). The History of a Continent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jaiswal, Y. S., & Williams, L. L. ( 2016 ). A glimpse of ayurveda-the forgotten history and principles of Indian traditional medicine. Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, 7(1), 50–53 . DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcme.2016.02.002

Jimoh, M. O. (2015). Managing Epidemics: The British Approach to 1918-1919 Influenza in Lagos. Journal of Asia and African Studies, 1-13.

Kamran, T., & Talbot, I. (2017). Colonial Lahore: A History of the City and Beyond. Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies, 2(2).

Kumar, D. (1997). Medical Encounters in British India, 1820-1920. Economic and Political Weekly, 32(4), 166–170. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4405022

Lyons, M. (1992). The Colonial Disease. A Social History of Sleeping Sickness in Northern Zaire, 1900-1940. London: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511583704

MacLeod, R., & Lewis, M. (Eds.). (1988). Disease, Medicine and Empire: Perspectives on Western Medicine and the Experience of European Expansion (pp. 5-9). London: Routledge.

NAI. (1949). ECR, Extract from Minutes of Meeting No. 15/ 1949 of the ENA central Council, held on October 24, 1949.

Oduntan, O. B. (2017). Culture and Colonial Medicine: Smallpox in Abeokuta, Western Nigeria. Social History of Medicine, 30(1), 48-72.

Ohadike, D. (1991). Diffusion and physiological response to the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 in Nigeria. Social Scientist Med, 32(12), 1391-1399. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(91)90200-V

Olupona, J. K. (1993). The Study of Yoruba Religion Traditions in Historical Perspectives. Numen, 40(3), 240–273. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156852793X00176

Onadeko, T. (2008). Yoruba Traditional Adjudicatory systems. African Monographs. Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies, 2(2), 15-28.

Poonan, B. (2016). Medicine and Colonialism: Historical Perspectives in India and South Africa. New York: Routledge.

Public Record Office (PRO). (1878). CO/ 511/109, Ordinance 10.

Public Record Office (PRO). (1919). Report of the Influenza Epidemic in Lagos. London (1919) CO879/118, 25.

Punjab Home Medical and Sanitary Proceedings. (1898). Punjab State Archives, No. 143-145B.

Sharma, T. D. (1905). Plague Pratibandhak Upay. Lahore: Desh Upkarak Press.

Saini, A. (2016). Physician in Colonial India (1757-1900). Journal of Family Medical Primary Care, 5(3), 528-532. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/2249-4863.197257

Salami, Y. K. (2006). The Democratic Structure of Yoruba Political –Cultural Heritage. The Journal of Pan African Studies, 1(6), 68-78.

Salawu, A. (2004). The Yoruba and Their Language Newspapers: Origin, Nature, Problems and Prospects. Stud. Tribes Tribals, 2(2), 97-104. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0972639X.2004.11886508

Sawandi, T. (2020). Yorubic Medicine: The Art of divine Herbology. Accessed May 30, 2025. https://planetherbs.com/research-center/theory-articles/yorubic-medicine-the-art-of-divine-herbology

Singh, M. (1903). Mahamari Daman, 22-23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/103443

Sivaramakrishnan, K. (2005). Old Potions, New Bottles: Recasting Indigenous Medicine in Colonial Punjab, 1850–1945. New Delhi: Orient Longman.

Talbot, I. (1988). Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947. New Delhi: Manohar Publications.

Tatar, M., Shoorekchali, J. M., Faraji, M. R., Seyyedkolaee, M. A., Pagán, J. A., & Wilson, F. A. (2022). COVID-19 vaccine inequality: a global perspective. Journal of global health, 12, 03072. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.03072. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.03072

Tih, F. (2020). Madagascar slams WHO for not endorsing its herbal cure. Accessed 29 May 2025. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/madagascar-slams-who-for-not-endorsing-its-herbal-cure/1836905

Downloads

Views

73

Downloads

10