Decolonising Health Communication Strategies: The Inclusion of Traditional Healers from Sub-Saharan Africa into Multi-Sectoral Health Crisis Communication Interventions

Traditional healers form one of the most influential voices amongst rural and increasingly urban populations in several sub-Saharan African countries. They offer great potential for effective multi-sectoral, health crisis communication interventions in sub-Saharan African countries.

Traditional healers form one of the most influential voices amongst rural and increasingly urban populations in several sub-Saharan African countries. They offer great potential for effective multi-sectoral, health crisis communication interventions in sub-Saharan African countries. Yet they are often excluded by policymakers when health problems that affect their stakeholders are formulated. When crises escalate, however, it appears that they are invited to partner with policymakers in multi-sectoral interventions meant to find effective solutions. This belated inclusion of traditional healers by policymakers is unfortunate because effective multi-sectoral health interventions should involve all relevant stakeholders from the conceptualisation stage. Globally, most countries follow a biomedical paradigm of health practices also referred to as Western, mainstream or conventional medicine. It is inevitable then, that biomedical health practices have a dominant influence on the conceptualisation of health crisis communication strategies, while alternative approaches are marginalised, thus leading to the exclusion of divergent approaches. Theoretically, decolonisation of health crisis communication strategies in sub-Saharan Africa would advocate for the involvement of traditional healers, given that traditional healers exert a strong influence on the well-being of their clients who often prioritise them in their health-seeking behaviour. Most African populations in sub-Saharan Africa make parallel use of traditional / alternative and Western medicine. Such health-seeking behaviour should inform reciprocal actions by policymakers to ensure equity of participation especially during health crises when reaching the largest possible percentage of the population is critical, through promotion of divergent approaches.