“Far from being a self-indulgent fixation on the past, the examination of ancient Egypt is our wisest option if we intend to plan and create our cultural future.” Pr. Cheikh Anta Diop

‘The heart is the main motor of the human body, the starting point for the irrigation of the whole organism.’ These writings were found in the Papyrus Ebers, page 108.  The Egyptians wrote this during the ninth year of the reign of Amenophis I between 1557-1530 B.C. The text from our ancestors in translation reads: “Introduction to the secret lore of the doctor: knowledge of the heart’s movement, and of the heart.” It says, there are vessels inside the heart leading to each member. Thus, when any doctor, surgeon (literally, priest of sekhmet), or exorcist places his hands or fingers on the head, on the back of the head, on the hands, on the position of the heart itself, on the limbs or any other part, in so doing, he, in fact, examines the heart, because the heart’s vessels lead to each of the (patient’s) members. In other words, the heart speaks within the vessels of each member.

You can notice  here that over 3500 years ago, Egyptians had already mastered a scientific knowledge of the heart, an anatomy and physiology with accuracy that paved the ways for our modern medicine we know today.

The text continues to state: “The vessels whose special function it is to supply vascular fluids to the members  originate in the heart.” Indeed, in our modern science, which has borrowed the knowledge from the Egyptians, confirms  that the principal arteries among the vessels of each limb start in the heart. And, in fact, those central arteries are the aorta and the pulmonary artery. Therefore, thousands of years ago, the Egyptians  had  extensive knowledge of medicine and  sciences. They explained the purpose of laying the hands on the patient’s body member was to take the pulse, and to sense body pulses coming from the heart beats.

Notice that our ancestors are telling us that the heart speaks. And it speaks within the vessels of each member (body part). They are reminding you that pulses transmit and communicate the rhythms of the heartbeats to all your body parts. That is why doctors of even today’s world, regardless of their specialization, have to first check the heart’s communication to the rest of the other parts of the body. I think everyone, or every head of family or community, should learn the language of the heart.  Become the first doctor of the family in order to prevent heart attacks and partial paralysis of the body.

The Papyrus Ebers that was discovered in the Egyptians’ pharaoh’s tomb, was humanity’s first medical encyclopedia.  It also contains the first reference to the taking of the pulse. Egypt, in those days, was the only country that had  authentic, professional medical documents without referencing  gods, demons, divination, or astrology. Over 3500 years back, way before our modern civilization, the Egyptians already invented the instrument for counting and taking measurement of pulse beats. A small portable Clepsydra was found by the archeologists while doing  excavations in Gaza Palestine. They discovered the said instrument that was used long ago by the Egyptians to take measurements of the heart and pulse beats. The Clepsydra (a portable water clock) found was bearing the name of the nineteenth Dynasty pharaoh Min-Ptah.

In sum, the medical science and advancement in technology have planted the seeds of knowledge which eventually crossed borders to Greece and Rome. Due to  the many invasions of the Egyptians by the Persian, Greeks, Roman and Arabs, this knowledge was planted in these lands as well.

The temples of Memphis and other medical  schools were subsequently looted and important books stolen away by each subsequent invader. For example, the first thing Alexander the Great did, when he successfully invaded Egypt was to take over and grab possession of the Royal Library in Alexandria; and to make the Egyptians land Alexandria, into a Greek city, and a Centre of research; and Alexandria became the capital of the newly created Greek empire.

The paragraph 855 of the Papyrus Ebers deals with heart malfunctions and their impact on the health of the liver and lungs. It reads, “Regarding the weakness, which attains the heart, it is a tumor all the way to the lung and the liver. He (the patient) grows deaf, his vessels having collapsed.” In a situation like this, pulse beats can no longer be felt because the vessels of the heart have grown mute.

The Egyptians’ medicine was so sophisticated and holistic that  many dimensions, where the body and mind, illness and tradition, individual, community and society, were all interconnected in a context of a holistic healing.  That is why, besides being a veritable medical practitioner, the person would have to also be a magician, (not the magician of today in entertainment), an exorcist, healer, witch doctor, medicine-man, an interceder etc. He would have the  use of the power of words, the potency of speech, and the efficacy of ritual motions. The Egyptians’ culture and healing tradition, add the trust in amulets, talismans and medals of all sorts for protection from the evil eye and negative charges/energies coming from the natural world and people.

In other words, scientific, medicinal, magical and religious practices are combined to guarantee and afford an effective therapeutic system of healing, established well over 2500 years before

the time of the era of Aristotle (384-322B.C.), Hippocrates (460 B.C.), Herophile (300 B.C.) and Jesus Christ.

To refresh your mind, even before 1550 B.C., our ancestors have possessed the knowledge of medicine as shown in the Papyrus Ebers.  The world had already been presented with its first medical encyclopedia accumulated over previous years and Dynasties. This knowledge  had been handed down from generation to generation with improvements from each generation’s era, until the instability and different invasions  disturbed and cut the cycle of stable continuity.

During Egypt, healing also took a form of priestly vocation, where the Sekhmet specialized in the administration of therapeutic cures, under the divine patronage of the gods and goddesses. The gods and goddesses are Thoth, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Neith, Hathor, Bes, Thoueris, Khnum and Hekhet. It was also in ancient Egypt, that aromatherapy was born. Aromatherapy is the use of plant essences for treating diseases. They used such aromatic plants as myrrh, incense, etc., to enhance intuition capacities, foresight and “direct vision.” This was to reach a good psychosomatic balance. The animal and vegetable kingdoms were also the sources for the Egyptian pharmacists from which medicinal remedies (ingredients) were created.

In addition, our ancestor’s medicine use a lot of garlic (Allium Sativum) and onions (A. Cepa). Garlic stops the blood from clotting, preventing heart attacks, heart diseases and thrombosis; it also possesses tonic and antiseptic properties. Whereas, onions were even considered a sacred plant due to its richness in sugar, minerals and vitamins. Onions are good for the nervous system, the liver and the kidneys. It has  disinfectant and antiseptic properties. Therefore, in ancient Egypt, onions were used to treat heart ailments and Hydropsy. It slows down the beating of the heart and, at the same time, strengthening the heart contractions. By doing so, it improves the blood circulation in the kidneys and liver. The practice of yoga and meditation  also began there in Egypt before spreading to India, Asia and so forth.

In conclusion, Egyptians did not see illness as a form of punishment for your sins from God, nor the result of moral and personal disorder. They understood early on, that a human being is a combination of organic, mental, spiritual and divine energies.

This is how they viewed man’s composition. First, we have the body, along with the body’s organs and the body’s instincts, which is called “khet”. Second, we have the “ka”, the vital force that gives the body life. Ka is in sort the astral double of the person representing the essence of the person’s ego. In third position, we have the “ba” —the divine energy. It is a principle of divine origin in a higher rank than the first two, the khet and the ka.

In the Zarma of Niger, there are two approaches to illness. The first type of illnesses are the ones that affect the body, the “ga/khet” and are purely somatic ailments. The second type is mainly concerned with behavioral ailments that are connected with the “bya/ka,” which is the astral double of the person. To cure the second type of diseases, it requires a whole array of ritual practices. In the socio-cultural system of the Mitsogho of southern Gabon and in most African healing tradition, healing proceeds in two phases. The first important step is you have to call the errant spirit back to the person’s body.  The second challenging part is the healing of the spirit, now back in the body. In those situations, a specialist from either gender have to be solicited to intercede on behalf of the patient because it requires knowledge of human beings in their physical, emotional, and psychic aspects, including their spiritual aspects as well combining the patient’s past and future beyond this earth’ dimension.

The Egyptians know and reaffirm to us that humanity is divine.  Human beings as gods get born, live, suffer, die and remain connected to the Demiurge, connected to all and everything in the universe. So, in the art of healing, a lot of strategies have to be employed. A combination of drugs, medicines, oils and fragrances, ritual and sacred ceremonies are exploited to secure health. We also have the development of mental powers, ancestral myths, magic, religion and natural science. It was understood that medicine was for men and women’s use, in consideration that we are multidimensional entities, within our individual, family, social, tribal, special affinities, cultural, historical, astral and cosmic systems. In short, the total environment has to be considered as a whole to guarantee total health of the sick person.

Ancient Egyptians doctors were highly skilled and specialized in various definite domains just like the different specializations existing in the twenty-first century. Throughout African kingdoms and tribal heritages, we still have the same systems of healing handed down from generation to generation. The territory of old Buganda, now located in actual Uganda, was known and famous for the various specializations of their doctors called bosawo baganda. The Bosawo Baganda were general medical practitioners. Next to them, we have the ones with specializations: the musawo we musole with a specialization in the treatment of snake bites; the mukozi we ddagala, which is the pharmacological expert that is specialized in the concoction and prescription of medicines. The list is long, but the musawo muyunzi, the bone doctor, is one of the prestigious specializations, responsible for fixing and treating any type of fracture, regardless of the complication. Today, their techniques to treat fractures are even in use  in our modern hospitals.

One of the western doctors, Dr. R. W. Felkin, reported that in 1879, he witnessed a caesarian operation done by a “native” surgeon of the Kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara, an operation that was successfully done.

In the 1550’s B.C., the Egyptians had already invented a pregnancy test kit. They knew how to detect sexual hormones in the urine of pregnant ladies to indicate pregnancy. They could determine the sex or gender of the fetus still in the womb.

A formula written in the Kahoun Papyrus in about 1200 B.C. was giving instructions of how to determine if a woman shall give birth or not: “Arrange to have a clove of garlic wetted; (peel it, insert it as a pessary,) stay a whole night until dawn, in her flesh (vagina). Check the next day. If the odor of the garlic rises into her mouth, then she shall give birth or conceive. If it does not rise to her mouth and smell of garlic, she will not give birth or be able to get pregnant…

Ancient Egyptians, as also noted in the Papyrus Ebers, 1557 B.C., presented several formulae based on resin and mineral substances for filling cavities in teeth. There were twenty passages, or instructions, on the digestive system: flatulence, swelling and extrusion of flesh under toes and fingers, vomiting blood, the passage of black blood through the anus, appendicitis, and uremia. The same manuscript, the Papyrus Ebers, also contains a hundred prescriptions for the treatment of eye diseases. They also had specialists for ear and nose diseases, rheumatism, and special doctors for gynecological ailments.

African medicine, in general, is Egyptian medicine and Egyptian medicine is African medicine. The way of medicine in African cultures remained similar to the ancient Egypt attitude toward medicine and illness in general. From ancient Egypt to ancient Ethiopia and ancient Nubia, the whole African continent have kept and maintained some, or all, the medical practices, medicinal skills and approaches to illness from thousands of years ago. The African medicine is filled with know-how and has paved the way for modern medicine. Until tomorrow, the African medicine will still have its place and is actually an immense treasure house of science to explore by Africans and persons of African descent. African medicine has healed its sons and daughters throughout the old age to this new age. It  will continue to take care of the future generations, regardless of the different struggles for freedom to end the superficial colonialism.