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Traditional Medicine
The Sukuma People of Tanzania are one of the many ethnic groups who use animals in their traditional medicine, also known as zootherapy. They, like other native African groups including the Swaziland Inyangas and Bight of Benin, believe that traditional medicine derived from animals are more effective than Western-style medicine. Plants and animals have been the basis for Sukuma medicine for centuries, nowadays more so plants. The Sukuma people use a system of naming that allows them to distinguish animals according to their medical purposes. Healers organize faunal medicines by first taking a list of known diseases and their symptoms, then making another list of plants, animals, and their healing properties.

Within the communities, healers are the ones who delegate what and how each animal will be used. For example, pangolins are believed to be a sign for a good harvest year, so healers will sell pangolin scales as a way to protect crops for the upcoming harvest. Because snakes and porcupines are a danger to people and crops in Sukumaland, medicine men and healers captured them to be used as entertainment.

There is not much information on the Sukuma tribes use of animals in their medicine.This is mostly because a lot of the research that has been done on the medicinal practices of this tribe have been plant based. A study was conducted in the Busega District of Tanzania, an area comprised of the Serengeti Game Reserve and Lake Victoria, to determine which faunal resources healers use to treat illnesses within the community. 98 Community members (farmers, healers, fisherman, and cultural officers), aged 55 and older, were interviewed to obtain their knowledge on which animals were used to treat illnesses. These were the results of the study:

Legend: LC= Least Concern, NT=Near Threatened, VU=Vulnerable, EN=Endangered, CR= Critically Endangered, NA=Not Assessed, I=Increasing, D=Decreasing, S=Stable, U=Unknown

The biggest threat to conservation in Tanzania is the legal and illegal trafficking of wild animals for pet keeping. There are also weak policies for regulating the census of endangered animals. Traditional healers do not pose as big of a threat to conservation efforts as commercial hunters do. Unlike the latter group, traditional hunters and medicine men only hunt what they need. Other than medicinal purposes, the Sukuma people use animal resources for things such as decoration and clothing. For example, animal skins are used for house decoration and bags.

Many of the traditional medicines, referred to as dawa, are not practiced currently as many people of the Sukuma tribe members now rely more on Western-style medicine.

Miranda's Edits:

One thing that I think will be helpul, is to narrow it down to just one ethnic group, and go into their habits in more detail. This way you will be able to find clearer sources, and you wont be overwhelmed by the level of information out there! I think Traditional Medicnine as a whole is too broad. You could even just focus on one region and various ethnic groups within that- for example ethnic groups in Tanzania.

Also I think before you write you should come up with an outline to make sure that you know what you're looking for. I'm just suggesting this stuff because it might help you narrow down you goals- as of now it is kind of broad! Traditional medicine could encompass so much.

Peer Review Response
Hey Miranda, I think I may narrow down my topic to Sukuma people in the Busega District since I just found some lengthy sources about their activity in that region. As far as an outline goes I don't have a concrete structure yet, but I am going to focus more on writing about which animal medicines are most used and what impact do they/did they have on the tribe's population and health.

Dr. Shaffer comments:

I have left some comments in text using italics. This is a good start but you will need more citation sources for your final product, which requires expanding this a bit. If it is possible to remove parenthetical asides in writing you should, hence moving up the zootherapy. As would be linking to other cultural groups in African that use zootherapy. If you link to a cultural group wikipage that describes zootherapy you won't need to cite, but if you are looking for citations (and material) check out the page African Vulture Trade. Your classmates suggestions are good.

To expand on this a bit more, it might be useful to describe some of the different animal medicines used by Sukuma people, but also include info on these animals' populations in Tanzania. That would require citing a paper or two on the trade in that species or species population declines in E Africa/Tanzania. You will need to cite more than one source for your final write up.

Think about where you can add links to other material in wikipedia and where in wikipedia you might add links to your material. I have added one to what you have written. Kyle's comment on adding an image or graphic is also a good idea. You might need to create a graphic though since directly taking one from a published paper or dissertation could break the copyright.