By Iwara U. Iwara
Available research results from Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health show that 2,000 deaths are recorded in the country from snake bites every year, while 1,700 persons lose their legs or arms as a result of snake bites. Alarmed by these figures, www.calitown.com, embarked on an investigative ‘journey’, to explore the dying local art of snake bite treatment in one local community in Cross River State.
WILLIAM UKWETANG is a functionally well built, bow-legged man in his early fifties. We find him seated, this particular afternoon, among a group of no fewer than seven men, enthusiastically shuffling a deck of cards. The men sit on benches, facing each other and throw banters while enjoying their game of cards, played under the unforgiving tropical hot afternoon weather.
The setting is Egbizum, Ikpakapit, in Ugep, Yakurr LGA, Cross River Central, Nigeria. As we approach, he drops the deck of cards on one of the benches, runs the second finger of his right hand through a forehead streaming streaks of sweat and throws friendly gestures our way. In an instant, he gets up and takes majestic steps to where we are standing before leading us through a narrow nondescript path to his house, not too far from where we met him.
We sit on a loosely arranged verandah, kind enough to accommodate less than six persons. His cat lazily saunters off, while the walls of the building; a blend between things ancient and modern, blandly ‘stare’ at us. There are no other formalities as he enters his house and swiftly returns with a few items we do not immediately relate with. Two barks taken off trees we cannot identify, wrapped with a five centimetres cloth, a small bronze pot, bottles of black-looking liquids and several other items of the trade are what we immediately see.
So that we are all on the same page, it is important to clearly state here that Ukwetang is a ‘doctor‘, using traditional approaches handed down from generations before him to treating victims of snake bites. He immediately tells us that there are more snake bites during the farming season than any other season. In Nigeria, the Cobra or Naja nigricolis, the Puff Adder or Bitis arietans and the Carpet Viper or Echis ocellatus, are the trio responsible for the most snake bites in the country. We get further confirmation from our host that the Carpet Viper is the one responsible for most, about 90 per cent of bites. “You know the viper reproduces in large numbers. One female can discharge as many as 140 small vipers in an area and these small snakes are as venomous as their mother, from day one”, he tells us.
According to him, two things happen when a snake bites its victim(s); the snake is either killed or it escapes. When it is killed after striking its victim, the work of the ‘doctor’ is made easy because he knows what type of snake and venom he is dealing with. But if the snake escapes, a ‘science‘, higher than what we can comprehend, is deployed. At the point where the victim is bitten, a special tree bark and multiple liquids that we have no permission to list out, are mixed into small morsels and placed on the bite site. A negligible scoop of gunpowder is added and lit. “When the fire burns out, wherever the snake is, it dies”, he tells us. We are not skeptical, we did not believe him. Sensing that we did not believe him, he brings out his mobile phone and calls someone we later got to meet. This victim/client is a retired soldier who was bitten by a viper, less than a month ago. The bite was so lethal that it penetrated the rain boots the victim was wearing. While he writhed in pain and called for help, the serpent slithered off. At our instance, we embark on a small journey to a particular place in the specific farm, in fact to a litter of holes where the serpent is believed to have slithered into after the patient was bitten. It was killed inside the hole, from this ”doctor’s” home. Ukwetang picks out a hole and shows us parts of the carcass of the viper, killed by proxy.
For his practice, he tells us, it is important that the snake must be killed after it bites her victim or the treatment process will take longer than expected. He informs us too that atimes, when orthodox medicine fails to treat some victims, they are brought to him and he delivers but painfully, they has been no collaboration of any sort between the remarkable cure results that he has to show and what orthodox medicine can gain working with him.
Difficult to understand angle.
Using means that are difficult to explain, he educates us that there are snake bites that are not normal. Dazed and in disbelief, we ask for explanations. “You can have issues with someone and the person commissions a snake bite for you as punishment (we are in awe)”. When he has cases like this, he treats them and will often want to know if the victim wants him to activate a ‘return to sender’ button…a simple way of pushing the snake bite back to the person who initiated it. He shows us a small but powerful amulet that railroads this operation and a few others that have found no expression in written English.
This amulet is however common for the instant treatment of snake bites. When the victim is bitten, the bow of the amulet is worn on the victim with a specificity that places the bunch at one end of the amulet, directly on the bite spot. Incantations are mouthed and the pain the victim should feel, is transported into the amulet and left there. Treatment continues, even after the victim leaves, with the victim confined to just daily visits, instead of a full admission. Where the basics are right, treatment should be done within three days.
It is on record that envenomation, (snake bite poisoning), has long been a public health problem in Nigeria, especially in rural areas. Figures say close to five million people in the world are bitten by snakes every year and up to 2.5 million people suffer poisoning. Ukwetang is sad that while traditional medicine has an imposing role to play in tackling snake bites in the country, their work is not taken seriously and “there is no checklist compiling plants or record of indigenous methods used for snakebite treatment”, as a recent World Health Organisation, WHO, report corroborates his position.
It is close to 5pm, local time and Ukwetang insists he has to go look up a client he recently attended to, drawing our engagement to a temporary close, with a promise for updates, even though he is markedly unhappy too that not many persons are interested in carrying on with this art. He however can be reached on 0803 435 4310.
Mfonobong Ntiero & Ntongha Okoi, provided additional media work and support on this story.
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