…How herbs were used to fight pandemic in Lagos in 1918
History is often written by champions. Sometimes they rewrite it. But very few champs excite the splendid tribute of a cheer in the wake of their most glorious feats. Remember Chief Hezekiah Oladipo Davies, the foremost nationalist, journalist, lawyer and politician, popularly known as H.O. Davies?
Yes, father of Olufunmilayo Goka, the former Deputy Managing Director/ General Manager Public Affairs Nigerian Agip Oil.
As the annihilating effects of the coronavirus pandemic bite harder, taking a historical incursion into the influenza pandemic outbreak of 1918 can be insightful and come handy as political leaders and healthcare stakeholders all the world over struggle to find lasting a solution to COVID-19.
This is more so as many are increasingly becoming restless and defiant to stringent measures taken by governments at both state and federal levels to curtain the spread of the virus.
Published in 1989 (thirty one years ago) by Evans Brothers, former Minister of Industries, Chief Davies in the book titled ‘Memoirs: H.O. Davis’, vividly painted how Lagos was littered with corpses of infected victims after the influenza broke out in the state and the efforts of the then administrators to stem the tide of the malady in 1918.
In those days when the number of health professionals could be counted with fingers, H.O. Davis’s account is so elucidating, as herevealed how one of the early generation of physicians from Nigeria, Dr. Ladipo Sapara, advanced the use of orthodox medicine to tame the depopulating scourge.
“Practically every family was affected. Anyone who walked along the streets in those days could not help but observe dead bodies thrust into the front of many houses. The living were themselves down with influenza, and were not able to go to the cemetery to bury their dead. At this period, medical practitioners were few and far between.
The few European and Nigerian doctors, who were trained in England, could not cope with the number of people affected. Dr. Ladipo Sapara, the medical officer in charge of the Massey Street dispensary, requested that Oba of Lagos, Prince Eshugbayi Eleko, to invite some traditional healers to prescribe some herbal medicine that could such a dangerous, wide spread malady,” Chief David wrote.
“In response, the traditional healers prescribed a potion which was to be taken orally, three times a day after meals. As usual, no dosage was given.
The Oba’s announcers went round he town beating drums, shouting, “Kero o! Kere o”, telling the public that the Oba advised them to buy the following herbs and roots, which they were to boil to make the potion. There herbs were:
- Ewe-rere
- Ewe-asofeyeje
- Efirin-ajase
- Egbo-eruwo, and if desired for taste
- Lemon grass
The young Hezekiah Davies saw the calamities of that era first hand because he was his father’s “chief emissary” running errand for him, and especially to Obun Eko market to purchase the herbs and roots listed.
“On these frequent journeys to the market, I felt frightened seeing dead bodies openly placed outside many houses. My infant mind could not cope with such a horrifying scenario. Though I feared these lifeless bodies, I nevertheless drove my wheel and ran undaunted to and from the market. Thanks to God, the family passed through the crises unhurt. We suffered no casualties whatsoever.”
H.O.D as he was fondly called attended the London School of Economics in 1935, where he was a pupil of Harold Laski, graduating with a BComm (Hons). In the same year, he was elected President of the Cosmopolitan Club of the School. While in the United Kingdom, he was President of the West African Student Union and was also a representative of the University of London on the Executive Committee on British Universities.
He later returned to London in 1944, where he studied Law and was called to the English Bar at the Middle Temple Inns of Court, London in 1946. In 1959, Davies spent a year as a Fellow of the Center for International Studies at Harvard University.
Davies was a Wesleyan and a strong believer that the church should be “militant” in its practicality towards society, not only speaking out in support of the poor, but being actively engaged in ministries involving the poor and actively seeking co-operation among all Christian denominations to effect positive change.
He was a key mediator during a fractious period in the history of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, helping to unite disparate factions within the church.
