Dr Fru Richard started
his practice in 1995 at Alaska Street in Kumba. He later moved to Limbe still
in the Southwest Region to continue what he refers to as his learning process.
There he practiced under somebody and curiously concealed the fact he
previously knew something about the practice of Natural Medicine. His
beginnings were indeed modest coupled with admirable humility. That's why one
day when his boss heard him being interviewed on Cameroon Radio and Television CRTV
he was pleasantly surprised. He had just discovered a treatment for a stubborn
rash which had taken epidemic dimensions at the time in parts of Cameroon. He
was even given an opportunity to prove the effectiveness of his medicine and he
did. He begins this interview with this first major discovery of his.
"When
I first discovered this medicine, I took it to some health centers and they all
laughed at me describing my medicine as "that watery substance" and
questioning its effectiveness. When I eventually went to the Regional
Delegation of Health for the Southwest Region in Buea they told me to bring
some people who were suffering from the dreaded skin rash locally referred to
at the time as "cam no go". When these people were brought they told
me to get them treated. Against every expectation I got them treated. The
infected people I brought were suffering from advanced cases of the infection.
I left a good quantity of my medicine with the doctors at the Regional Health
Delegation for follow up. Amongst them was a certain Health Officer called
Laborious who presently works in Southern Sudan. They told me to come after a
month but I came after a week and they told me that my medicine was effective.
The Regional Hospital became interested and a certain Doctor Mbame used it on
patients at the hospital and it proved effective. They are the ones who took me
to the radio and gave me an opportunity to talk about my medicine. On radio
people were encouraged to come to the hospital for treatment. I was then obliged
to move to Buea from Limbe."
Have
you ever personally had some Health challenges and how did your knowledge help
you out?
There was a time I
developed kidney problems and this came shortly after I took a vaccine. I was
directed to many experts and could not get healed. My situation degenerated and
my relations after concluding that I was going to die took me to Bamenda to
wait for my death. After fruitless trials, I quietly quit Bamenda and returned
to Mile 16 in Buea. It was at this stage that I decided to question why I had
not looked within myself for a solution to my health problems. I started taking
my own medication and within two weeks I got healed. That is when I decided to
settle down at Mile 17, Buea in 1997.
Your
establishment has certainly grown and
transformed over the years..
It was firstly referred
to as Garden of Eden Medicinal Herbs Center for all. When I established there,
I planted a garden. Most of the time I produced my medicine and moved to Limbe,
Kumba and Tiko for promotions and sales. At first I moved and gave public
lectures using plants all the time. From there I evolved and eventually started
writing books for people to get informed. Then there were no FM Radio Stations
but only Short Waves and Medium Waves SW and MW. Any announcement that passed
on air was listened to from all over the country. People left Nkambe and came
for treatment at my place in Buea. From there we started opening clinics as
people wanted me to come closer to them. We opened clinics in Kumba, Limbe, Douala,etc
and the name of my outfit changed to GENACAM Garden of Eden Natural Clinic
Cameroon. In 2003 we changed the name to Garden of Eden Naturopathic Institute
of West Africa GENIWA. It was registered as an NGO.
We
understand your sudden upsurge in the field created a lot of envy among other
practitioners at the time.
Yes. There were times
that during consultations clients including Governors came to my clinic. This
created a lot of animosity between me and the other dominantly older
practitioners. Instead of them coming close to me to learn, they instead tried
to kill me. In the late nineties specifically in 1998 and 99, Newspapers like
"The Watchman" carried articles talking about attacks on my life. You
could find articles on the front page which ran as follows: "Traditional
Doctors want Doctor Fru's Blood." My driver in one of his outings stumbled
on someone who intimated him of a plan to take my life. They came to my
residence and divulged the whole thing to me. I wrote a complaint and presented
it to Njikam Aboubakar, the Divisional Officer for Buea at the time and
forwarded it the Brigade Commander of the Gendarmerie. The truth was eventually
uncovered and some of them were picked up in parts of Buea like Bolifamba and
were forced to take an undertaking. Those are some of the battles that I fought
with Traditional Doctors. It is a field with a lot of power. There is a lot of
power in Traditional Medicine. There is enormous power in leaves. You can use
leaves to melt iron. But when some people have this power, due to low morals
and lack of ethics, they use it for evil intentions. They misuse this power to
destroy instead of to transform lives. Some of the practitioners at the time
said "look at this young man who started practicing just yesterday. I have
been practicing since 1945. What does he want to show me?" some of them
complained. I noticed that the main problem was lack of exposure among
Traditional Doctors at the time.
What
is the main difference between your practice and that of a Medical Doctor?
In our field we wield
more power than the Medical Doctors. The source of power lies with Traditional
Doctors and to get that kind of power, they need to seek help from us. The
Traditional Doctor's power comes from plants and with it, he can do a whole lot
of things. To see somebody succeeding in traditional practice for long means
the person is indeed strong.
What
do you think have been the main changes in your field of practice over the
years?
When I started, you
could move across all the towns in Cameroon and you wouldn't find a young man
practicing Traditional Medicine. You could not find someone with revolutionary
ideas and a revivalist like I was. Over the years there has been a change of
mentality and education. Some of them meet me now and even apologize. Some have
acknowledged that I have changed their portfolio and that they can now go
somewhere and talk with heads held high. Some have told me that my education
has changed the way people look at those practicing Traditional Medicine. We
are now respected where ever we go and you can now find young people in the
practice. They now practice and move freely all over the world. Formerly
ignorant pastors started praying and rebuking evil spirits they felt dwelt in
us. Now pastors and priests know better. This shows the importance of the right
education and its effect on the way people look at the practice. We have set
the stage for traditional practice and the landscape is now clear for any one
who wants to practice. I call on many more people to get into it. The more we
are into it and speak with one voice, the more we will be listened to and the
more rules will be put in to bring sanity into the practice. This will permit
us to see the growth of Traditional Medicine and its contribution to development.
.
Despite
the difficulties you sailed through. You have certainly been continuously
acquiring knowledge to maintain this cutting edge...
Even back in my school
days my Biology tutor had always referred to me as a doubting Thomas. I always
wanted to see before believing. This approach affected the way I acquired
knowledge in the field as the years rolled past. I observed, listened and
gathered information from my patients on the medicine I gave them over the
years. As the years went past, my information bank improved. So now based on
this, I know the range of action of the medicine that I give my patients. The
results have been wonderful. A patient could come for example and say Doctor I
have a kidney problem but while treating it other illnesses got cured. The
patients then revealed these facts and I always stored these facts always
noting them down so along the line I discovered scores of illnesses that I
never knew my medicine could cure. You don't always need to go and do further
studies with anybody. I have been very keen in the past twenty five years
noting down new discoveries. I have also been noting down the negative side
effects all along and I always follow up such cases with investigations trying
to know why in some patients medicines will react in particular ways.
You
started traveling out of the country somewhere along the line. Can you shed
light on that?
Yes, I started
travelling out of the country but only in Africa. I have had many invitations
to visit parts of the world but I've always restricted my travels to the
African Continent. People have even proposed to pay my flights but I have
always refused. My intention is to help the people on the African continent.
Firstly I went to Nigeria and my product "Try Me" was registered as a
Trade Mark in 2018 with the Federal Government of Nigeria that's about 11 years
ago. I went to Guinea Conakry, Ghana amongst others to attend seminars. I was
offered a job in Guinea Conakry in one
of the Universities to teach and my salary was Six Hundred Thousand FCFA a
month but I turned it down. I was supposed to give only two classes a month but
I never wanted to stay there and my flight to and from Guinea Conakry was more than that amount. I was so
inspired in Ghana where Herbal Medicine is very advanced while I was attending
a global conference on HIV AIDS. I met many professors from across the world.
Because of the experience I have gathered I am now working on the possibility
of curing people from a distance with plants. Instead of using plants in the
negative way that some have been doing. Some people speak on plants using your
code and succeed to harm you. This can be used positively. I believe in five
years or less I would have come put with another system of healing out of sight
using the same knowledge that others are using to cause evil but this time
around using it for good intentions.
Let's
talk about your educational initiative which is geared on impacting knowledge
on the younger ones.
Yes the initiative
GENIWA Garden of Eden Naturopathic Institute of West Africa. It was created in
2003 but because of other hurdles we couldn't commence with what we actually wanted
to do by coming up with a full fledged Institute to train so we went into an
informal system where people come and work and train while on duty. We wanted
to come up with a full fledged school in
2016 and that's when we built the center in Bamenda but unfortunately the
crisis also started and schools were being targeted so to be on the safe side
we had to halt it and continue with the informal system where people are
trained while working. Many people who've passed through us are operating now
like Doctors. I have some who are working in South Africa and a host of other
countries. For now it is the hospital section that is functional.
The
world therefore must inevitably shift towards mother nature?
Of course. Now the rate
of diseases like cancer is increasing geometrically in Europe and America. In
Africa we mostly have but Infectious Diseases because our immune systems are
being bombarded everyday with drugs to weaken them and make us to further
depend on them as future clients. If these drugs are effective then why is it
that the growth rate of these diseases is increasing geometrically in the so
called Developed World. Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Failures and many others. This
is proof that the medicine is failing. That's why when you enter any shop abroad
they group the products into natural, semi natural and artificial with the
natural products being the most expensive. They brain wash you here to think
that artificial medicine is the best while back in Europe and America they are
going natural. There is a shift back to mother nature. Even my body lotions are
made up of extract from plants, coconut oil, olive oil, palm kennel oil, shea
butter amongst others. My body lotion has more than plants mixed with different
oils. What you apply on your body should only be what is edible.
Interviewed By Francis Ekongang Nzante
Les Gens Du Cameroun: A Compendium of the ideas of Cameoon's Elite and Nation Builders
Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com/ Tel: +237678401408/696896001
