Episode
Ep. 230: Traditional African Medicine with Olatokunboh Obasi
- Podcast
- Plant Cunning Podcast
- Published
- May 6, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 4017
- Processing state
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Summary
Today AC & Isaac welcome herbalist and teacher Olatokunboh Obasi back to the Plant Cunning Podcast for a second interview, now speaking from outside Nairobi, Kenya. Obasi shares that she’s finishing a doctorate in clinical nutrition while working toward opening an integrative women’s health clinic, and explains how nutrition, changing food systems, and modern indoor life affect herbal outcomes. She discusses divination and geomancy, genetics as “codes” responding to environment, and how she navigates multiple traditions—Yoruba as her root, alongside Taíno and Kenyan indigenous practices—without collapsing them into one. They explore Kenyan healing culture, including lineage-based herbalism, diviners, birth workers, and bone-setting (lila) meridian work, plus a story of discovering an East African betony for headaches. Obasi also defines traditional African medicine as diverse, spiritually centered, and regionally distinct, and critiques material reductionism in Western herbalism while pointing to figures like Culpeper and Hildegard as bridges back to spirit. 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 01:45 Ola’s Life in Kenya 03:50 Why Clinical Nutrition 05:52 Divination and Genetics 09:31 Lineages and Training 11:41 Navigating Multiple Traditions 16:47 Plants Calling in Kenya 22:15 Healing Culture in Kenya 24:40 Bone Setting and Lila 28:32 Community-Based Medicine 34:32 Defining African Traditional Medicine 36:16 Spirit First Healing 36:47 Lineage And Bioregions 37:45 Cross Cultural Herbal Exchange 41:37 Reclaiming Spirit In Herbalism 44:02 Traditional Western Medicine 45:44 Astrology, Culpeper, Hildegard 50:17 Centering Over Scrolling 53:07 Rest Boredom And Reading 54:07 Rethinking Academia And Art 58:27 Craft Culture And Kenya