When we were young we lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Southern Africa. On the farm my family had many different enterprises so naturally there were a lot of staff and with that came a big responsibility of the well being of the staff and family so that the crops could be brought in on time.

As a child I witnessed all manner of ailments on the farm that would need my grandmother and mum’s attention to try and help cure the ailments. I remember a feeding scheme for under nourished baby’s that my mum ran where my mum used to cook a vitamin and mineral enriched baby food to feed the baby’s, and whilst doing so she would educate the young mothers on how best take care of their young.

Africa is a beautiful continent but an incredibly harsh environment, especially to those who are weak and uneducated in the survival skills of Africa. Western civilisation as we know it believes that the African traditions and way of life is harsh and untamed and yet the African continent is heavily populated and even prior to the colonial domination the tribal areas were well populated. This said one has to ask, “How did they do that”? In spite of the potential illnesses, diseases, viruses and other maladies that could leave a population totally extinct the Africans survived as did many other nations around the world. The old saying, “survival of the fittest” is what kept these nations in existence whilst others claim that without the European settlers influence these nations would have died out, but in truth a lot of the original settlers around the world had to adopt ancient herbal technologies to survive that were customary in each part of the world they had settled in. Each new continent, country and nation has its own set of new ills that unless known about can kill, be they a snake bite, spider bite or malaria.

With a wealth of plants and herbs the Africans are able to resolve just about all of the many maladies and those that survive live to tell the tale, those that remain bed ridden become a statistical anomaly and as each and every herbalist finds a new remedy the carefully guarded technology is passed down the generations. Sadly very little of this knowledge is ever documented in traditional means accustomed to western civilization. The Bushmen would paint pictures on rock faces depicting life experiences and survival stories that their descendants would refer to for years and years to come. The southern African tribes would sit in circles under a tree on a hot summer’s day telling their children and grandchildren all they knew about life and the survival techniques that they had adopted and in turn these individuals would pass these valuable survival tips and tricks onto the next generation. Unfortunately this is all done visually and verbally and by western standards this wealth of knowledge is lost. In recent times the western civilization has started learning that flower essences and herbs possess a potent healing ability unlike anything else. This is not new technology this is simply forgotten technology because as a “global nation” we haven’t been particularly good at sharing recorded information passed on through the generations from our ancestors.

When I was a kid my grandmother on a regular basis would be faced with day to day medical challenges that she would have to overcome. My Grandmothers ancestors had learnt the survival techniques adopted from their staff in the Colonial days and so with her nursing qualifications she would be able to make do until a professional GP could be called or an ambulance the following day. Out in the country things don’t happen right away. 911 type calls don’t happen quickly. On Many occasions late at night the farm gong would sound and my grandmother or my mother would have to go and see what the plea for help was. In some cases it would be a mild cold, flu, tuberculosis, stomach upsets, ear infections, urinary tract infections, severe burn cases, labour pains, gall stones, appendicitis, sprained ligaments, mumps, measles, chicken pox, stress, and on many occasions quarrels that needed resolving. Being a nurse and the staff carer she was expected to do something so often between my Grandmother and mother they had no choice other than to help and administer some sort of remedy that may work.

My late Grandmother carried in her medical cupboard many different varieties of concoctions but traditionally there were the usual bandages, plasters, iodine, mercurochrome, strong pain killers, epson salts, and an array of flower essences and herbs. It seemed as though for the majority of the conditions flower essences would be used not because they were cheap and easy to make but because they worked. A common essence was a basic rescue remedy which was used to calm down the upset, agitated or shocked individual. If one is hurt in any way you automatically panic and a calming effect is what is needed. When administering anything my Grandmother would say, “this is to calm you down and make you feel better”, and it would work. Who knows, it could have been a placebo type effect it could have been real but someone was actually doing something about it which is what mattered. There is more to an accident, injury or illness other than just the physical aspect, medicos always look to the physical aspect and try and fix just the physical manifestation but this very rarely corrects the root cause.

My grandmother used to grow comfrey in her garden and make tea to help bronchitis sufferers because it had worked for her, she also used a lot of chicory and it’s no wonder that there is a flower essence made from chicory, she claimed that the chicory would make us feel alive with natural energy. When I was a kid no matter what ailment we had, we knew that my grandmother would have a little bottle of something that would help elevate our well-being and make us feel better. When we had stomach upsets we would be given mint, if we had a sore throat we would be given Echinacea essence which largely speaking is more available as a capsule now days. I distinctly remember moments of great unease; tantrums and Gran would wander off and concoct a cocktail of remedies to make up a rescue remedy which in today’s terms is a combination of Clematis, Impatiens, Rock Rose, Star of Bethlehem and Cherry Plum. My biggest regret is that as a child I never paid enough attention to what we were being given; my only concern at the time was feeling better.

We are created through nature and through nature we should survive. It is unfathomable to me why we need to rely so heavily on pharmaceutical drugs for all our day-to-day needs when Mother Nature provides us with a pantry of beautiful attractive flowers and herbs that hold the secrets in each petal, leaf and root to feeling good and living a healthier life. There are those amongst us who hold these secrets to Mother Nature’s pantry of well being and my plea to them is that they continue to make known these carefully guarded secrets and use natures amazing wealth of healing and curability to help build a drug free society.

Paul Hoole
Managing Director