ERICK VIDJIN’ AGNIH GBODOSSOU, MD
President, PROMETRA International CEO, METRAF GIE
Dr. Gbodossou is an Ob-Gyn and psychiatrist, with a joint degree in medicine and pharmacy from the University of Dakar in Senegal. Dr. Gbodossou was born in Benin in the Atlantic coastal town of Grand Popo. Dr. Gbodossou served as an obstetrician-gynecologist at the CHU hospital in Dakar in the late 1970s and was later appointed Chief Inspector of Medicine in Senegal. He now maintains a private practice in Dakar along with his duties as President of PROMETRA International.
Dr. Gbodossou traces his traditional medicine roots back to childhood. He was chosen at the age of four to be trained and initiated in the forest as a healer under the direction of his grandfather and a team of elders. He often tells stories of how he learned medicine from the forest and its residents. Once he spent time watching two baby birds in their nest. One grew up and flew away, but the other one remained. He climbed the tree to see what was wrong and saw that its eyes were swollen shut with infection. Over the next week, he watched as the mother and father birds brought a leaf to the nest that they chewed up and placed on the infected eyes. After a week the baby bird was well and flew away. Dr. Gbodossou now uses this effective plant in his practice for conjunctivitis, and he considers the birds his teachers.
While in Senegal, Dr. Gbodossou began working with traditional healers from the Sereer ethnic group. It soon became clear that their valuable knowledge was in danger of disappearing forever. The elders who were the repository of the orally transmitted tradition and indigenous knowledge were dying, and not enough young people were taking up the practice to keep it alive. Determined to preserve and resuscitate the ancient healing arts, Dr. Gbodossou in 1976 founded an organization in Senegal called PROMETRA – The Association for the Promotion of Traditional Medicine. He later established a healing and research center in the town of Fatick, 150 km southeast of Dakar, the Center for Experimental Traditional Medicine (CEMETRA). From its humble beginnings with a few healers in Senegal, PROMETRA International now has official chapters in 28 countries and collaborates with traditional healers in Africa, United States, Brazil, Asia and the Pacific Islands.
Dr. Gbodossou and the PROMETRA network has collaborated with western-trained health and medical researchers in Africa, Europe and America, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), UNICEF, the Global Health Council (USA), NOVIB in the Netherlands, the International Medical Exchange of South Africa, and the Institute of Medical Anthropology in Vienna, Austria. PROMETRA International has official memorandum of agreements for education and research with the Morehouse School of Medicine in USA and Medical University of South Africa (MEDUSA). His greatest desire is for traditional and modern western medicine to work hand in hand to help maintain and restore the health of the peoples of Africa – and of the world. To improve the health and well being of Africa, he established METRAF GIE – Medicines and Traditions of Africa as a business to conduct humanitarian projects.
Dr. Gbodossou is the author of numerous publications on traditional medicine with the books, African Concept of God to Man: An Introduction to African Spirituality and Symbolism of Sacrifice in Communion and Communication with the Transcendence, published in 2004. More recently: African History and African Consciousness Through the Ages, Ethics, Science and Development, Health through Plants. Submissions to the UNAIDS AIDS in Africa: Three scenarios to 2025, Blair Report of the Commission on Africa, and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals outline advocacy positions of PROMETRA International on the role of traditional medicine.
He was named one of 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 21st Century by the International Bibliographical Centre of Cambridge, England. He has been the recipient of several international awards and honors including Knight of the National Order of the Lion of Senegal, a USAID Certificate of Distinction awarded by the US Ambassador to Senegal, the Certificate of Distinction of the Association of Black Psychiatrists of America, the Certificate of Distinction and faculty appointment in the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia and medals of honor from the governments of South Africa, Burkina Faso and Uganda.
He has been coronnated King of Tado in January 2021. He is now the King Xwla Xolugbo meto Ahoussan IX.
P.O. Box 6134 Dakar-Etoile, Senegal Tel/Fax: (221) 33 832 69 91
