Senegal’s Traditional Medicine: Nine Years of Parliamentary Inaction

Senegal is among the few African countries without a legal framework for traditional medicine. Yet a bill was adopted in the Council of Ministers on the 31st [date unspecified]. Nine years later, the National Assembly has still not passed a law. This legislative silence is not trivial: it leaves our therapeutic heritage without protection or official recognition. This legal void has concrete consequences. Traditional healers, keepers of ancestral knowledge, operate in a gray area, with no status or guarantees for patients. Meanwhile, other African countries have already structured their traditional medicine, integrating its practices into public health systems. Senegal lags behind. The stakes go beyond mere regulation. This is about health sovereignty and the valorization of our cultural heritage. Without a law, medicinal plants and local knowledge remain vulnerable to biopiracy and uncontrolled exploitation. The communities that have passed down this knowledge for generations receive no legal protection. Nine years of inaction is too long. The National Assembly must finally shoulder its responsibilities and give Senegal a legal framework worthy of our therapeutic tradition. The Senegalese people, who rely heavily on traditional medicine, deserve better than a legal void. It is time for our elected officials to turn this bill into a living law, serving our health and our culture.