Ep. 230: Traditional African Medicine with Olatokunboh Obasi

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 Intro01:45 Ola’s Life in Kenya03:50 Why Clinical Nutrition05:52 Divination and Genetics09:31 Lineages and Training11:41 Navigating Multiple Traditions16:47 Plants Calling in Kenya22:15 Healing Culture in Kenya24:40 Bone Setting and Lila28:32 Community-Based Medicine34:32 Defining African Traditional Medicine36:16 Spirit First Healing36:47 Lineage And Bioregions37:45 Cross Cultural Herbal Exchange41:37 Reclaiming Spirit In Herbalism44:02 Traditional Western Medicine45:44 Astrology, Culpeper, Hildegard50:17 Centering Over Scrolling53:07 Rest Boredom And Reading54:07 Rethinking Academia And Art58:27 Craft Culture And Kenya