Central African Republic

Bernard N'donazi has the gentle manner of a country doctor, but his mildness conceals fierce commitment to a mission that began to take shape 28 years ago, following the destruction of one of his tribe's central institutions. As a boy, N'donazi endured an initiation rite of the Souma tribe in the Central African Republic, during which an incision was made in his side and his intestine was briefly exposed. This ceremony marked the transition to adulthood and followed months of instruction in the use of plants and herbs in healing. Bernard, now in his late 30s, was among the last of his cult to be initiated. Acting in deference to a Catholic abbot who regarded the traditions as pagan, N'donazi's father, a convert, ordered the destruction of the male house, where boys acquired the learning of their elders. With that, a cultural and medical tradition that extended back to antiquity went up in flames.

This might have been the end of the line had not the younger N'donazi gone on to pursue a career in Western medicine. During his training in Africa, Europe and the U.S. as a health technician, he discovered that many Western medicines are derived from plants. Angered that a European missionary might dismiss traditions that he had never witnessed, N'donazi began to direct his energies toward revalidating the healing wisdom of Central African tribes.

N'donazi's base is a clinic and research facility he founded in the remote town of Bouar. There he collects plants used by healers for laboratory analysis in order to distinguish those with biomedical value from those that have only a placebo effect. His staff dispenses both Western drugs and low- cost and proven traditional preparations.

Though modest about his work, the healer takes pleasure in recounting one triumphant moment of vindication. Last year he was approached by nuns from a Catholic mission hospital who asked him to help an extremely sick man whose chest was being eaten away by a subcutaneous amoebic infection that had not responded to drugs. Using a method learned from his father, N'donazi applied washed and crushed soldier termites to the open wounds. The patient, Thomas Service, made a remarkable recovery. In gratitude, he now appears at the clinic every Sunday bearing a gift for N'donazi. When a visitor asks how Service feels, the diminutive man shyly shows his healed chest and says the fact that he has walked 11 miles from his village speaks for itself.

Alas, some of the secrets of the male house remain lost. During his initiation, N'donazi recalls, he was given a plant to chew that numbed the pain of the incision. He wistfully notes that he has not since been able to find that natural anesthetic.