September 15, 2026

We are incredibly proud to announce an important new chapter for our community and for the work of Bwiti Roots. Maman Ogningue, Nima and traditional healer of our community in Medouneu, has been elected Regional President of Traditional Practitioners for the province of Woleu-Ntem in northern Gabon. Her election places her in a position of responsibility representing traditional practitioners across Woleu-Ntem and connecting the temples, healers and communities that continue to carry Gabon’s traditional medicine and spiritual heritage. For Bwiti Roots, this represents much more than an appointment. It is a significant recognition of years of work taking place on the ground in Medouneu and an opportunity to extend that work beyond our own village. The Syndicat National des Tradipraticiens du Gabon Maman Ogningue’s regional role forms part of the Syndicat National des Tradipraticiens du Gabon (SNTPG), an organisation bringing together practitioners of traditional medicine throughout Gabon. In April 2026, the SNTPG held a plenary assembly in Oyem, the provincial capital of Woleu-Ntem, bringing together traditional practitioners as the organisation entered a new phase of its development. Among the priorities presented by the syndicate are the establishment of an identifiable permanent headquarters, the creation of dedicated financial infrastructure for traditional practitioners, the development of a pharmacy for the regulated distribution of traditional remedies, and greater integration of traditional medicine within Gabon’s wider healthcare system. One of the most important ambitions is to strengthen the recognition of traditional medicine while developing greater complementarity between traditional and modern healthcare. This comes at an important moment for Gabon. Traditional medicine is increasingly being recognised within the country’s formal health framework, while practitioners are organising themselves to protect their knowledge, strengthen professional standards and ensure that traditions that have served communities for generations continue to have a place in Gabon’s future. From Medouneu to Woleu-Ntem For many years, Maman Ogningue’s work has been rooted in Medouneu. As a Nima and traditional healer, she has guided ceremonies, received people seeking healing and accompanied the transmission of traditional knowledge to a new generation. Through the work of Bwiti Roots, our family and community have worked to strengthen the traditional structures surrounding this work. We have organised ceremonies bringing people to Medouneu from Gabon and around the world. We have supported the training and transmission of knowledge within the village so that more people can learn the responsibilities and work of the Nima. Our traditional clinic has received people seeking help for a wide range of physical and spiritual difficulties. Alongside this, our work has included restoring and developing our temple and clinic, supporting our village and working to protect Iboga through cultivation and replanting. At the heart of all of these projects is one principle: a tradition survives when the community carrying it survives. Maman Ogningue’s election now creates the possibility of taking this work further. Connecting the Temples and Traditional Practitioners of Woleu-Ntem Traditional knowledge has often been held locally, within families, temples and individual villages. These local roots are essential. But stronger connections between communities can also help protect the tradition. As Regional President, one of Maman Ogningue’s most important opportunities is to strengthen communication between the traditional practitioners and temples of Woleu-Ntem. By creating stronger links across the province, practitioners can share knowledge and experience, identify the needs facing their communities, support one another and give traditional practitioners a stronger collective voice. It also creates opportunities to encourage the responsible transmission of traditional knowledge to younger generations. Many of the elders carrying this knowledge possess teachings that cannot simply be recovered from a book once they disappear. They have been transmitted through families, initiations, apprenticeship and lived experience over generations. Protecting that chain of transmission is therefore essential. Protecting Traditional Medicine for Future Generations The future of traditional medicine cannot simply be about preserving traditions as relics of the past. They must remain living traditions. That means supporting genuine practitioners, strengthening temples and traditional clinics, cultivating medicinal plants, protecting the natural environment from which traditional medicines originate and creating opportunities for younger generations to learn from their elders. It also means developing structures capable of distinguishing serious traditional practice from exploitation and protecting the credibility of practitioners who have spent their lives carrying this knowledge. These questions are becoming increasingly important as interest in African traditional medicine grows internationally. For Bwiti Roots, preservation has therefore never meant taking Bwiti away from the communities that created it. It means strengthening those communities so that they remain the guardians of their own knowledge. Women Carrying the Tradition Maman Ogningue’s election also carries another significance that is deeply connected to our own history. Our Bwiti lineage has been carried through generations of women healers. Within our Fang tradition, women have long held positions of spiritual knowledge, healing and responsibility. As a Nima, Maman Ogningue continues that lineage. Today, her responsibility extends beyond her own temple and village as she takes on a leadership role representing traditional practitioners across Woleu-Ntem. For us, seeing a woman from our lineage entrusted with this responsibility is a powerful continuation of something our ancestors have carried for generations. A New Chapter for Bwiti Roots When Bwiti Roots began its work, our focus was our lineage, our temple and our village. We wanted to ensure that the knowledge entrusted to our family would survive, that our temple would remain alive, that our clinic could continue receiving people and that younger generations would have the opportunity to learn. Over time, that vision has grown. The ceremonies held, the people trained, the patients received at the clinic, the restoration and development of our traditional infrastructure and our work to preserve Iboga have all contributed to rebuilding and strengthening something that we believe must be protected. Maman Ogningue’s election represents another stage of that journey. It gives our community an opportunity to contribute beyond Medouneu: to build relationships between temples and practitioners throughout Woleu-Ntem, to share resources and knowledge, to support neighbouring villages and to participate in the wider recognition and organisation of traditional