The Healing Hands of Our Elders: Honoring Traditional Remedies and Folk Medicine

In many Black households, healing didn’t always come from a pharmacy—it came from a kitchen cabinet, a back porch garden, or the hands of Big Mama, Nana, or Pop-Pop. Before integrative health had a name, our elders were practicing it. Their knowledge of herbs, roots, oils, poultices, and prayer created a system of wellness that nurtured bodies, spirits, and entire communities.

Today, as we navigate modern wellness trends, it's crucial to pause and pay tribute to the foundation they laid. Their hands were healing hands. Their remedies—though often dismissed by mainstream medicine—were rooted in centuries of African wisdom, shaped by resilience, and infused with love.

Ancestral Knowledge Passed Down Through Generations

Our ancestors didn’t have access to hospitals during slavery or segregation. They had the land, their intuition, and ancestral memory. From this sacred knowledge came remedies like:

• Onion syrup for colds and coughs

• Castor oil for internal cleansing

• Turpentine and sugar as a parasite cleanse

• Red clay or mud packs for inflammation

• Sassafras, elderberry, and dandelion tea for detoxification

These remedies weren't just random guesses—they were based on a lineage of African healing systems, passed down orally and spiritually through the generations. Our elders were herbalists, even if no one gave them the title. They were energy workers, even if they called it prayer.

The Science Behind the Folk

What our elders knew intuitively is now being backed by science. Elderberry has been shown to reduce the duration of colds. Garlic is a natural antimicrobial. Castor oil stimulates lymphatic flow. The wisdom they offered wasn't "old wives' tales"—it was a form of grassroots public health, long before the field acknowledged its brilliance.

These practices formed the basis of what we now call folk medicine, and they deserve the same respect and study as any clinical modality.

Honoring the Healers in Our Families

One of the most radical things we can do today is name and honor the elders in our families who held this knowledge. Whether it was an auntie who made healing salves, an uncle who swore by herbal roots, or a grandmother who could "pray away a fever," they deserve acknowledgment.

Reclaiming What Was Ours

Colonization, racism, and Western supremacy in medicine stripped away the dignity and visibility of Black healing traditions. Many were told that their family’s way of healing was “backward” or “dangerous,” while those same remedies were rebranded and sold back to us as wellness trends.

Today, we reclaim that legacy.

When we talk about generational wellness in the Black community, we must remember that it begins with the hands of those who came before us. Not just as a symbolic gesture—but as an active, living tradition. Because the healing didn’t die with them—it lives in us.

Let us bow our heads and lift our hearts in gratitude for the healing hands of our elders. Let us remember that their kitchens were clinics, their front porches were apothecaries, and their love was the strongest medicine of all.