Ebenezer Kwame Amponsah Saves Lives With Herbs

By Innocent Samuel Appiah

And God said, behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree bearing seed which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be good for food.” Genesis 1: 29.

Aba Owusu in her book ‘Healing & Rejuvenating Herbs of Africa,’ says “since ancient times, each culture has discovered the properties of plants that they had access to and determined their healing powers and preparations from their regions. The various herbs of Africa continue to provide relief from many ailments. Many of these herbs survived only in tropical climates. This has excluded Europe and non-tropical regions from growing and knowing about many of Africa’s healing and rejuvenating herbs.”

The biblical saying that train a child the way he should go and when he grows, he will never depart from it, is aptly true and can thus be seen reflecting in the lives of many individuals. Even though he did not grow to meet his father, what his late father had wished for him to turn out to be when he grew up is what 45-year old Ebenezer Kwame Amponsah, popularly known as Doctor Amponsah is practicing today; he is one of the well-acclaimed Traditional Healers the country can boast of and rely on when it comes to traditional medicine.

Even though, it never occurred to him that he would be a traditional healer in future, what God had purposed for him, could not pass him by, as the bells kept on ringing in his ears – ‘Kwame, Kwame, Kwame, you are to save humanity with the various medicinal plants that can be found all over the corners of the country.’ Dr. Amponsah’s mother gave him an exercise book, which was handed to her by his late father on the day he was being given a name – a name of his late grandfather, Amponsah Agyaaku. The book contains 277 different kinds of herbs for the treatment of 277 ailments. His mother also gave him additional 48 herbs. An instruction from his father was, “I have been able to send all my children to school, but I doubt if this boy would grow to meet me for me to give him the same education. Therefore, when he comes of age, give him this exercise book. I wrote in it all the herbs that my father taught me. I believe that the future of Kwame is this book.” grippingly, at the time of his birth, his father was 77 years, who died three years afterwards. The book was given to Dr. Amponsah on the day he completed Middle School. Today, Dr. Amponsah who is a Traditional Health Practitioner works with Dr. Kofi Ghartey at Quantum Natural Healing and Research Centre located at Bubuashie in Accra. Several people have passed through his hands, but very few of them know who he really is. Personally, this writer is a living testimony of what Dr. Amponsah is capable of doing. For several years, he battled with a particular health-related problem and there seemed to be no hope until he met Dr. Amponsah at the Quantum. Now by the grace of God, there has been a way for him.

Born at Akyim Apedwa in the Eastern Region on April 7, 1967, Dr. Amponsah, who never had life easy, was the 24th child among his father’s children, as well as the 12th and the last born of his mother’s children. After completion of his Middle School education, he was engaged in various types of life-challenging jobs before he ended up being a Traditional Healer, even though that was not part of his plans as he was growing up. Apart from his herbs, Dr. Amponsah knows how to bake bread, operate excavator and wheel loader, and so, knows how to drive all kinds of vehicles. He knows electrical works.

Yes, he never bothered to look into the book when his mother gave it to him; young Amponsah, after sojourning in the northern part of the country as well as the Brong Ahafo and Western regions in search of a living, finally ended up as one of the well-acclaimed herbalists in the country. He thought he could run away from what God had destined him to be, thinking that when it comes to herbs, it was the preserve of the elderly people and not a young man like him, who was in his early twenties. “After going through the hell of life, I asked God what kind of life He had purposed for me since life was very unbearable for me. I gave God a two-week ultimatum to let me know what exactly He had destined me to do in this world because I had engaged in almost every kind of work but saw no success. I told God that if by the end of the two weeks there was no response from Him I was going to kill myself. That fateful day I challenged God, I had a dream that night and saw myself sitting in the front of a school bus as if I knew how to drive but I knew nothing about driving. The dream continued for two weeks. And so the first day I held the steering wheel of a car at Takoradi, I was given a driver’s licence. This is because I applied everything I had seen in the dreams and hence I passed the test.” Dr. Amponsah recounted, saying that since then, anything he dreams about becomes a reality.

“I later on had a dream one night, walking at the banks of River Densu and saw an elderly man in a white cloth. He showed me a particular plant meant for the treatment of a particular disease. I did not take it seriously and four days later, I had the same dream and the man in the dream asked me why he showed me that plant and I did not act. So, one morning I went to the river side and saw that plant. After bringing it home and preparing it, I drank some and within 30 minutes it was working seriously in my body system. I gave some to my pregnant wife and the same reaction. I also gave same to my mother and she likewise had the same reaction. After realizing the efficacy of the herb, I started administering it others. This is how my story began.” He added. The problem with Traditional Healers is that some of them claim more than they can cure and there are a lot of unqualified people practicing out there, especially at the local lorry parks where all sorts of herbs and mixtures are sold to innocent people. But the story is different when it comes to Dr. Amponsah, who has over the years given treatment to different types of ailments. What he is offering to humanity today is a generational thing that was bequeathed to him through his late grandfather.

Since 1998, the number of people that Dr. Amponsah has handled with their various kinds of debilitating health conditions is uncountable; those who revere him claim he is their saviour apart from Jesus Christ. Among them are people who had diabetes problem, hypertension, chronic sinus, chronic sore, childbirth, infertility, low sperm count, kidney, cancer, stroke, obesity, typhoid, and the like. He hopes that one day, people who died prematurely as a result of ill-health can easily be treated if given the necessary assistance for him to expand the business. Eight people who child-bearing problems but were able to do so after meeting Dr. Amponsah, have named their children after him. An old wise saying in Akan has it that, there is somebody there with bitter medicine, but if you are able to drink it, you will vomit all the time, you will vomit and only phlegm will come out and if you finish vomiting, you will be okay and it will not come again. A testimony of one woman who had severe asthma is that for the past 10 years, she has not had any asthma after she was directed to Dr. Amponsah by her friend who had earlier received treatment from him. She believes that if given the needed support, the several lives that are lost on daily basis can be salvaged by Dr. Amponsah. But, Dr. Amponsah laments that there are a lot of bureaucratic bottlenecks in getting his medicines registered and licenced, coupled with the financial difficulties, considering the over 300 medicines he has at his disposal.

He is anticipating training others so a s to expand his horizon of applying the medication to the numerous patients who need healthcare across the country. He contended that traditional medicine continues to play a crucial role in health care in Ghana and for that matter in Africa, although this trend is often largely overlooked in healthcare planning. Dr. Amponsah, who is an Elder in the Church of Pentecost at Nsawam in the Eastern Region, says that in some Asian and African countries, about 80 per cent of the population relies on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs. He argues that herbal medicines can be very lucrative, generating billions of Cedis in sales, but adulteration or counterfeit herbs can also be a health hazard. People from different cultural backgrounds have used different forms of traditional medicine as a means to managing their ailments. Findings suggest that traditional medicine is effective as it is employed in treating numerous medical conditions such as malaria, typhoid fever, arthritis, jaundice, impotency, infertility, stroke, broken bones, boils, piles, HIV/AIDS, mental illness, among others.

It is therefore expected that the Ministry of Health will spread its support-base to people like Dr. Amponsah, who has a lot to offer humanity so that many more people can benefit from him. If he is able to expand his frontiers, there would be job creation as well.

One can get in touch with Dr. Amponsah on: 0245472744 or ebeneramponsah27@yahoo.com