Native Igbo Doctors

Dibia (native doctors and diviners) were highly revered and were of extreme importance in traditional Igbo society. The men and women who practiced this profession served as the bridges between the physical and spiritual worlds and were the traditional equivalents of modern-day doctors. When an individual would suffer from a terrible ailment, a dibia would be called to administer healing in the form of herbs or prayers. In addition to traveling around as herbalists, some dibia also lived sedentary lives in service to deities, oracles and shrines. With the coming of Christianity European missionaries perceived dibia as "agents of the devil" and played a significant role in the creation of the modern-day misconception that dibia are evil.

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