Discourse of Traditional Medicine Street Advertisement in Kisumu, Kenya

Abstract

Information is a very important concept during an interaction between interlocutors within a particular health communicative context. In matters concerning individuals' health and other emotive issues, subjective information of any kind would provide sustaining knowledge to the seeker of knowledge. It is, therefore, of immense significance for people to have access to credible information that would satisfy their questions, curiosity and emerging problems of wellness. In Kenyan towns and villages, certain strategic street pathways are replete with Traditional Medicine advertisements by herbalists and witchdoctors. As a vehicle for promoting social modernization, the impact of utilizing advertising to promote trade in developing society remains a key subject. Although audiences are exposed to a number of advertisements, advertising may deceive either by increasing a consumer's false belief or by exploiting true beliefs in the ways designed to sell the product or offer services. This paper has interest in the discourse of advertisement of traditional medicine. Health issues have always been an important and emotive phenomenon in the lives of humans. Being in good health and able to go about one’s business without ill-health is a desire longed for by everyone. Hence, people become very much interested in matters touching on their health and the inherent rhetoric accompanying the offered ‘solutions’ as a means of persuasion. Are herbal medicine practitioners’ genuinely reaching out to fill the void possibly left out by modern medicine? Are these practitioners ably ‘treating’ all the ‘illnesses’ they advertise? These questions form the discourse matters sought in this paper.