Beyond the Tears: What Ogogo’s Death Should Teach Us About Cancer, Traditional Medicine and Nigeria’s Future

 The death of a beloved public figure often leaves a nation asking the same questions: Why did this happen? Could anything have been done? Was there another treatment? Why are we losing so many people to cancer?

The recent death of veteran Yoruba actor Taiwo Hassan, popularly known as Ogogo, at the age of 66, has once again brought these questions to the forefront. Ogogo died on August 23, 2026, after battling stage-four cancer. His family had disclosed his advanced illness only weeks earlier, prompting public concern and an outpouring of support. 

For those of us at TCM Nigeria, this is not simply another celebrity death to report.

It is an opportunity to ask a much bigger question:

What can Nigeria's traditional and complementary medicine community genuinely contribute to the fight against cancer?

And perhaps even more importantly:

How can we honour traditional knowledge without abandoning scientific evidence, medical safety or our personal faith?

We Must Not Lose the Essence of the Conversation

There is a danger that health blogs and social media platforms can gradually become collections of obituaries.

A popular actor dies. We write about the death.

Another beloved actress dies. We write about the death.

Another musician or public figure dies. We write again.

Before long, the conversation becomes about who died rather than what their death should teach us.

That is not where TCM Nigeria should remain.

We mourn our celebrities because they are part of our collective story. Ogogo was not simply an actor. He was one of the recognisable faces of Yoruba-language cinema, with a career spanning more than four decades. His work helped preserve, popularise and project aspects of Yoruba culture through film. 

So let us mourn him.

But let us also learn.

Cancer Is Bigger Than Any Celebrity

Cancer is not one disease. It is a broad group of diseases involving abnormal cells that can grow beyond their normal boundaries and spread to other parts of the body.

According to the World Health Organization, cancer caused nearly 10 million deaths globally in 2024. WHO also notes that many cancers can be cured when detected early and treated appropriately. 

This makes one issue particularly important for Nigeria:

Early detection.

When cancer is discovered at an advanced stage, the possibilities for treatment can become much more difficult. Ogogo's family said doctors had diagnosed him with stage-four cancer only weeks before his death. Reports surrounding his care also generated public discussion about why treatment may change when cancer becomes advanced and why palliative care can become an important part of medical management. 

We should therefore be careful not to turn one person's experience into a simplistic story about "hospitals failing" or "traditional medicine having the answer."

Cancer is much more complicated than that.

So Where Does Traditional Medicine Come In?

This is where the conversation becomes particularly important for TCM Nigeria.

Traditional medicine should not be forced into a false choice between two extremes:

"Herbs can cure everything."

or

"Traditional medicine has nothing useful to offer."

Neither position is responsible.

Traditional knowledge has historically contributed to modern medicine. The WHO points out that natural products and traditional knowledge have contributed to important medicines, including artemisinin, the antimalarial drug derived from research into sweet wormwood. WHO also notes that traditional medicine continues to have potential when investigated and developed responsibly. 

That should encourage us.

But it should also humble us.

A plant showing an interesting biological effect in a laboratory is not automatically a cancer treatment. A herb used traditionally for generations is not automatically proven to cure cancer.

There is a long journey between traditional knowledge, laboratory research, animal studies, clinical trials, dosage, quality control, regulatory approval and finally a safe medicine that doctors can confidently prescribe.

That journey is precisely where TCM Nigeria should be interested.

What More Can TCM Do About Cancer?

Perhaps instead of asking, "Which herb cures cancer?", we should ask:

"Which Nigerian medicinal plants deserve serious cancer research?"

That is a very different question.

Nigeria possesses enormous biodiversity and a rich history of medicinal-plant knowledge. What if researchers, universities, traditional practitioners, pharmacologists, oncologists and biotechnology companies worked together to investigate this knowledge properly?

We could begin by asking:

Which plants are traditionally used for conditions associated with cancer?

What active compounds do these plants contain?

Do laboratory studies support any of the traditional claims?

Which compounds might have anticancer properties?

Are they toxic?

What doses are safe?

How do they interact with chemotherapy or other medicines?

Have any of these plants been studied in humans?

Can promising compounds eventually become standardised medicines?

These are scientific questions.

And they are questions worth asking.

But "Natural" Does Not Mean "Safe"

This is one of the most important messages TCM Nigeria can communicate.

A person diagnosed with cancer may understandably search everywhere for hope. They may hear that a particular herb, root, mixture or traditional preparation has cured somebody else.

But cancer patients should not secretly combine unverified herbal preparations with chemotherapy or other medicines.

The World Health Organization has specifically documented both beneficial and harmful interactions between herbal medicines and conventional medicines. Some herbs can alter how medicines are absorbed, metabolised or eliminated, potentially affecting their effectiveness or toxicity. 

Therefore, one practical message should be repeated:

If you are receiving cancer treatment, tell your doctor about every herb, supplement, tea or traditional preparation you are taking.

This is not an attack on herbal medicine.

It is an argument for responsible herbal medicine.

Traditional Medicine and the Cancer Hospital Should Not Always Be Enemies

Perhaps Nigeria needs to move beyond the argument of traditional medicine versus orthodox medicine.

What if the future is not either/or?

What if it is:

traditional knowledge + modern science + clinical medicine + pharmacology + public health?

WHO's current Traditional Medicine Strategy for 2025–2034 explicitly promotes the development and integration of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine in ways that are evidence-based, culturally respectful and aligned with health-system needs. 

That is an important direction.

The traditional practitioner may possess knowledge about a plant.

The botanist can identify the species.

The pharmacologist can investigate its compounds.

The toxicologist can study its safety.

The laboratory scientist can investigate its biological activity.

The oncologist can help determine whether there is a meaningful clinical question.

The clinical researcher can conduct trials.

And regulators can determine whether a product is safe, consistent and suitable for public use.

That is how traditional knowledge can become part of modern scientific discovery without pretending that every traditional claim is already scientifically proven.

And Then There Is the Question of Faith

There is another conversation we need to have honestly.

Traditional healing in Africa has sometimes existed within religious and spiritual systems. For some practitioners, medicinal plants and spiritual practices are deeply interconnected.

As a Christian platform, TCM Nigeria does not need to promote religious practices that conflict with Christian beliefs.

But neither does being Christian require us to reject every medicinal plant because some traditional cultures have used plants within religious practices.

We can make an important distinction:

The medicinal plant is one question. The spiritual practice surrounding its use is another.

We can investigate the chemistry of a plant without participating in a religious ritual.

We can study indigenous knowledge without adopting every belief associated with it.

We can appreciate African history while remaining faithful to our own Christian convictions.

For us, the responsibility is to pursue healing knowledge honestly, without confusing scientific investigation with religious endorsement.

The Bible itself speaks positively about the provision and use of plants in the context of life and healing, but Scripture should not be used carelessly to claim that a particular herb is a proven treatment for a particular cancer.

Faith can guide our values.

Science can investigate our claims.

Good healthcare requires honesty about both.

Can Ifá Be Digitised?

This brings us to an entirely different but surprisingly connected question.

At a recent water workshop, a question arose that deserves much more attention:

Can the worship or practice of Ifá be digitised?

It sounds like a question about technology.

But it is actually a question about culture, religion, knowledge and identity.

Elements of Ifá knowledge have already appeared in digital applications and electronic platforms. Researchers have also examined what happens when aspects of Ifá divination are translated into computerised systems.

But digitising information is not necessarily the same thing as digitising worship.

A computer can store text.

An application can present verses.

An algorithm can process information.

But can an algorithm reproduce the human, cultural, spiritual and communal dimensions of a sacred tradition?

And who should have the authority to digitise sacred knowledge?

Who owns it?

Who controls it?

What should be publicly available?

What should remain within the custodianship of traditional practitioners?

These questions become even more important in the age of artificial intelligence.

But Christianity Has Been Digitised Too

If we ask whether Ifá can be digitised, we should ask the same question about Christianity.

Christian worship has already entered the digital world.

Churches stream services.

Pastors preach through YouTube and social media.

People read digital Bibles.

Prayer meetings take place through messaging platforms.

Sermons are downloaded and shared around the world.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in Nigeria and elsewhere rapidly expanded their use of digital platforms for worship, fellowship and ministry.

So perhaps the question is not simply:

"Can religion be digitised?"

It clearly can, at least in some forms.

The deeper question is:

"What happens to worship when technology becomes the medium through which people encounter it?"

A digital Bible is not the same thing as a church community.

A livestream is not identical to physically gathering with other believers.

An app can provide information, but information is not necessarily spiritual formation.

The same distinction may apply to Ifá.

Technology can preserve, transmit and organise knowledge.

But whether it can reproduce the full human and spiritual experience of a religious tradition is a much more difficult question.

Perhaps This Is Where TCM Nigeria Has a Unique Role

At first glance, cancer, herbs, Christianity, Ifá and digital technology may appear to have nothing in common.

But they actually meet at one important point:

knowledge.

Who owns knowledge?

Who preserves it?

Who tests it?

Who believes it?

Who is allowed to question it?

What happens when ancient knowledge meets modern science?

What happens when traditional knowledge enters a smartphone?

And what happens when knowledge that was once transmitted orally becomes searchable by artificial intelligence?

These are questions Nigeria will increasingly have to answer.

From Celebrity Deaths to Something Bigger

Perhaps this is how we should remember Ogogo.

Not simply with another headline announcing that a beloved actor has died.

Not simply with photographs, tributes and condolences.

But by asking what his death can teach us about the health of our society.

Can we improve cancer awareness?

Can we encourage earlier medical attention?

Can we make cancer diagnosis more accessible?

Can we strengthen palliative care?

Can we investigate Nigeria's medicinal plants properly?

Can we protect traditional knowledge from exploitation?

Can traditional practitioners and medical doctors communicate better?

Can we investigate herbal medicines without making exaggerated claims?

Can Christians engage African traditional knowledge thoughtfully without compromising their faith?

Can technology preserve indigenous knowledge without stripping it of its cultural context?

And can Nigeria build a healthcare future in which science does not have to destroy culture before progress can happen?

The Work Ahead

Ogogo's death should remind us that grief alone is not enough.

We must mourn.

But we must also investigate.

We must question.

We must research.

We must document.

We must test.

We must regulate.

We must educate.

And above all, we must stop making promises to desperate patients that science has not yet proved.

There may indeed be medicines hidden within Nigeria's plants that have not yet been discovered. There may be valuable knowledge within our traditional medical heritage that deserves scientific investigation.

But discovery requires work.

It requires laboratories.

It requires universities.

It requires clinical researchers.

It requires traditional practitioners willing to share knowledge responsibly.

It requires government and private investment.

And it requires a generation willing to bridge the worlds of indigenous knowledge and modern science.

That, perhaps, is a more fitting legacy to pursue.

Let the death of those we love make us ask better questions—not merely write more obituaries.

And let TCM Nigeria be part of that conversation.