Experience in Sokoto suggests that traditional medicine can be successfully introduced as a distinct academic discipline into the curriculum of a modern African medical school. The importance of such a step lies in two facts. Firstly, for the foreseeable future most people in developing countries will turn to traditional medicine at times of sickness, so modern doctors should be acquainted with its principles and methods. Secondly, within traditional medicine there is a body of important knowledge that needs to be explored and studied. If exposed early and gradually to the subject, medical students are likely to become more effective both as health workers and as contributors to medical science.