Indian Vigra (faux herbal Viagra) pills to enhance male sexual function, containing Chinese herbs, purchased in Ghana, made by Tibetan Heath-Care Association, c2010.

Using a play on the trademark Viagra, the packaging claims to be a ‘purely natural preparation of South Africa Vigra Element,’ ‘safe for patients of high blood pressure, or cardiac disease or after drinking’, promising results in 15 minutes and lasting for hours. According to the packaging, it contains a range of items used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), showing the ways in which practices and treatments encountered from different cultures are selectively absorbed and re-invented. This also illustrates the spread of TCM within West Africa, little of which has been documented.

The packaging features explicit sexual imagery of white couples, raising questions about attitudes to and portrayals of sex. Purchased from a travelling trader called Comfort Owusu in Accra, Ghana, this item is one of several collected for the Science Museum by Jonathan Roberts, lecturer at Mount Saint Vincent University and a specialist in the history of medicine and religion in West Africa. Jonathan’s work focuses on the many forms of healing present in Accra, where people have a range of choices in the healthcare they seek, fusing together different medical and healing systems.