The Sunday Mail
This is a book chapter extract from “Decolonising Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in an age of techno-colonialism: Recentring African Knowledge and Belief Systems” by Artwell Nhemachena and others.
The extract, “Global Coloniality through Science and Technology: The theft of African Traditional Medicinal Knowledge”, which we publish here in full was written by academic, Alex Munyonga.
ARMED with financial, legal and cultural ammunition, Western countries scour the globe with the goal of looting indigenous knowledge.
They hunt for traditional knowledge from the world’s impoverished through deceitful antics. Africa has been the major victim of cultural terrorism from the West. Cultural terrorism entails the demonisation of African culture and all that is associated with it.
African religion, herbal lore and diet have been branded as backward. The West thus, branded Africa as a dark continent, incapable of any scientific discoveries. This chapter argues that such Western descriptions of Africa are misguided and prejudiced since Africans have been scientifically exceptional in the field of bio-medicine from time immemorial.
Gifted with abundant flora and fauna, Africans developed bio-medical knowledge that sustained them well before the arrival of the imperialists. It is unfortunate that colonialism and its imperial machinations locked African medical knowledge in a cage of stagnation through unscrupulous legality and ownership mechanisms.
The Witchcraft Suppression Act during is one such oppressive and suppressive legal instrument that branded African traditional medicine as backward.
The 21st century has seen no improvement on Western gaze on Africa as it is enveloped by post-colonial imperial frolics through bio-piracy, skewed patenting and other intolerant intellectual property rights claims.
Western initiated and directed herbal and medicinal researches on African soil, have proved to be a knowledge spy endeavor designed to identify and loot African traditional herbal and medicinal lore while reducing Africans to “hunters and gatherers” of knowledge.
In this respect, a new cultivar of global coloniality is manifesting through science and technology.
However, people’s preference for traditional foods and herbs over genetically modified organisms and other allopathic and synthetic drugs in the world today, testifies the value of traditional medical knowledge in the 21st century.
The fact is not that Africans were and are devoid of scientific discoveries. Instead, the wealth of the African medical lore has and is still being stolen, plundered and cartelised by the giant Western pharmaceutical companies who use their political and financial stamina to entangle and drain African traditional medical knowledge for the benefit of the West.
Sadly, as the African-discovered drugs do wonders the world over, the African source of the patented knowledge is ignored. Even though royalty payments are proposed, such is not enough. Instead, Africans have to own and protect their medical knowledge. This chapter, therefore, argues that Africa has to work on ownership and control mechanisms for their traditional medical lore.
Pre-colonial African herbal lore ownership, control and preservation
The essence of traditional medicine attracts varying feelings across the globe depending on the metaphysical orientation of the persons concerned. Westerners usually demonise traditional herbal knowledge and the capacity of Africans to pioneer any scientific discovery or development.
Such undermining of African scientific capabilities especially in the medicinal field dates back to the colonial period and has persisted in the 21st century though in a different guise.
Pre-colonial Africa owned, controlled and preserved its traditional herbal and medicinal knowledge.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined African traditional medicine as the knowledge and practices, explicable or not, used in the diagnosis, prevention and elimination of physical, mental or societal imbalances for a particular indigenous people.
In this respect, every group of people had its understanding and ways of interacting with nature for the benefit of humanity. Such, constitute the indigenous knowledge for that particular group. Science and technology bridged the gap between nature and human needs in traditional Africa.
African indigenous people were, therefore, the best architectures of science and technologies in their localities, especially in the field of bio-medicine. Africa enjoyed climatic and environmental advantages.
Madagascar, for example, is said to have 70 percent unique species of fauna and flora. Such an advantage gave Africa ample ground to experiment and discover herbal and medicinal qualities of fauna and flora that surrounded them. It needs to be highlighted that African metaphysical orientation gave the Africans unity with their fauna and flora hence a room to discover its herbal and medicinal qualities.
The herbal and medicinal knowledge was influenced by internal creativity and experimentation for livelihoods over a long period of time. Traditional medical lore, therefore, became an African brewed knowledge system that was owned, controlled and preserved by Africans, guided by African metaphysics, for the benefit of the African people.
African metaphysics is understood to reflect the African universe of experience and the reality of such experience (Etim, 2013). This was corroborated by Ozumba (2004) who remarked that African metaphysics entails the African world view concerning the existential bugging issues they face in life. Existence from an African metaphysical point of view is onto-triadic in profile. It comprises of three hierarchies namely the Supreme Being at top, followed by other spiritual beings like ancestors in their descending order of seniority, while the material beings, including human beings, constitute the lower section of the ladder (Mbiti, 1969).
What is important here is the fact that there was a very active interaction between the Supreme Being, other spiritual beings and the animate as well as the inanimate world in Traditional African society.
The spiritual realm in the face of ancestral spirits and alien spirits as guided by the Supreme Being endowed the African people with some specialist herbal and other medicinal knowledge. It was common in traditional Africa to have a person with a healing spirit (shavi rekurapa) in Shona.
Through the guidance of such a spirit the individual was able to discover herbs and other medicinal materials with curative abilities for the benefit of society at large. Guided by the spiritual beings, diviners provided diagnosis for health challenges then the herbalist chose and applied relevant remedies.
Herbalists, medicine man and midwives were good examples of figures who had specialist herbal and medicinal knowledge in traditional African societies (Chavhunduka, 1994).
Interestingly the knowledge about plants and medicine was kept a secret and only passed to the next generation of practitioners. The secrecy here need to be understood as security against theft or misappropriation of the medicinal knowledge. Warren (1991) made it clear that the knowledge was intergenerational and kept in trust for the future generation.
It is purely practical experience, proven through trial and error, that was handed down. In this respect, herbal and medicinal discoveries were a product of thorough “experimentation”. It is important to note at this juncture that what is important is not whether the preservation was through written records or through orature.
What is crucial is the fact that traditional African people possessed tried and tested herbal and medicinal knowledge well before the colonisers set foot on African soil. The San people, for example, are best described as first class botanists, who can identify over 300 different plants with different properties (New Africa, December 2013).
In this regard it is the way a given people interact with their biological resources that give rise to a knowledge that is unique to that group since those people are the ones who know their environment better. Interestingly, the herbal and medicinal knowledge was not commercialised. No profit motive was attached to the possession of such knowledge.
The knowledge was a communal property for the benefit of that community and not for profit realisation. If ever a payment was made, it was just a token of appreciation especially after the restoration of one’s health. Usually a hen was given to the herbalist, medicine man or midwife, just as a token of appreciation (Chavhunduka, 1994).
Such sanity and unity with traditional herbal and medicinal lore was disturbed by the bullying nature of the Western colonisers on Africa. The next section therefore briefly presents Western racial and cultural terrorism on Africa as the basis for the theft of African herbal and medicinal lore.
Western Racial and Cultural Terrorism on Africa: The Foundation for Theft of African Traditional Medicine
Western racistic machinations against Africans have been in existence from time immemorial. Racistic philosophers like Kant, Hegel, Hume and the like described the white race as a ‘model race’. The Negroes/Africans were relegated to the level of the lower animals. Racial and cultural terrorism on Africa in this chapter is presented to mean any denigration or onslaught on the African people and their customs. Though the Western picture of Africans is heart breaking for the African people it is not the thrust of this chapter to rekindle African painful memories of brutality at the hands of the Whites. The historical account is also not an anthropological treatise, instead it is just a brief narrative aimed at bringing to light the fact that African scientific capabilities have been crippled through a lengthy history of suppression and theft. The racist narratives avail the root for global coloniality through science and technology in the 21st century.
Kant (1764) as cited in (Eze, 2009) described Negroe Africans as black, with an abundance of iron in the body which make them stink. He added that Africans have no feeling of the beautiful beyond the trifling. Just like Kant, Hume as quoted in (Eze, 2009) also remarked that ‘not a single example can be cited in which a Negroe has shown any talents. He added that among all the hundreds of thousands of Negroes transported from Africa to Europe as slaves, not a single one was ever found who ever presented anything great in art or science or any other praiseworthy quality. Contrary, Hume presents whites as people who rose aloft even from the worst rabble. He presents whites as people who have divinely ordained superior gifts which make them respected across the world. It was claimed that the Negroes, if they do not mix with the whites, will remain Negroes even in the midst of the most civilized western cities. The above insights present the white people as superhuman beings who are at the steering of all scientific and technological discoveries in the world. Africans are therefore forced to believe that their epistemologies are inferior to those of the Whiteman.
In the 21st century, the whites still believe that they are the torch bearers in as far as medicinal and scientific knowledge is concerned. Africans on the other hand accept their inferiority. Such an inferiority dilemma, provides a very fertile seedbed for the stealing of African traditional lore especially in the field of biomedicine. Viriri and Mungwini (2009) made it clear that Westernism has an arrogant and aggressive gaze on Africa. The theft of African biomedicine therefore starts with the demonization of African values, metaphysics and epistemology. As long as African mental incarceration persists, African herbal and medicinal discoveries will remain overshadowed by Western scientist and syphoned out. Asante and quoted in (Mengara, 2001) made it clear that an African invented for European purposes could no longer serve the interests of its own people. Cultural and racial onslaught on the Africans by the West was in fact a double edged sword used to conquer and steal African traditional medical knowledge. The Africans have thus been described as people living in the abyss of darkness in as far as science and technology are concerned. Such claims are not only fallacious but also dangerous in as far as it exposes African epistemologies to a new cultivar of post-colonial coloniality in the field of science and technology.
It is critical to note that, at contact with Western modernity everything African earned the designation of ‘tradition’. In 1828, Hegel vowed to forget Africa, for it is no part of human history. African knowledge systems were thus branded as backward and archaic. Hegelian, Kantian, Humean and other Racistic mentalities proved to have propelled colonialism and post-colonial imperialism. It is critical to observe that history and culture are intertwined. Cultural oppression by imperialist forces was thus an attack on the nervous system of the African herbal and medicinal knowledge. Through ‘cultural inoculation’ Western imperialists found a very strong anchorage upon which African herbal and medicinal knowledge was plundered, looted and patented for the benefit of the West. The West attempted to obliterate everything African, replacing it with their own conception of life (Wiredu K. , 1996). Western culture and religion was presented as a ‘universal culture’. In the same vein, colonialists and early missionaries were actually haste purveyors of this ‘universal Western culture’ which branded anything African as devilish and backward. It is within this state of affairs that traditional medicine was branded as uncivilized, heathen and ‘unholy’. It is paining to note that as Africans despise their own herbal and medicinal lore, the Westerners grab, rebrand, patent and personalize the looted knowledge.
Traditional medicinal knowledge is generally described as such knowledge held by those people who are not regarded as ‘developed’ in as far as modern science and civilization is concerned (Herman, 2012). Such a description of traditional knowledge points to some marginality and nativity. Such an understanding of traditional knowledge thus exposes African herbal and medicinal lore to Western bullying. Smith (2008) describe Western scientific researchers as knowledge thieves. He made it clear that these knowledge thieves first dehumanize their subjects, indoctrinate African children with epistemologies that paint their own culture, knowledge and their being as backward (Smith, 2008). Most of the so called ‘civilized’ Africans have come to accept that African medicine is a domain of the uneducated and the ‘uncivilized’. It is a pity that most ‘mentally colonized’ Africans do not see the value in their traditional knowledge. They fail to understand that the Western demonization of African cultural and medicinal lore is a Western prepared concoction for the plunder of the very traditional herbal and medicinal lore. In the process such Africans, watch as their knowledge treasure is looted by the West in the pretext of civilization.
During the colonial era, Western imperialists made concerted efforts towards distancing the African people from their traditional herbal and medical practices. During this period traditional healers underwent strange mutation as legislation like Witchcraft Suppression Act as well as the Witchcraft Suppression Amendment Act were instituted (Mposhi, 2013). Such legal instruments prohibited diviners and other traditional medical practitioners from practicing their trade. Traditional medicine was deemed unhygienic and a risky to the health and well-being of people. It was also branded as old fashioned, attached to the past and unchanging while ‘modernity’ claimed constant renewal and movement towards the future. Precisely African culture was presented as one that was dying and lying prostrate at the mercy of Western modernity and science. Africans were relegated from the equation of reasonableness. They were reduced to consumers of Western brewed medicinal dishes in the face of allopathic drugs which were branded as possessing healing wonders if compared to traditional medicines. The next section presents how these allopathic drugs further munched the African respect for traditional medicines.
Allopathic Drugs and The Swallowing of African Traditional Medicinal Essence
The arrival of ‘Western medicine’ in Africa was accompanied by the stigmatization of ancestral medicine, paving way for allopathic drugs. African medicine is grossly regarded as the preserve of the uneducated, uncivilized and regressive people. T was also regarded as of poor quality, efficiency and effectiveness. This was in earnest a market penetration and monopolizing gimmick by the Western pharmaceutical companies. Western medicine is usually glorified as the most effective even when the so called Western drugs have synthesized healing components from African traditional plants. It is the insidious intrusions by the West into African Indigenous Knowledge Systems that signaled disaster for the vibrancy of African medical system. The African traditional medicinal legacy was dislocated by Western supremacist and thieving tendencies.
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) as quoted in Shetty (2010) reported that up to 80% of the world’s population depend on traditional medicine for primary health care, there remains severe criticism against such practices especially from the Western countries who want to pave a market road for their allopathic drugs. The Zimbabwean (11 March 2010) reported that stigma associated with Traditional Medicine led to many Zimbabweans shunning the use of traditional medicine in favour of allopathic drugs. It is key to observe that before colonialism in Africa, African people viewed the forest as their pharmacy, butchery, granary and the like. This implied effective and sustainable use of the environment for the benefit of the people. Solutions to most health problems, dietary and food issues were in fauna and flora life that surrounded the Africans. Health needs of the society were therefore catered for through herbal and medicinal knowledge possessed by African specialists. All this was however rubbished by the attraction of Western medical and diet provisions. It need to be understood that imperialism is a profit oriented endeavor. As such, as the West demonized traditional medicine they were paving the market way for their pharmaceutical companies. These companies engage in some treacherous and skewed researches designed to plunder and loot African traditional herbal and other medicinal knowledge. It is the goal of the next section to bring to light how giant pharmaceutical companies are agents of theft of traditional medicine from Africa.
Giant Western Pharmaceuticals and the Thievery of African Traditional Medicine Through Research
There is a wide range of the world’s renowned drugs that are argued to have been discovered from African traditional knowledge.
Modern drugs like quinine, salicyclic acid, artemisnin and the like are said to have been discovered from African traditional medicinal knowledge (Mposhi, 2013). What is crucial is to point out the fact that such traditional medicinal knowledge doing wonders in the world and ‘possessed’ by the Western pharmaceuticals have been stolen from the Africans through treacherous researches. Traditional herbs are crucial in providing leads for the development of useful pharmaceutical products. Due to potential benefits giant Western pharmaceutical companies invade Africa to harvest indigenous medicinal knowledge for the benefit of their companies and countries. Western pharmaceutical companies, with their capitalistic and exploitative orientation, see in Africa a source of wealth through abundant medical knowledge among Africans. Western scientists have shifted their interest towards genetic resources in a bid to make super profits through solving global health challenges like HIV and cancers. Whereas the development of new and useful drugs is not bad in itself, it is the stealing of African Traditional medical knowledge through bio-piracy that is of concern in this chapter.
The American Heritage Dictionary (2009) defined bio-piracy as biological theft involving the illegal collection of indigenous plants by corporations who patent them for their own use without fair compensation to the indigenous people who originally discovered the plant. Giant Western pharmaceuticals have realized that the synthetic route for developing new medicine has relatively lower success rate. As such, these Western pharmaceuticals engage Africans in herbal and medicinal researches for which Africans are never the subjects of the research. Nhemachena et al (2016) remarked that African people participated in Western designed researches more as ‘hunters and gatherers’ of ‘raw data’. In most cases Africans are engaged by Western researchers as research assistants, translators, informants and the like much to the amusement of the African participants. The African inferiority mentality that was cultivated into the minds of Africans through racial and cultural terrorism by the West become a cancer in this instance. Africans feel honored to be research assistants for the Western researchers without realizing that in the process they were nourishing imperial projects across the African continent. In the guise of researches and exchange programs, Africans are ‘softly coerced’ into surrendering to the West African traditional medicinal knowledge, gathered over years of intergenerational experience, exchange and preservation.
The Case of Klara Wajkowska: A ‘Self-Styled’ Polish ‘Spirit Medium’
Zimbabwean Kwayedza, Newspaper of October 5-11 2018 carried a story entitled, “Mwana ‘waMisisi’ In’anga) translated to mean, ‘A child of white parentage (Mrs) is a traditional healer.’
The story involves a 31-year-old Polish lady, Klara Wajkowska who is referred to as ‘mbuya’, (implying that she is a spirit medium). This lady purported that she was possessed by an ancestral spirit of the Shumba (Lion) totem hence she is referred to as ‘mbuya Masibanda’. Klara claimed that she had visited Zimbabwe for some rituals and exchange of herbal and medicinal knowledge. She stayed in Nharira forests near Norton and was assisted by a group of Zimbabwean traditional healers who toured the forests with Klara, showing her medicinal herbs and also explaining the ailments cured by each of the herbs. Interestingly Klara collected the dried and also the ground herbal samples which she intended to carry back to Poland. This lived story is crucial for this chapter as it presents other angles through which African herbal knowledge is looted in broad day light and even in the presents of the traditional healers who are supposed to be guardians of the African traditional herbal lore.
It is the submission of this chapter that Klara claimed to be a spirit medium of the Shumba totem so as to be easily accommodated by the Zimbabwean healers. A brief biography of Klara raises suspicion over the intension of her visit to Zimbabwe. While Klara is said to be a holder of three degrees and working towards another degree her father is said to be a mathematics professor (Kwayedza, October 5-11 2018). Reading from between the lines there is every reason to believe that Klara is carrying out her post graduate studies, likely PhD Degree in traditional herbal and medicinal lore. The fact that her father is a mathematics professor may give a hint to the scientific orientation of Klara. She praised the preservation of African traditional customs as a way of courting the approval of the Zimbabwean traditional healers who would then graciously avail to her advantage all their herbal knowledge. In the guise of herbal exchange Programme with Zimbabwean herbalists Klara harvested Zimbabwean herbal lore for free and transported herbal samples to Poland, most probably for bio-prospecting. The surrendering of Zimbabwean traditional medicinal knowledge by Zimbabwean traditional healers from Nharira forests to Klara, a Polish researcher, is just a practical example of what is happening across Africa. Africans who are used as research assistants are, in the process, used as conduits through whom African indigenous herbal and medicinal knowledge is stolen from Africa by the West.
The participation of Africans in scientific researches including herbal and medical researches sounds as an honor for the Africans. However, for just a little allowances African herbal and medicinal lore is donated to the Western researchers on a platter. Indigenous herbalists are interviewed and lured into touring herbal fields/ forest and innocently divulge the medicinal value of the herbs in the belief that it’s just a research. The double standard of the Western Pharmaceutical companies is manifested when they secretly patent the herbs / drugs submitted for research without the knowledge and consent of the African indigenous people. Indigenous herbal knowledge is thus researched and expropriated from the African people by the giant pharmaceutical companies Sharma in (Nhemachena et al 2016). Such practices cannot be described in any kind words other than looting, stealing and plundering of African traditional herbal knowledge for selfish benefits. The West are clandestinely looting African medicinal knowledge while hiding behind the banner of sponsored scientific researches. When allopathic drugs are developed from the stolen herbal and medicinal knowledge it is the West who are glorified while the primary source of the medicinal knowledge, Africa, is ignored. The paining reality is that, as the Westerners explore the breadth and width of Africa for medicinal knowledge, no African is allowed to explore the West. Nhemachena (2016) made it clear that Africa can be researched upon, but cannot research the West. Africans can be research assistants but cannot lead the research. Africans avail herbal knowledge for lab testing but are distanced from the developed drug that come forth. A good example is To use Immanuel Kant’s words as translated by Paton, the Africans are used as a means to the West’s own end (Kant, 1964). Such are the shocking realities in science and technology in the 21st century, hence global coloniality through science and technology.
The West do not only steal herbal and medicinal knowledge, instead, they steal talented personnel as well. There is robust competition for medical knowledge and talent across the world and the winner is the one with money at the end of the day. Western funded scholarships in the field of medicine are vast for African talented scholars. Their researched are modelled towards the medicinal and scientific demands of the Western sponsors. This way, African scholars are made to research on herbal and medicinal knowledge in their home countries. In exchange for the sponsorship, African traditional herbal and medicinal knowledge is leaked into the Western domains. Such brain drain is benefiting the West. In simpler terms, African loss is gain for the Westerners. Mills (2011) revealed from his research that The United Kingdom benefited $2,7 billion and USA $846 million through health professionals brain drain from Africa. Of importance here is the fact that countries like UK and USA can use the health African health professionals to research on and steal African herbal and medicinal knowledge for the benefit of these Western countries. The Western knowledge thieves are quite cognizant of the need to safe guard their loot. To bolter their security over the stolen herbal and medicinal knowledge, the West employ different forms of legality tools like patenting. The legal instruments for protecting the looted lore make up the next section of the chapter.
Intellectual Property Rights: Western Legality for the Protection of Stolen Knowledge
Various legal instruments have been put in place by the Western countries to safeguard their pharmaceutical loot. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) have proved to be the new weapon for global coloniality in the 21st century. IPRs are rights given to persons for the creations of their minds. These rights are derived from what are known as Lockean rights which were proposed by the social and political philosopher, John Locke. These rights enable the owner to enjoy the benefits of his/ her creation. The general premise for such rights is to motivate the owner of the innovation and stimulate further discoveries, (Warren, 1991). IPRs include patents, copyrights, trademarks, geographic indications, trade secrets and trade designs (Mposhi, 2013). This section is more interested in patents as they are used in the protection of science and technological knowledge. Saha (2005) defines a patent as an exclusive right granted by a country to the owner of an invention. Such right wad off competition and promote monopoly in the production and marketing of a particular invention or discovery. Patenting therefore is a form of durawall so that no one else can make, use, manufacture or market the invention without the consent of the ‘owner’. In the context of biomedical knowledge, there are complexities in determining and ascertaining the owner given the long history of looting of traditional biomedical knowledge especially from Africa. The other challenge lies in the fact that it is the looters who grant the patents. Such a playing field is obviously undulating, rugged and prejudiced towards the Western looters. In light of such an observation patents are an avenue for scientific and technological bullying of Africa by the West.
Armed with Intellectual Property Rights ammunition, the greedy, selfish and cruel Western knowledge predators embark on global coloniality through scientific and technological knowledge patenting. A snap survey on the Trade Related International Property(TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization unveils a plethora of articles with a bullying impact on African herbal and medicinal knowledge. Frommer (2003) spelled out that article 27.3(b) gives space for the ‘mighty’ in world politico-economic issues to seize and monopolize particular knowledge. Historically the (IPR) only applied to works of art and /or industrial innovations. However, article 27.3(b) extended exclusive rights of ownership to property and processes derived from biological substances (Frommer, 2003). A telescopic look at the details of the article proves that the article was designed and lobbied by industrialized nations who developed and profited from biologically related substances and processes, for which the bulk was stolen from the developing world. The specifics of this article testifies that there is no justice and fairness whatsoever in the patenting processes on the part of the developing world. The worrying issue is the fact that the article is designed in such a way that stolen medical knowledge from Africa is quickly durawalled and electric fenced through this cruel legal instrument. It is so paining to note that the real owners of some of the ‘fenced’ knowledge, in this case Africans become aliens to the knowledge they preserved and protected as handed to them by the past generation. Through (IPR) and instruments like patents the West gained control over African traditional genetic resources. As a results, though Africans live nearer to their herbal resources they are so estranged from them through unscrupulous legality. Western industrial Laboratories, academia and patent offices have therefore become slaughter houses for African herbal and medicinal lore (The Patriot, 26 April 2018). Such a state of affairs deserves no other description other than global coloniality through science and technology.
The coloniality of patenting lies in the fact that the patenting system does not protect herbal lore nurtured in Africa over generations. As the giant pharmaceutical companies scour the globe ripping traditional knowledge from poorest communities, the poverty stricken owners of that knowledge are never consulted, neither are they recognized or compensated. The patent system also lay claims in the name of research discoveries on plants, foods and other medicinal knowledge that is innately indigenous and have been used and relied on by African people for centuries (Pawledge, 2001). If the IPRs were fair, respecting innovation and knowledge possession irrespective of geographical location of the owner, then herbal and medicinal knowledge of African people should have been the most respected due to its long history of experience, use and preservation. Shockingly African people are made to accept that their herbal and medicinal knowledge is inferior compared to Western allopathic drugs. Western pharmaceutical researchers are thus selfist in orientation. Nhemachena, (2016) described such researchers as ‘collectors and gatherers’ of African traditional knowledge for their advantages and the benefit of their home countries.
A close look shows that; the very applauded allopathic drugs are extracted from natural African herbs. Aloe vera for instance is commonly used by 21st century pharmaceuticals, as a recent discovery, yet history has it that the aloe have been used by the Egyptians for fungal and bacterial treatment as long as 6000 years ago (The Patriot, 26 April 2018) .The Patriot also report of another African herb, the devil’s claw, that was stolen by the West. This herb is found in the Kalahari Desert and the Zambezi valley in Africa and was used by Africans from antiquity to treat cancer of the skin and fevers of all kinds. Interestingly developed countries have bulldozed their way in and grabbed the herd to develop drugs that are being used to cure several conditions like gastro-intestinal problems, arthritis , diabetes and the like (The Patriot, 26 April 2018). Shockingly a German pharmaceutical firm have already patented the herb for commercialization and marketing globally without any recognition or benefit sharing with local communities and governments in Africa. The other shocking truth is that the pirated and packaged drug is thrown into the market including Africa. Though Africa has provided raw medicinal knowledge towards the development of the drug it is nerve stripping to observe that prices for those lifesaving drugs is far higher than in Europe (The New York Times, 17 June 2000). The implication is that medicinal pricing system by Western Pharmaceutical companies is deliberately for profit maximization, leaving Africans in desperation. This artificial desperation reduces Africans to toys, so that in desperation they cry to the West for Aid which entangle them in the process. The 21st century therefore is the epicenter of historic global coloniality through science and technology.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the watchdog for the observance of the Trade Related International Property Rights (TRIPS). It is saddening to bring to light the fact that no African nation is part of the decision making board of this organization. The WTO and its TRIPS is protective only to the developed world, while exposing African herbal and medicinal knowledge to exploitation by the West. In this respect there seem to be a new scramble for Africa whose main objective is the theft of African herbal and medicinal lore, hence global coloniality through science and technology in the 21st century. WTO also demand compliance to TRIPS from all members including African ones. Sanctions are preferred on all members who violate the articles of TRIPS. This is a double tragedy for the Africans who are compelled to be members in exchange for Aid and other related assistance. When they are members, they are then molested and forced to comply with patenting systems of Western pharmaceuticals, even when it is manifest that African herbal and medicinal knowledge have been pirated. Following such observations, it suffices to affirm that, global coloniality through science and technology is not a myth but a reality. International Intellectual Property Rights legislation is flawed and inclined towards the West. The legislation acts as a spider’s web that traps small insects, (African pharmaceutical companies and personnel) while bigger game (Western pharmaceuticals) just bulldoze through. Global coloniality has thus proved to be a cancerous acid of gut-rot eating the inner intestines of African herbal and medicinal lore. A new cultivar of coloniality in the face of knowledge colonization by the West has thus surfaced and is being nourished through science and technology and trapping pan type of aid. Aid in all its cultivar have often been used to coerce the Africans to remain silent about the theft of their traditional medicinal knowledge. The coercive nature of Western initiated aid makes up the focus of the next section of this chapter.
Looted Knowledge, Medicinal Developments and Post-Colonial Colonization of Africa
The very knowledge stolen from Africa is used as a decoy to ensnare the Africans. All this point to global coloniality through science and technology in the 21st century. The Western imperialist machinery has taken the science and technology route in the 21st century. Conditional health related aid to the developing countries is used to incarcerate the African continent and force it to expose more natural resources for Western plundering. In this vein, drugs developed from the smuggled and stolen African traditional medicinal knowledge are returned to Africa as decoys for post-colonial colonization. Trade agreements and other health agreements are signed all for the benefit of the Western pharmaceutical companies and their home countries. It is the asymmetrical nature of the aid relationship between the West and Africa that is soaring. At the end of the day Africans continue to starve and even die of various ailments while in the midst of abundant resources.
Niyokuru (2016) defined aid as ‘assistance’ that usually come from former colonial powers to strengthen bilateral ties with the former colony. The corrupt nature of Western aid to Africa is its conditionality and selectivity. In the guise of unlocking foreign direct investment, African nations are ensnared to an extent that they export their ownership and control of traditional herbal and medicinal knowledge. For instance, the West may extent aid in exchange of mining or researching rights or on condition that the given countries become a signatory of some oppressive world bodies like WTO. In the process the West munch the best out of Africa. In most cases loans advanced to any state are mandated to be spent on goods and medicines supplied by the donor countries. What is worrying is the fact that much of the so called Western drugs have their roots in Africa. It is therefore a double tragedy for the Africans whose stolen herbal and medicinal knowledge is used to develop drugs which are used to further cripple the freedom, ownership and control of the African founders of the very medicinal knowledge. The conditionalities of the aid destool Africans from their epistemological peddles. Ownership and control of African medicinal knowledge becomes corrupted in the process. Independent policy formulations for Africa is curtailed due to aid restrictions and specifications. African policies with regard to ownership, control and protection of traditional medical knowledge is modelled by the West, for the best benefit of the West (Wade 2000). In the 21st century aid need to be understood therefore as a way of keeping a hand on the management of affairs of other nations for own benefit. In other words Non-Governmental Organizations’ activities are usually aligned to geopolitical interests of the home countries (Niyokuru, 2016). Economic bailouts have therefore proven to be a form of exploitation and subjugation for the African people hence a new cultivar of coloniality in the 21st century. Aid, coupled with mental colonization of the African further push the prospects of African herbal – medicinal revival into oblivion. Despite such a gloomy picture, there is a ray of light for Africa in as far as valuing of traditional health practices is concerned. There is need for a clear decision map by African policy makers if ever Africa is to enjoy benefits of the herbal and medicinal knowledge of its people. The 21st century African leaders have to synchronize their energies towards restoring African ownership, control and development of African traditional herbal and medicinal lore. The last section of this chapter presents insights into how Africa can escape 21st coloniality through science and technology by designing ‘colonial insulators’ through ownership control and development of African herbal and medicinal lore.
African Traditional Medicinal Knowledge Ownership, Control and Development: An Insulator Against Global Coloniality in the 21st Century
That Africa is already sprawled in a mud of Western subjugation is a verity. It is true also that the Europeans have installed a Euro-specific modernity tradition ideology in Africa and Africans are unquestioningly dancing to the alien tune. A closer look at the African people unveils that African possess only the geographical boundaries of the African continent while the essentials like herbal and medicinal resources within it are directed and controlled by the Western imperialist forces. In some instances, African leaders are just ceremonial leaders without any grip or autonomy when it comes to policy formulation and directing the ship of state towards a harbor of success for the citizens. Precisely they are Western mannequins and pleasers. An awareness of such shocking realities prevailing in Africa is the starting point in finding a solution to global coloniality through science and technology. Obbo, (2006) as quoted in (Viriri, 2009) made a pertinent observation that ownership of the knowledge production system is crucial for African. This chapter adds that it is not ownership only, but, ownership, control and development of traditional medicinal knowledge that leads to emancipation from global coloniality in the 21st Century.
In this 21st Century world order in which ‘colonial violence’ reverberates even in the silence of arms, there is need for Africa to reform the legal system so that it aligns to the progress path for Africa. Coloniality in the 21st Century is technical and clandestine in profile. Skewed legislative systems and Aid traps are the powerful ammunition employed in ‘modern colonialism’. Such weapons are sharpened towards protecting the economic interests of the Western imperialists. There is no way by which Africa can grow bio-medically without protecting the economic interests of the indigenous people. It is true that in traditional African society herbal and medicinal knowledge was not for profit, but for the benefit of the broader community. However, it need to be ascertained that culture is like a foot path which grows wider as people continue to walk on it. The dynamic nature of culture justifies the need for Africa to develop existing herbal and medicinal knowledge for the economic benefit of the people. Domestic legislation to protect African traditional herbal and medicinal knowledge is thus crucial for Africa. Africa has to repeal colonial legislative legacies that labelled traditional healers as ‘witches’ so as to give room for these practitioners to demonstrate their medicinal acumen.
The good in African traditional medical need to be retained while the bad is thrown away or refined. An analytical circumspection of traditional thought and culture is thus called for so as to avoid exchanging the good as well as the bad in traditional way of life for dubious cultural imports (Wiredu K. , 1984). Traditional knowledge is tried and tested since it is a product of years of trial and error. That trial and error is enough experimentation such that traditional medicine offer quality leads towards the development of drugs for the world market. As such Africans need not demonize their own epistemologies. Such a development allows the Western pharmaceutical companies to feast of such valuable knowledge. Giant strides towards ownership, control and commercialization of African traditional herbal and medicinal knowledge is thus of paramount importance in repelling global coloniality through science and technology in the 21st Century.
It is true that the hand of the West is actively involved in the looting of herbal and medicinal lore from Africa but Africa itself is not exempted from this malaise. This chapter bolsters the fact that whereas the West actively involved in global coloniality, there is a sense in which Africans themselves lubricate the colonial wheels through shunning their own cultural values and epistemologies. Taking pride in being African and in African epistemologies is the foundation for the successful development of traditional medicine and freeing it from Western molestation. It is when Western epistemologies inundate African minds that global coloniality smoothly wither and smother African scientific, technological and economic prospects. The African people need to remember the racistic sentiments of Western figures like Hegel who vowed that nothing productive can come from Africa. Figures like Kant also demonized the Africans by stating that the blackness of the African person is indicative of lack of reasoning and any scientific discovery. Africans are not supposed to be put off by Western demonization. It is a pity to find out that thousands of African people are dying of numerous ailments yet much of the world’s valuable drugs and plants are in Africa. It is the duty of the Africans to stand aloft and fight for the ownership, control and development of traditional herbal lore so as to make it valuable and beneficial to the African continent.
Africans are presented by the West as providers of ‘raw data’ for research (Nhemachena, 2016). The implication is that African do possess ‘raw minds’ as well that need to be cooked and processed in a Western pot. Such a presentation of African epistemologies is a flawed one. The truth is that African ownership and control of herbal and medicinal knowledge was grabbed by the bully Western pharmaceuticals and personalized. It is the submission of this chapter therefore that, Africans have to fight for full control of their medicinal epistemologies. They have to create own space for the transformation and development of their herbal and medicinal lore. Western patenting cages need to be broken for the West cannot be the compass and beneficiaries of African Indigenous Medicinal Knowledge Systems. As long as Africans accept Western epistemologies to be their pacesetter then emancipation of Africa from global coloniality will remain a potentiality that is never actualized. African, thus, have to rely on their metaphysics and epistemology as they develop their intergenerational herbal lore into globally marketable medicinal products. Ngugi wa Thiongo talk of the cancer of mental colonization as the ghost that haunt Africans (Thiongo, 1997). Skin bleaching by Africans is a clear testimony that most African desire modelled towards the Whiteman. It reinforces lack of African consciousness and pride, which is a cancerous ailment. This cancer need a concentrated concoction of mental decolonization so that the African mind is scoured of Western impurities of thought and left proud of being African. African educational curricular and religious orientations need to cultivate a sense of African belonging, African pride. Africans have to avoid at all cost being forced to swim in foreign metaphysical and epistemological waters whose compass they do not have. If a Western compass of action is taken, the destination can never be African but Western in as far as medicinal development is concerned.
It is not the position of this chapter to gloss over Africa in as far as medicinal and technological development is concerned. Ownership and control of the critical epistemologies alone is incomplete in fostering scientific and technological advancement for Africa. Instead, there is need for accountability also on the part of Africa. A thick cloud of skepticism hover around and hamper the possibility of a vibrant African pharmaceutical industry. The skepticism anchors on dishonesty and corruption among Africans. Traditional African medical practitioners should desist from making false claims about the efficacy and safety of traditional drugs as this reduces the credibility of indigenous drugs. In the same vein African countries have to do away with corruption. The scientific and medicinal progress route for a continent like Africa is barricaded by corrupt practices.
As Western coloniality and aggression towards Africa were blamed for African pharmaceutical stagnation, there was deafening silence on the role of corruption and bad governance in lubricating that coloniality. Generally understood, corruption is the abuse of public office through rent seeking activities for private gain, (World Bank, 1997). Extortive corruption for instance entails demanding personal compensation for services or goods, (Alatas, 1990). This form of corruption acts as an investment disincentive as those in authorizing offices demand huge sums of kick-back for them to fraudulently authorize business contracts, (Mauro, 1998). It is on this background that some pharmaceutical companies are corruptly granted space to explore and exploit African herbal and medicinal knowledge for the benefit of a selected few. The worrying fact is that gains obtained through corruption are most unlikely reinvested in the country. Offshore accounts are the main receptors of the looted wealthy. In this vein corruption is parasitic in profile. Like an aphid that suck up the life giving sap from a plant, so is corruption, as it strangles the economy and developmental possibilities. Capital leakage through corruption paralyses the economy and halts any meaningful scientific and technological development due to lack of funding. At the end of the day most African countries then desperately look at the West for Aid, which then come with entangling strings attached. Such a state of affairs is therefore an African prepared fertile ground for theft of African traditional herbal and medicinal knowledge and products.
It is a pity that corruption has actually become a vocation for those who win elections in Africa. Winning elections or ascending to an influential post is synonymous to getting a password to wealth. In such a socio-economically fragile situation solution is not in talk, but in walking the talk in stemming corruption and investing in the development of African traditional herbal and medicinal lore for the benefit of the continent. Controversial research permissions and access to African herbal and medicinal resources is unclearly granted by some African governments for the benefit of those political heavy weights.
Though the siphoning of African wealth is blamed on the Westerners, a closer look shows that it is African corruption and selfishness that is to blame more. There is a global estimate that US$539 to US$829 billion in annual capital flight from developing countries. The figure swallows an annual aid flow of US$104 billion, (The Sunday Mail, 25 March 2018). A presentation of such realities is a wakeup call for Africa. Africa has to wean self from aid dependability and unite towards owning, controlling and developing indigenous epistemologies for the good of the African people. African unity is the panacea towards meaningful ownership, control and development of African traditional herbal and medicinal lore. Aid that usually come through Western Non-Governmental Organization have proved to be a piercing arrow for African scientific and technological development plans. As long as Africans remain docile and receptive of the poisoned chalice through developmental traps then global coloniality will continue to blossom.
Conclusion
Arguments presented in this chapter are meant to open Pharmaceutical development eyes for Africa. Global coloniality through science and technology is real and not just a drill. Western pharmaceuticals are capitalizing on African desperation, low confidence and porous looting routes which are usually watered through corruption. Such, are permitting environments for the West to coerce Africans to dance according to the imperialist oppressive tunes. Sound pharmaceutical development for Africa is not a solo journey. Instead, it calls for African governments, communities and individuals to synchronize their energies towards arresting corruption so as to pave way for meaningful ownership, control and development of African herbal and medicinal lore. Clamoring for access and benefit sharing with giant Western Pharmaceuticals who loot Africa, is not a lasting solution. Without firm ownership, control and development policies in place the progress path for herbal and medicinal knowledge development for Africa will remain a mirage. Unscrupulous researches on African traditional herbs and medicines by the West have to be closely monitored so as to seal medicinal knowledge leaking points.
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