|
I
found a piece from Mr. Lukong's article deserving of some commentary.
"Recently
in Britain, a laboratory isolated an "active ingredient" from the
vegetable. According to the Cameroonian botanist, Nkongmenneck Bernard, the
scientists have not released the name of this active ingredient to protect their
intellectual property rights."
The
last statement is particularly mind boggling for varied reasons principally
amongst which is the issue of biopiracy in Africa. Gnetum africanum (eru) is an
unacquired African plant. Has been used by Africans for centuries and grows (to
the best of my knowledge) only in Africa. Africans identified the plant. It
follows that any derivative benefits of such a plant belong to the people of the
region where it was found and who have been using it. Should a foreign scientist
be allowed to isolate any part of this plant and get absolute intellectual
property rights to it?
Lately
in International law there has been increased assertiveness by some African
states to stop this trend of biopiracy. For example, a plant that has been used
by the KhoiSan communities for centuries and was recently shown to a foreign
scientist who realized that its medicinal values were potentially significant to
the US where weight gain has become a major public health issue and a
multi-billion dollar industry was the subject of a biopiracy suit. In Namibia
and South Africa, the KhoiSan people successfully brought litigations against
the giant pharmaceutical Pfizer to make sure that whatever benefits, (gains from
intellectual property rights) accrued from this autochthonous plant that causes
weight loss, the Khoi and San communities in Africa would be its primary
beneficiaries.
Maybe
we need to take a cue from our brothers in Southern Africa and pass laws that
protect such plants/wildlife and knowledge before its too late. Unless we do
this, our lore and indigenous medicinal plants are at risk of being pirated and
protected by unscrupulous scientists and businesses in the West! Such benefits
deserve to come to us, our children and our communities.
|
