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Article: SOUTH AFRICA-ENVIRONMENT: RACE TO EXPLOIT TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE
- Article from:
- Inter Press Service English News Wire
- Article date:
- September 20, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightProvided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Eddie Koch
Inter Press Service English News Wire
09-20-1995
JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 20 (IPS) -- Local and multinational
pharmaceutical companies are scrambling for access to the medical
knowledge that South Africa's traditional healers have gathered
over the centuries.
And in the process, they are whipping up an ethical debate over
who should benefit from the country's healing folklore.
Until recently, the work of sangomas and nyangas (the two main
types of healers found in South Africa) was regarded by most
practitioners of Western medicine as mumbo-jumbo. But in the last
few months at least four major pharmaceutical companies have
visited the offices of the Traditional Doctors Association in
...