Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Distortion

Ken.

Are we sure this is a disease no one has seen before or one which the WEST has not seen before?

I am in another listserv which demonstrated textually that the Chinese have seen this outbreak before and predicted the recurrent outbreak 20 years later (just about now)

This means to the Chinese it is more of an epidemic than pandemic (whatever WHO says).  ATM may have the same perspective which westernization has swept under the carpet.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com>

Date: 02/04/2020 11:51 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Distortion

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These are really great questions, Ken. So let me go step by step but with brevity.

The question of secrecy

 Well if they were  all that secretive Sofowora and others would not have been able to get data for their work. 

 Some have shared their information to  agents of pharmaceutical companies, and others have passed on information to designated apprentices. 

Having said that, let me remind you,  that it is not unusual for professionals to guard aspects of their profession especially when there are no  job protection safety nets,  etc. So let us cut them some slack.  If you let the practitioners feel confident about their future,  those who hoard  information  now, would be less likely to do so, granted that there really is no crime in protecting  intellectual property and exercising the right to patent /copyright one's medicine.

Dealing with a new disease

Covid 19 is new, but at least classifiable into a known

category of infectious agents, namely, viruses. ATM practitioners are experts in tracking down plants with pharmacological properties. One of these  could potentially deal with  an acutely dangerous pathogen such as the corona virus.

 But why should I even 

bother to "preach"to the unconverted, when a body of literature on this subject exists -for academic researchers with genuine interest in the subject ?

Sofowora's 1982 text on Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicine is a good start, and you can move from there to Rodolfo Juliani et al. African Natural Plant Products: New discoveries..... and Maurice Iwu's , Handbook of African Medicinal Plants.

 ATM practitioners engage in plant based medicine, and have constructed a credible data base on the subject. PHYTO

 Chemical tests have been validating a lot of their claims.

We will see if the plant detectives, who have been 

testing products for generations, strike gold this time around.

gloriaemeagwali.com

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 1, 2020, at 9:36 AM, Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

hi gloria

if you would kindly forward to me the thread, i'd happily reread it. at times i do indeed type too quickly.

i believe you are referring to the african trad medicine thread where i expressed doubts about its efficacy concerning a disease no one had seen before? for diseases that have been around, testing various products over the years has resulted in some efficacious results; but i can't see how that would work here.

i also think in some cases the healers see their craft as part of a spiritual practice to be kept secret. medical knowledge advances when it is shared, and science has advanced only by building on what others before us have discovered. that's how i see medicine working. it is impeded when corporations keep secret patents for their medicines;but if you go to med school, or to any university in the world, what you study is the knowledge of those who came before you.

how could a traditional medical practice address the problem of a new disease unless they had tools already developed in the past.

you can explain that to me so i'd understand; but what i've seen about atm doesn't lead to believe it would be efficacious in the case of covid-19.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2020 8:35 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Distortion

 

Ken,
Read what you wrote, and if you still think that your view was distorted, then accept my heartfelt apology.

GE

Sent from my iPhone

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