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| Bushman boys, Namibia
© Mark Håkansson/Survival |
'Bushmen' have eaten parts of the hoodia cactus to suppress their hunger and
thirst during long hunting trips and journeys in the desert. Now, a US drug
company is using the plant to develop what may become a new anti-obesity drug.
In 2001, Survival alerted the southern African minorities organisation,
WIMSA, that the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) was
negotiating licensing rights to run drug tests for the cactus. CSIR had not
consulted with any Bushmen until Survival intervened. Finally, after long
negotiations with the Bushmen's lawyers, it agreed to recognise the Bushmen's
intellectual property rights. In March 2003, Bushman representatives in South
Africa signed an agreement on behalf of the region's 100,000 Bushmen to receive
some of the royalties from the new drug if it is successful.
This is one of the first cases in which tribal peoples anywhere have been
paid for their expertise. Kxao Moses, chairman of WIMSA, said, 'In the
past it used to be the norm to exploit (our) knowledge and culture but today is
an example of how things have changed.'
