The Sunday Mail
Under The Baobab Tree – Sifelani Tsiko
“Pakurima musana unorwadza, pakudya ndomera manhenga! Pakurima musana unorwadza, pakudya ndomera manhenga,” so goes part of the rich Shona ‘ndyaringo’ poetry collection which, unfortunately, is fast disappearing from use and memory.
It was a popular ndyaringo recital especially during nhimbe ceremonies (communal working session) and for mukwerere, traditional rain-making ceremonies where a variety of traditional beers were consumed.
The main purpose of “ndyaringo” was to entertain, divert or instruct an audience by means of a narrative.
Shona language experts further say the poetry also sought to convey a warning or a chiding in an allusive, indirect way or to strengthen proper attitudes.
The consumption of doro or “opaque beer” was at the core of these festivities.
This collective memory (ndyaringo) and thread that bound Shona-speaking people together is under severe threat especially now when radio, television, Internet, WhatsApp and other social media platforms have erased the African space and time for the traditional arts.
By now, most readers may be confused about where this argument is actually going, but alas there is a point.
I used this short narrative just to show the power of entertaining narrative poetry in explaining complex and highly technical issues.
Since time immemorial, our ancestors have used biotechnology to domesticate animals, plant crops, make cheese, yoghurt, bread, beer and wine.
They used micro organisms to produce alcoholic drinks like beer and wine.
All of these foods and drink were made by fermentation.
During fermentation, micro-organisms such as yeast, moulds or bacteria broke down sugars in the absence of oxygen.
The products generated from fermentation were used to make food and drink.
Some biotechnology scholars even suggest that fermentation was probably discovered by accident as early ancestors didn’t know how it worked.
They even suggest that some societies thought fermentation was a miracle or gift from their god.
In short, the production processes and compositional characteristics of African traditional sorghum beers employed biotechnology which is now simply defined as the use of living systems, organisms or parts of organisms to manipulate natural processes in order to develop products, systems or environments to benefit people.
At a workshop which was organised by the National Biotechnology Authority recently and meant to educate stakeholders and the public on biotechnology products and applications, Tendai Sanyika, a biotechnology lecturer at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) also attempted to explain modern biotechnology.
He said biotechnology starts when a scientist identifies a gene from another organism which controls a trait of interest. A scientist, he said, could then modify an existing gene to create a new trait and introduce that gene into another organism.
When this new organism acquires a new trait, the product is a genetically modified organism (GMO).
From this explanation it is quite clear that indigenous knowledge systems have been given very little consideration in the biotechnology debate now.
It is a science that has existed since time immemorial and when it assumes new and complex dimensions, it evokes emotions and stirs massive debate, especially when the term “GMOs” is used.
The controversy surrounding biotechnology is not the subject of the matter in this instalment but to explain the true value of the science and the huge potential it holds for Zimbabwe and Africa which are severely “under-bioteched”.
Zimbabwe and most African countries are the least users of biotechnology yet this has a huge potential to address challenges in agriculture, health, provision of energy, cleaning the environment and industrial development.
According to a 2014 Ernst and Young analysis, the global biotechnology industry rebounded strongly in 2013, with public companies achieving double-digit revenue growth and a sharp increase in funds.
Most established biotech companies in industrialised countries generated revenues of about $98,8 billion in 2013, a 10 percent increase from 2012.
The global biotechnology industry has a market capitalisation that exceeds $400 billion but the field remains under-exploited in Africa.
Strict regulation is stifling the growth of biotechnology in Africa making it difficult for businesses to realise the benefits that come with the technology.
Biotech experts say lack of awareness and a constrained regulatory environment has slowed down the uptake of biotechnology.
“With all these advantages and opportunities that biotechnology can offer in national development, it is sad to note that this emerging science is misunderstood by the majority of people, not just in Zimbabwe but the world over,” says Mrs Rungano Karimanzira, a senior official in the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development.
“If we do not harness these new and emerging technologies, we will remain in Chiadzwa mining diamonds when (synthetic) diamonds are being made in the laboratory.”
The benefits of biotechnology are now known in Zimbabwe and most African countries but are often ignored.
“We are not moving with the rest of the world in terms of assimilating biotechnology,” says Dr Jonathan Mufandaedza, the head of the National Biotechnology Authority (NBA).
“It’s the government’s prerogative to make the decision. All we are doing is to sensitise it on the potential of GMO technologies.
“Let’s give all the information to the government and the public to enable them to make informed decisions regarding GM technologies.”
Dr Margaret Karembu, director of International Service for the Acquisition of Agric-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) Africenter and member of the Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnologies said, “Science should take its rightful place to help African countries respond to challenges they are facing in the agricultural sector.”
Dr Ian Robertson, a Harare-based biotechnology expert says Zimbabwe, as a major tobacco producer, has the potential to produce an Ebola drug if it supports and invest more in bio-pharmaceutical research on tobacco plants.
He says there is nothing that can stop the country from doing this given the expertise it has in biotechnology and in tobacco growing.
“Major global pharmaceutical companies are using tobacco plants to produce anti-bodies needed to fight diseases such as Ebola,” he says.
“They are producing a drug called ZMapp which they are using on experimental basis to treat Ebola.
“We have to research on it and try it. We can do it.
“We are a major tobacco growing country and as such we can do something about it.”
Researchers say tobacco plants contain one of the most promising hopes for developing an effective treatment for the Ebola virus which has gripped the West African countries – Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea affecting 13 567 people with deaths estimated to be 4 951, according to latest World Health Organisation statistics.
At present, there is no cure for Ebola, although several companies in the US are working on drug candidates to help fight the Ebola virus using modern biotechnology.
Adds Dr Karembu: “Its very sad to see how Africa is losing its experts to rich industrialised countries.
“African universities have very strong biotechnology programs but we are losing our talent to the US, UK, India and other developed countries.
“We need to develop our biotechnology industries and retain jobs for our graduates.
“We need the political will to promote biotechnology growth in Africa.”
She says lead agencies such as the NBA and other experts should demonstrate and speak more about how biotechnology can work for Africa.
“Biotechnology is much more than just GMOs,” Dr Karembu says.
“India, China, US and other developed countries have massive biotech companies which are using biotechnology to make drugs which we are importing.
We can do the same. “We need to engage and keep abreast of new trends in biotechnology. We cannot feed the world of tomorrow with yesterday’s technologies.
“We have to tap on new agricultural biotechnologies to enhance food security and access to drugs on the continent.” It’s worth noting that Zimbabwe and most other African countries have developed science, innovation and technology policies that recognise biotechnology as a major driver of economic growth.
Statistics and information on biotechnology’s potential to address numerous problems facing the continent are staggering.
It seems that the current low uptake of biotechnology is covered in four words: fear of GMO unknowns.
Though the benefits of biotechnology are known, governments on the continent have simply lacked the political will to improve uptake of the technology.
Many people on the continent still fear GMOs and biotechnology, yet the two can co-exist and help provide solutions that can give the African continent a mix of economically and technologically smarter solutions.
After all, are we not consuming GMO foods, drugs and a whole range of biotechnology products?
Prof Calestous Juma in a 2012 commentary aptly sums it all: “Africa’s precautionary approaches to biotechnology are not only misguided but they expose the continent to long-term political risks.
“The issue is no longer a simplistic argument about becoming an importer of GM foods, it is about building up the requisite capacity to diversify the technological options needed for long-term agricultural adaptation.”
