6.1 Database of Indigenous Knowledge Practices in Botswana
6.1.1 Dingaka Database
CESRIKI engaged the expertise of the computer science Ethnosurvey research team member to design a database that will capture the data generated through the interviews. The database is called Dingaka. This database system exists through the proof of concept in a form of a working searchable prototype. The database has been successfully populated with details of medicinal plants collected from the traditional healers in Ngamiland. The information captured in this database covers, the district from which the information was collected, the name of the informant, the details about the diseases that a healer treats, the medicinal plants used, what part of the plant is used, how it is prepared, how the medicines are administered and scientific names of the plants (where the plant has been identified and allocated a scientific name) and other attributes. The database can be searched using various attributes such as plant names, the names of diseases, names of the healers, the districts etc.
In addition, Dingaka database has been developed as a web based application using HTML scripts on the client side and PHP and SQL scripts on the server side. HTML was used to create user interfaces for Dingaka database, whereas
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PHP was used to connect and for firing SQL commands to the database. The database sits in My-SQL database and SQL has been used to connect to CSNAS in the department of Computer Science at the University of Botswana, which is the database server that presently houses the Dingaka database. The Dingaka database is being refined before all the data is uploaded. Currently, the Dingaka database has been populated with up to four hundred (400) of around one thousand three hundred (1300) (estimate) generated profiles.
6.1.2 Matwetwe Expert System
Alongside Dingaka Database, which is the main database, an innovative documentation system in the form of an expert system has been designed. The system focuses on capturing information from a few traditional healers who will be willing to continue working with CESRIKI to provide their expertise to capture more details about the processes of how they prepare medicinal plants recommended for the diseases they treat. The expert system, called Matwetwe (which is a Setswana term that refers to a powerful, strong and very knowledgeable traditional healer) will accept questions from the ?patient? on their symptoms and at the end it delivers a conclusion/treatment through deducing the ?diagnosis? from the answers that are provided. The distinction between this system and the former database is that Matwetwe is interactive and acts as an interrogator and therefore provides a ?process? between a query and answer unlike in the Dingaka database. The reason this was created alongside the Dingaka database, is that it extends the functionality of the database and is a much more robust documentation system. The system would provide a platform for CESRIKI to develop an interactive knowledge base for further and relevant research interests that would benefit national, regional and even international health issues. The Matwetwe database has been populated with 50 (fifty) plant profiles just for a proof of concept.
6.1.3 Plant List
On top of the Dingaka database and Matwetwe expert database, Microsoft Access was used to create a Plant List for all plant details that were generated throughout the project. The Plant List captures details of the plants such as the name and medicinal use of the plants, the preparation, known side effects, dosage and the names of the traditional healer who provided the information. The Plant List comprises of one thousand two hundred and fifty-six (1256) entries.
6.1.4 Disease, Symptoms and Causalities List
CESRIKI compiled a Disease, Symptoms and Causalities list using Microsoft Access. This list entails details of what traditional healers believe are the symptoms and causes of the diseases they treat as well as the diseases that the researchers brought up such as Malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS and persistent coughs. The list of symptoms and causes has four hundred and ninety-six (496) entries.
6.2 Identification of Useful Plants out of which communities can derive livelihood;
Through interactions with community members and traditional healers, CESRIKI was able to gather immense knowledge about the use of genetic resources, mainly plants that are used for medicinal and food purposes. The interviewees shared with CESRIKI about these resources and indicated the ones they thought could be developed further to enable communities to derive their livelihood from them. A total of thirty-nine, mostly food plants were mentioned across the districts as those that could be developed for communities to derive their livelihood from. Out of the thirty-nine plants mentioned, seven plants were mentioned by at least three people out of the seventy-nine community members who responded to this question. Morula has the highest frequencies. It is not clear as to whether this could be because there are already some ongoing projects that have used the fruit in a couple of ways and their products have made significant progress in the market compared to other natural products that have been used by communities for decades. Table 17 captures the plants which community members suggested should be considered for development so that they may derive their livelihood from them.
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Table 17: Food Plants that could be developed for the livelihood of communities
Local Plant Name
Frequency
Percentage
Moretlwa
7
16%
Morama
3
7%
Motsotsojane
3
7%
Morula
17
40%
Mmupudu
4
9%
Mogwana
4
9%
Morojwa
5
12%
43
100
6.3 Identification of plants that may be facing extinction unless quick methods are developed for their conservation and propagation;
Community member interviewees in particular, agreed to the fact that a couple of useful plants are becoming scarce and that some are no longer as abundant as they used to be. Table 18 lists these plants as mentioned in the different districts. When the interviewees were asked this question, there was no guideline used, but an open question was posed, and this allowed anybody to say what they thought was faced with extinction. A more detailed study may need to be carried out. In the responses given, only three plants were mentioned in more than one district, Ngamiland and the Central Districts, which suggests to us that the availability and abundance of the plant need to be looked into. The plant names are given in the local names of the interviewees and those that are non-Setswana were not translated to Setswana because the interviewers did not know the corresponding Setswana names, that is if they the plants are also known to Setswana speaking communities.
Table 18: Plants that are believed to be facing exinction
Ngamiland
District
Ghanzi
District
Kweneng
District
Central District
North-East District
Legonyana
Makalande
Tshukuyapoo
Masigomabe
Fadzimuke
Masigomabe
Mokha
Mhera
Mogogo
Lehulula
Lebitla
Mosimega
Phateyangaka
Moretete
Nshashanyama
Sebete
Setlhaga
Sekaname
Seretwane
Mfufu
Mbozi
Mokaikai
Monnamontsho
Nyanyaphene
Mmamaboanyana
Thxonalkgosi
Motawana
Pkwevulu
Moretete
Xui
Legonyana
Monnamontsho
Hagushu
Moarasupe
Seretwane
Lebitla
Motawana
Tshukuyapoo
Moarasupe
Mhera
Mmaba
Phateyangaka
Phofu
Legothwana
Letekuteku
Setotwane
Motsoketsane
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6.4 Identification of IKS practices that can be evaluated for their use to replace some of the applications that impact on the environment
In view of the fact that the study was focused on the use of plants and their availability in the localities, the researchers were informed that indeed there are some plants that are becoming scarce. Therefore the study sought to find out what are the contributors to this scarcity. A number of reasons were raised, and they included, unsustainable harvesting, drought and commercialization of medicinal plants. Further, the study sought to find out, from the communities and traditional healers, how these could be mitigated.
The most interesting suggestion that came from the communities was that communities and Dikgosi should be involved in policing the environment and controlling access to genetic resources in order to preserve them. The proposed approach was that Dikgosi should be empowered by legislation to license the harvesting of natural resources in their territories. The licensing system was suggested along the lines of the licenses that are accorded to contractors when they want to fetch river sand. The suggestion is that once the Dikgosi are empowered, they would work with their community members to designate watchdogs for the different areas in their villages. It was also suggested that in the meanwhile, Dikgosi should keep registers of useful natural resources in their areas, and the list of traditional healers. The suggestion was that this could be expanded to regional centres that will take care of preserving and controlling access to natural resources in their districts. This suggestion is in line with the Setswana culture in relation to what the role and responsibility of a Kgosi is. Culturally, unlike today, a Kgosi?s responsibility is more than intervening, mediating or presiding over disputes, but it goes to the level of being the custodian of the land that belongs to his Morafe (tribe) and the natural resources thereof. The introduction of structures such as the Landboard has reaped Dikgosi of their power thus causing them to cede responsibility to control land use and its allocation, the impact has gone beyond what is seen on the surface. A closer look suggests that this might be having negative manifestations on other aspects such as sustainable use of natural resources. For example, the Setswana practices were such that strangers have to present themselves to a Kgosi before they can do whatever they came for in that territory, examples being, maybe to search for their stray cattle, coming to ask for the hand of a girl to marry their son etc. This means that communities police their environment and its resources, therefore outsiders cannot access them without permission and equally, insiders cannot carry out destructive activities because there is a general awareness of what is taking place in the territory. Basically, the study found that there is need to engage the Dikgosi in activities that seek to curb the reduction of natural resources in their villages because they would know the culprits who use unsustainable ways of harvesting plants thus take appropriate actions to correct the situation. Their empowerment could be more effective since they live in those localities and can work with people who can be trusted for protecting the environment.
6.5 Capacity building among communities
Only a limited level of capacity building activities were carried out during this project. These included empowering participants in the study about the importance of documenting their knowledge. The workshops that were run, emphasized the need to transfer the knowledge into a tangible form for future reference including years after the knowledge holders have passed on. The participants agreed with CESRIKI that indeed it is important to document their knowledge. As a result, CESRIKI availed stationery to traditional healers in Maun. As mentioned earlier in the report, relations with these traditional healers have been built before the Ethnosurvey commenced, as a result, it was easy to add another dimension into the relationship, which was to encourage traditional healers to keep their own records. During the last consultative workshop, these healers reported that they have started keeping patients records. It may, immediately appear as if they are not documenting their knowledge but mere patient records, however, it should be noted that as they document the diseases and the medicines prescribed, the knowledge is being transferred into a tangible form, in addition, this is a practise they have never done before, which means that there is hope that they will be willing to take another step further to document the knowledge with in detail.
Through the interactions between CESRIKI and the traditional healers, CESRIKI informed the healers about the importance of the knowledge they possess and demonstrated the potential that it has in contributing towards innovation. This sharing of information enabled the healers to appreciate that there is a contribution that they could make to development, and
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most of them, stated that they now carry out their business with pride because they see that there is a contribution that they can make. CESRIKI gave each interview participant (except Public Health officers) a certificate of appreciation, which further reinforced their importance in the society and development of this country.
The challenge with carrying out considerable capacity building activities was that CESRIKI needed to build relations with traditional healers and communities. It was realized during the project that there is need to build relations and later on jointly identify areas that would be of benefit to the communities, and those that could be sustainable with little or no need for external support once implemented. These have been identified and CESRIKI will, if resources permit, embark on piloting some of these initiatives and these are briefly described below;
(i) Establishing regional indigenous knowledge systems centres. This, as suggested by workshop participants, will be geared towards communities, starting at village level to establish indigenous knowledge systems centres. Once village centres are up and running, villages will collaborate to form a regional centre. The suggestion was that the centres will oversee the preservation of indigenous knowledge and conservation (through access control) of natural resources attached to their indigenous knowledge.
(ii) Run some modules for traditional healers to document their practices for personal safekeeping. The idea is to design the module taking into consideration the most important elements of the knowledge that should be documented, and along the same lines, design a template for the stationery that will be distributed to the traditional healers as a starting point. This aspect has potential for further capacity building in that traditional healers? associations can endorse the template and continue to produce the books and sell to their members.
6.6 Evaluation of IKS in Botswana as a system that can be sustained and used to alleviate poverty amongst communities
Considering the fact that there is a significant number of people who are still practicing traditional medicine and that communities are also equally aware of natural resources in their environment and how those could be used for both food and medicinal purposes, CESRIKI believes that there is need for continued documentation of indigenous knowledge practices. The documentation process does not need to be carried out by institutions or researchers only, but given that participants did not share all their knowledge, CESRIKI finds it necessary that the knowledge holders be assisted and empowered to document their knowledge for personal safeguarding.
CESRIKI is of the view that this knowledge needs to be researched scientifically, as well as determining potential for packaging and commercializing some of the natural resources, and in that way alleviate poverty amongst communities. As an example, one of the suggestions that came out from the workshops is that, for purposes of preserving some of the plants that are threatened by extinction, traditional healers? associations should request for plots, propagate these plants and sell them to traditional healers. Some of the plants that were suggested with a potential for development are those mentioned in Table17. With these findings, CESRIKI believes that it is important for indigenous knowledge systems to be documented, understood, researched, commercialized for the betterment of communities and we believe that that potential exists, it is only a question of resources and finding communities that could pilot such initiatives.
6.7 Describe the immediate benefits received by the participants and/or the recipient communities:
The communities and traditional healers that CESRIKI interacted with appreciated the interactions and information exchange they had with researchers. Through this interaction, they appreciated that modern knowledge systems recognize the knowledge they posses therefore, they were able to see the value that their knowledge have, beyond treating patients at a small scale. They expressed that they desire that CESRIKI should continue to work with them to make these relations grow from one level to another. They believe that as the interactions continue, it is possible that something tangible could result.
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6.8 Describe long-term benefits:
An awareness of the importance of indigenous knowledge systems and the potential contribution they can make to research has been created. The participants agreed that documentation of indigenous knowledge practices is important despite the challenges that surround their practices (mainly secrecy). They also agreed that it is important for those knowledgeable in these practices to transfer their knowledge and skills to younger generations. Despite the challenges that some of the participants raised, the emphasis was that it is important for them to continue interactions with researchers.