Masango & Mbarika Major Challenge and constraint of documenting indigenous knowledge about Africa’s complementary and alternative medicine (e-ACAM)

This paper is located within global debates about indigenous knowledge (IK) and Africa’s complementary and alternative medicine (e-ACAM). The paper explores whether it is possible to document all types of indigenous knowledge about Africa’s complementary and alternative medicine (e-ACAM) following that this medicine encompass common and uncommon knowledge of which the latter is practised secretly as it is a source of livelihoods to traditional medicine practices. The raison d'être for the examination stem from the notion that the ethnophamacological information of medicinal plants is fast disappearing and in view of the rapid loss of such knowledge, its documentation as well as a better understanding of its botanico-historical roots has become an essential task. The paper attempts to expose a major challenge and constraint that may inhibit the documentation of all indigenous knowledge about Africa’s complementary and alternative medicine. Finally, the paper proposes measures within intellectual property rights (IPR) in the form of patents that could be implemented in order to document those types of knowledge about Africa’s complementary and alternative medicine that are a source of livelihoods to traditional medicine practices.