Title

Madagascar's Green Gold: Nature Religion, Biotechnology, and the Global Race against Covid-19

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2022

Publication Title

Journal of Africana Religions

Keywords

Nature religions, Pharmacology, Biotechnology, COVID-19, Ethnobotany

ISSN

2165-5405

Volume

10

Issue/No.

2

First Page

212

Last Page

236

Abstract

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Madagascar’s government garnered international media attention for their herbal remedy to COVID-19, made from the Artemisia plant, called “Covid-Organics” (CVO). While global media outlets presented CVO as yet another example of an inherent conflict between traditional African medicine and Western medicine, this article hypothesizes that the release of CVO offers a rare window into the dynamic processes by which ecological, technological, and cultural developments in the production and distribution of artemisia and plant-based medicines in the country are giving rise to a multifaceted system of medical pluralism that attempts to strike a difficult balance between appeasing the rapidly growing global demand for plant-based medicines and preserving the country’s unique religious heritage and biodiversity.

Comments

Copyright © 2022 by The Pennsylvania State University. All rights reserved.

DOI

10.5325/jafrireli.10.2.0212

Link to Full Text
Peer Reviewed

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