Prime
Ogwang the Covidex man: Could he be Ugandan of 2021?
Mr Charles Onyango-Obbo
What you need to know:
If Ogwang’s first claims about Covidex curing Covid-19 were running on steroids, Lamwaka’s 72-hour cure for Covyline-1 was strapped on the back of a rocket. ”
As we see off 2021, Prof Patrick Engeu Ogwang, a renowned researcher in herbal medicines, and head of Pharmacy at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) probably deserves to be named Ugandan of 2021.
Ogwang is the man who brought us what could be the most successful locally-created and produced herbal-based medicine of the last 60 years, Covidex. It was a few hectic months as Covid-19 laid a trail of destruction when Ogwang came up with Covidex as a “cure” for Covid. It would have been among world firsts, except it wasn’t. In a country eager for a way out of Covid hell, it found many who were willing to give it a chance. However, Ogwang had oversold it. It was not the magic bullet against Covid, nor even a cure in the classic sense.
After a bit of commotion, and an intellectual property fight with Mbarara University, who said Covidex belonged to them, a self-interested President Yoweri Museveni and the National Drug Authority (NDA) restored some order and balance. The NDA approved Covidex as a supportive treatment in the management of viral infections. Covidex, according to many testimonies, does relieve Covid symptoms, perhaps better than some strong lemon, ginger, and honey might do with a cold. And that, in these troubled times, is good enough for very many people.
However, even if Covidex were an utterly useless herbal brew, Ogwang would still deserve a shot at Ugandan of the Year, for his achievement is not really about the efficacy of his invention. It is in the fact that he had the boldness to believe he could create a cure to Covid, and he didn’t just make empty talk about it. He did something about it. When it comes to confronting the diseases that torment Africa, it is something very few have done.
But that audacity and belief, alone, wouldn’t be enough for him to be Ugandan of the Year. There is something else.
Ogwang wasn’t alone in claiming to slay Covid-19. Perhaps even more dramatically, Dr Alice Lamwaka, team leader of a group of scientists at Gulu University’s Faculty of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Studies (Pharm-Biotech) revealed they had developed Covylice-1, and that it cured Covid-19 patients in 72 hours.
If Ogwang’s first claims about Covidex curing Covid-19 were running on steroids, Lamwaka’s 72-hour cure for Covyline-1 was strapped on the back of a rocket. They had a sympathetic ear from Museveni, though, who promised big money for them to continue their research. Ugandans, however, seem unable to fall in love with many herbal medicines at the same time. They love Covidex, and it seems Covylice-1 didn’t get many invitations to the Covid-busting party.
Still, Dr Lamwaka said something significant; that Covylice-1 had been developed “based on their knowledge of herbs”.
I asked a smart Ugandan who studies herbal medicine and other alternative cures what she thought of Ogwang’s and Lamwaka’s creations. Her answer surprised me.
She said: “You are asking the wrong question. You should ask why it is Ogwang and Lamwaka who are claiming to have found herbal-based cures for Covid.”
I was totally blank. She helped me out.
“Ogwang is from Kaberamaido. His father was an Itesot and his mother Langi. Lamwaka is a girl from Acholiland. They came of age during the wars in the Teso and Gulu regions, and the answer is there.” She then explained that during the war in northern Uganda and northeast Uganda, when people were cut off from “civilisation” and were hiding in the bushes and valleys, they deepened their already existing knowledge of herbal medicine, because it was all they had. It is common in most of Africa, and sometimes that innovation comes in developing new foods from available plants.
I asked about Luweero; whether the same thing happened there between early 1981 and the end of 1985 during the National Resistance Army/Movement bush war there. She said “no”, because the people in Luweero didn’t flee deeper into the forests, but to urban and peri-urban areas. Besides, the war in Teso lasted twice as long as the Luweero one, and the one in northern Uganda lasted four times longer.
Ogwang and Lamwaka, she said, were drinking from the herbal medicine “knowledge cloud” that developed during the northern and Teso wars.
“I don’t know if they are aware of it”, she said, “but I think epistemologically it is interesting”, she added using a big word befitting her great learning.
So, Ogwang’s Covidex – and indeed Lamwaka’s mix – are also insights into conflict history. May the force be with them. But we can’t leave this here. We will return next week to the legacy that the Luweero war, nearly 41 years to its start, and which expressed itself more as an urban phenomenon at the centre of the country, left us. Happy New Year.
Mr Onyango-Obbo is a journalist, writer and curator of the “Wall of Great Africans”. Twitter@cobbo3
