Iyeza Medicine Biopiracy

Iyeza medicine Biopiracy / SIBONGILE NENE / South Africa / 25min

Biopiracy is a plague that has hit the African continent like a tornado. Biochemical industry is frantic to patent bio resources at such a fast pace, indigenous society and owners of Intellectual property of the bio resources are flailing to keep up with Western laws of patenting genes of bio species.

Sibongile Nene was born in KwaZulu Natal, the most biodiverse province of South Africa according to STATS SA. Heeding the call of her ancestors to become traditional healer in 1998, triggered an awareness of the imbalance between western and African values when it comes to nature and medicine. Now a practitioner for over 20 years, both in Canada and South Africa, Nene is using her acquired wisdom to nurture a dream of a balanced lifestyle between nature and humans.

Director Statement

During the research phase of making the film, it occurred to me that so much of what is written about biopiracy and the laws of patenting intellectual property remains still in the academic sphere and not yet in the public eye. Delivering the facts of biopiracy in a way that the public would digest easily, became the challenge, which, I anticipate was accomplished.