BANJUL, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Many Gambians have welcomed the COVID-Organics from Madagascar as a medicine to treat coronavirus on the grounds of showing solidarity with African scientists.
The Gambia government has received a consignment of the medicine last week from the Madagascar president as part of a gift to the ECOWAS member states.
"I think African countries, in the solidarity of Pan Africanism, need to give Madagascar the benefit of the doubt," Essa Janko, a Gambian university student told Xinhua.
"Because when you look at the West, most of the time they wouldn't value whatever Africans produce. The West kind of look at us as people incapable of coming up with initiatives or production that can be of great use without them passing it through their own system to see whether it fits certain criteria that they set," he said.
Alhasan Drammeh argued that many medicines from the West were taken from African herbs for processing, adding that those medicines are later sold back to African governments at costly price.
"It's a fellow African country offering a cure and I think they've done their best. It's up to us to support ourselves. As a Gambian, I think it's something worth recommending," he said.
"I think it's a great plausible step, because, so far, Africa has been left behind when it comes to scientific experiment and also when it comes to using its own materials and processing it into something useful especially health-wise," he continued.
"This is a time when Africa should also rise to make their voices heard. Even if it's not hundred percent effective, why not give it a try?" he said.
The country coordinator for Global Youth Parliament Gambia Chapter, Baba Ceesay described Madagascar's effort as a breakthrough.
"If you see the side effect of the virus, it affects the developing countries more and The Gambia is among the developing countries. Per capita income is very low, so if you lock people down, they don't have money, businesses going down would affect us," he said.
"So, if we have a medicine that can ease up to open our borders, and our economy again, why not?" he stressed, adding that African countries should put their weight behind by celebrating their achievement.
"The West has not been accepting many things from Africa, but that is because Africans themselves don't believe in themselves. Africa has to start believing in themselves. Africa has to start working for each other," he indicated.
The COVID-Organics has brought about controversy and division in the world since Madagascar pronounced that it is a cure for COVID-19. The World Health Organization has also warned people not to use medicines to treat COVID-19 that does not pass through clinical tests.
So far, The Gambia has reported 24 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including one death and 13 recovery cases. Enditem
