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The Other Side of Coca

by Abraham Lama
TS name has been tarnished by abuse of the refined product In North America, but the coca plant that grows in Peru and Bolivia is a vital part of the everyday lives of the Andean people.
Coca leaves have for the past 4.000 years formed an important part of the Indigenous culture and traditional rituals of Andean Indians.
"Despite the harassment It has been subjected to In recent years, coca is still part of the native culture." says Fernando Cableses, director of the National Institute for Traditional Medicine here.
Coca's conversion into cocaine is a foreign process that has put the crop at risk as rich countries demand a stop to Its cultivation.
Leaders of the Andeaft countries Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,and Venezuela met their US and Mexican colleagues in the US city of San Antonio, Texas, recently to thresh out strategies to eradicate coca cultivation.
Local historians fear US
pressure will prompt their leaders to eventually eliminate all coca crops, including those used by Indigenous groups for traditional purposes.
"People have fought the use of coca before In the name of modern science and hygiene.” says Cableses. "But those who seek to eradicate coca will rob the Andean natives of their cultural identity and force them to adapt to modern times and foreign cultures."
Peruvian historian Marta Rostorowski says coca leaves placed in small bags were found among pre-Hlspanlc mummies who were supposed to chew them during their trip to heaven. Etched designs In ancestral Mochica ceramic vases show a ritual gathering where people are seen to be chewing coca as the priest calls on the gods.
"In the Andean culture, coca is a symbol of social identity and solidarity which differentiates native Indians from foreigners.” says Enrique Mayer, head of anthropological research 1A the Mexico-baaed Inter-American Indigenous Institute.
"Attacking coca consumption is an attempt to undermine the very basis of the Andean culture and break the solidarity and defences of an oppressed minority group to pave the way for massive Westernisation," he warns.
Baldomeo Caceres, a social psychologist who defends traditional coca cultivation, says: "It is clear that foreigners are pressuring us to get rid of coca
and replace ft with other crops. But can we replace it with others that will keep our people's cultural identity? What will happen to its traditional users?"
Medical surgeon Marta Rondon points out that aside from being a cultural symbol, coca Is also "an Important Peruvian contribution to Western science." since coca Is used by doctors as a local
lant
In his book History of the New World. Jesuit historian Bernabe Cobo, who came to Peru soon after Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro, wrote that only Inca kings and their families could eat coca leaves, which were also used in ancestral sacrifices to the gods.
He seemed to have been overwhelmed by the healing powers of coca and admitted using it to cure toothache upon the recommendation of a native dentist.
Coca leaves cured indigestion. asthma and nausea, Cobo wrote. The powder, when mixed with silt and egg whites, speeds up the healing
of fractured bones and wounds." he said.
Indigenous Peruvians still chew coca to extract the juice from the leaves to overcome hunger, fatigue and the cold. The nutritional value of coca haa been recognised by International researchers.
In a report published in 1984. US researcher Gary Lobb noted that coca Is an Important source of vitamins for native Amerindians.
He said 100 gms of coca juice very day would be equiva-lent to the dally requirements of vitamins Bl. B2 and C.
The stimulating and energy-giving qualities of coca were also known and used tn 19th-century Europe. In Paris, coca was used In processing the famous Mariani wine from 1860 onwards. Connoisseurs of the Mariani wine Include French sculptor Rodin, actress Sarah Bernhardt and Pope Leo XIII, who all signed the winery's keepsake album and praised its excellent wine.
In Uma. a more modest testimony to coca's usefulness is given by 91-year-old Serafina Rojas, who came to the city six years ago to escape political violence In the rural areas.
T chew coca because It is good for me. When I don't do It. 1 become weak, sleepy and lazy." she says. "I have been chewing It since 1 was a child and have not suffered from any sickness al aU."^|^ —IPS.