Indigenous knowledge is local knowledge derived from interactions between people and their environment, which is characteristics of all cultures. It spans the entire range of human experience, including history, linguistics, art, economics as well as technical aspects, agriculture, medicine, natural resources, engineering and fishing (Kroma, 1995).
The literature on indigenous knowledge is very vast and is indicative of a wide range of human activities which utilize complex but implicit scientific principles. The exclusion of such knowledge from development activities has had disastrous consequences all over the world where outsider knowledge has been imposed without regard to local knowledge (Cashman, 1989; Atte, 1992).
Pastoralism is an ancient form of animal production integrated or complemented with agriculture or without such supportive activities. The remoteness of the areas occupied by pastoralists from urban centres as well as the continuous mobility inherent in the system have operated to endow pastoralists from urban centres as well as the continuous mobility inherent in the system have operated to endow pastoralists with a high degree of self-reliance (Allen, 1965). Not only is self-reliance a necessity, but also a certain degree of pervasiveness or conservation towards innovations originating from outsiders is witnessed. This is perhaps a control against the catastrophic potential of trial and error situations, specially when the vested problem concerns important natural resources, such as pasture, water and animals.
The indications of the foregoing analysis is obvious. It implies that pastoralist targeted development efforts should stem from a close understanding of the socio-economic, socio-psychological and technical predilections of the particular groups. The concepts, thoughts and aspirations of the local community should be a guideline. The actual efforts by pastoralists to maintain and improve their system component should be taken into consideration, as they reflect the potential of the community for development.
Development agencies and researches should also benefit from an understanding of the survival strategies of pastoralists. It is also of paramount importance to study the various tactics or responses adopted by pastoral communities against state disturbance in the ecosystem or in any of the factors influencing the system, such as drought, diseases, civil conflict, etc.
In Africa, ethnoveterinary practice has been studied by several workers over the century. Janzen (1981), Mathias-Mundy and Mc Corckle (1992) as well as Pool (1994) have given excellent reviews of the history and evolution of these researches. There is a consensus among researchers about the need and significance of recording and evaluating the different therapeutic and control procedures adopted in the deserts and forests of Africa, away from international or modern western influence. Since pastoralists have survived over centuries, essentially on their own, many of their healing or preventive procedures, having also evolved over milinea should have logic, utility and acceptance (Mc Corckle, 1986). Any effort that aims at the provision of better services to the highly mobile, extensively scattered pastoral communities, the existing local or native methods of meeting these services should be given first consideration. These efforts can then be utilized in an improved and expanded manner to meet the increasing demands of the growing market-oriented trend in the pastoralist production system.
Present-day national demands of increased cropping and industrialization in many third world countries also put great demand on the pastoral economy. In the midst of these developments, it is possible that traditional methods of value could be lost and the pastoral community would be faced with the problem of having to cope without being genuinely incorporated into these developments.
In this monograph, an attempt is made towards recording and elucidating several aspects of the ethnoveterinary activities of pastoralists, mainly camelmen in North-eastern Sudan. The study was inspired by previous researches in the same area, during which we felt the tremendous wealth of information expressed by pastoralists on animal physiology, nutrition, diseases, and therapeutic and toxic plants (Abbas and Musa, 1986; Agab and Abba, 1995; Agab, Abbas and Le Hogrne, 1993). In addition, pastoralists in the area have indicated a set of constraints facing their mode of living and animal diseases ranked highly among these constraints (Abbas et al., 1993). It was thus of interest to study the local efforts pertaining to disease control in the area, with emphasis on camels. It is hoped that this and similar studies will lay the basis for future developments regarding the provision of veterinary and health services to the pastoral community in the study area.
