African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Man and Cannabis in Africa: A Study of Diffusion Author(s): Brian M. du Toit Source: African Economic History, No. 1 (Spring, 1976), pp. 17-35 Published by: African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4617576 . Accessed: 22/08/2013 17:40 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Regents of the University of Wisconsin System are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to African Economic History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 17 Man and Cannable in Africa: A Studg of Diffuesion Brian M. du Toit University of Florida The past decade has seen an awakening of research interests regard- ing psychoactive and hallucinogenic drugs. While the New World is par- ticularly rich in these natural products, no drug has as wide a distri- bution nor as universal an appeal as cannabis. This hallucinogen is known by different local referrents but the most widely distributed is marijuana in the United States and Latin America, and hemp or Indian hemp in many of the other Anglophone areas of the world. While it has near universal distribution, it is nonetheless to the Old World we must look for its origin and original acceptance. Cannabis was originally cultivated as a fiber plant and only its leaves were used in the pharmacopoeia of different peoples. Linnaeus classified it as a simple species Cannabis sativa, but "recent research indicates that there may well be several species."'1 At this stage we are not concerned with this botanical question but intend to focus on the social use and diffusion of the plant through Africa. In this paper we will examine in turn the historical, sociological, and linguistic evidence relating to the cannabis plant in Africa. Then, after a brief review of current hypotheses regarding the diffusion of cannabis, we will propose a more encompassing hypothesis to account for its spread in sub-Saharan Africa. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE The early trading contacts between India and the Arabian Penin- sula, as well as trade and settlement by Indian and Arabian merchants started around the Horn, but soon extended southward along the east African coast. Early trade links between Arabia and the east African coast are well documented and were flourishing by the first centuries A.D. Doubtless such trading involved valued products from India, Turkey, and Persia in exchange for minerals, precious stones, and ivory. According to classical sources an Arabian trade center existed at Rhapta and in time settlers and traders spread southward, along the coast. Neville Chittick reports that by the eleventh or twelfth century Muslim settlements could be found on Zanzibar and Pemba, and also at Kilwa.2 The same author suggested that "By the early tenth century A.D. (al-Mas'udi), there were Muslims in Qanbalu (Pemba?) and there were already Bantu settled in this zone. By the mid-twelfth century (al- Idrisi), most the inhabitants of Zanzibar were Muslim; there were num- bers of towns on the mainland, most of which appear to have been pagan,"3 and there was close contact between these settlers and Bantu speakers. This is also the period during which cannabis spread westward from India and Persia to Egypt.4 African Economic History, Spring, 1976. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 18 Ahmad Khalifa, referring to Arabic historians, stated that cannabis was introduced into Egypt during the reign of the Ayyubid dynasty, around the mid-twelfth century; "as a result of the emigration of mystic devo- tees from Syria.5 We might then suggest that the Arab communities on the African east coast were associated with cannabis, either in the form of the domesticated variety used for its fiber, or the wild variety which was used as medication and as a mind-altering substance. Much of the trade with the interior regions of Africa was by ascent through river valleys but these frequently were rendered impassible during the rainy season, thus necessitating extended periods of stay in the interior. A.McMartin6 in fact suggests that at various inland centers the Arabs had semi-permanent settlements where they would spend one or two years away from the coast. When the Portuguese made their way up the Zambezi in 1531 to establish a trading post, a small Arab community existed at Sena, almost a hundred miles from the coast.7 Based on ethno- historical sources, D. P. Abraham has estimated that at the start of the sixteenth century at least ten thousand Arabs were in Rhodesia tapping the wealth of the Zimbabwe settlers in Rhodesia.8 In time they had a great influence over the Karanga territory--an influence they later exchanged with the Portuguese who traded from their new base in Mozambique. Two centuries later David Livingstone commented on the presence of Arab traders and Arab influences in wide areas of central Africa. We need not overemphasize the presence of the Arab traders in the interior. At the time when the first Arab settlements were being estab- lished off the east African coast, and the gold trade with Sofala was being regularized,9 there were already Bantu-speaking peoples in contact with them. These Bantu-speakers were gradually spreading southward as they expanded their territory or grazed their cattle. As far back as the second and third centuries A.D. imports were reaching central Africa via indigenous trade routes,10 or spreading further westward along an extensive series of trade routes into the Congo basin11 or, more likely, conveyed by Swahili-speaking traders into the Great Lakes region. In a discussion of excavations of sites on Lake Kisale in northern Katanga, Jacques Neguin postulates a date of the seventh to the ninth century A.D. for them and states that "the perforated cowrie shell found in Burial 54 probably comes from the East Coast."12 This is one of many suggestions by research workers regarding trade contacts at an early date, but more important, trade contacts from east to west. Further south there is documentation of similar indigenous trade, for around 1835 "the Matabele had considerable traffic with the Amasili/Masarwa off the edge of the Kalahari, exchanging iron, daggo (sic), spears, hoes, and knives for ostrich eggshell beads, ivory, feathers, horns and skins."13 The same kind of trade into the Kalahari region from the peoples in South West Africa also existed, as did various trade lihks among the local populations who cultivated and used cannabis. H. Vedder (1928)13a emphasized the value of cannabis as currency in transactions where, for example, the Bergdama who cultivated the herb, traded it to the Ovambo for goats and cows. In fact it was "the Bergdama's money with which they could buy everything they needed." In what later became South Africa we have earlier and better documented evidence of the presence 14 of cannabis, though it was frequently confused with Leonotis leonurus. The inclusion of cannabis in the list of trade items between Khoikhoi This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 19 and Bantu-speakers on the east coast has been discussed elsewherel5 though it would seem that some groups among the Khoikhoi, particularly the Hankumqua, may have cultivated this herb. In addition to the Khoi- khoi the San hunters both usedl6 and traded17 cannabis. In fact, when Whites settled at the southern tip of the African continent cannabis was in common use. We will return to this question when dealing with the linguistic argument below. ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA That Iron Age Africans were cultivating in the Zambezi valley and raising their cattle in that region by the second or third century A.D. is now a well established fact. In fact, authoritatively dated archaeo- logical sites from Zambia and Rhodesia show the presence of settled communities of Iron Age peoples between A.D. 185 and A.D. 300.18 These were village dwellers who were experimenting with iron smelting and pottery making. We also know that in Zambia trade items from the coast are quite common in archaeological sites dating from the sixth or seventh centuries.19 These sites are also rich in pottery and carved stone items, indicating that the bowls of pipes essential in the smoking of cannibis could have been readily prepared from either of these materials. Further south smoking pipes were found in the Brandberg, South West Africa, where they were associated with large, open-station settlement sites attributed to the Bergdama. Two of these sites have radiocarbon dates of 1590 and 1730 A.D. respectively.20 Apparently then people here- abouts were smoking by the sixteenth century. Based on ethnohistorical information we would suggest that they were in fact smoking cannabis. If we look to the north of the general region just discussed, it is clear that cannabis was being used in the northern Kenya-southern Ethiopia region shortly after the thirteenth century date suggested for the introduction of cannabis into Africa. That it was being smoked is borne out by excavations in Ethiopia where two ceramic smoking-pipe bowls were excavated with a date determined to be 1320+80 A.D. More important however is the fact that both yielded positive tests for cannabis- derived compounds.21 ETHNOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE A survey of seventeenth century and eighteenth century travel docu- ments, ethnographies, and anthropological studies presents a picture of established cannabis users throughout sub-Saharan Africa.22 This applies not only to the Khoikhoi herders in the south and their San neighbors but also to the Bantu-speakers in contact with them. It applies equally to most of the Negroid peoples in south, east, and central Africa. This common cultural pattern of use and the terms used to refer to the herb (see below) suggests a longstanding acceptance of cannabis in most of sub-Saharan Africa. There is by contrast a significant absence of cannabis among the traditional societies in West Africa. We do know that early north- south trade routes existed across the Sahara and that a degree of trade This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 20 existed centuries before Europeans made their contacts from the sea. This point must be emphasized because cannabis has always spread due to the contact of peoples and the trade route would thus be a normal mode of diffusion. We also know that cannabis was present in Egypt at about the same time that it was introduced to the African east coast. However, although the herb was used extensively in Egypt where it was grown in gardens and traded--ultimately as far west as Spain--during the fourteenth century, it failed to spread along the trade routes across the Sahara. This hiatus might be explained in terms of a desert climate which was not conducive to its growth or an unwillingness on the part of desert people and West African Negroes to accept it. It is also possible that it was not acceptable while in the form of dried leaves. We know, for example, that throughout this period cannabis, under the name "hashish" was eaten in Egypt and only much later used in pipes. Thus it might not have been accepted because it was not integrated with an established cultural pattern. Whatever the reason we have found no evidence of can- nabis in West Africa before the Second World War. It is possible, of course, that the West African peoples were simp- ly not interested in the herb, that the population movements were east and south, thus discouraging much diffusion or elaborate trade routes westward, or that a combination of geographical barriers and ecological zones discouraged its spread. It is more than likely that a combination of these various factors was-involved. West Africa's isolation in this regard was breached when its people went eastward to war. As T. Asuni points out: "Cannabis sativa is not indigenous to Nigeria, and evidence indicated that it was introduced to the country and most likely to other parts of West Africa, during and after the second World War by soldiers returning from the Middle East and the Far East, and North Africa, and also by sailors."23 There is furthermore no traditional name for it though a number of local refer- rents have since emerged. Although by 1965 Nigeria was a supplier for local consumption, as well as for "illicit traffic between neighboring countries and in international illicit traffic,"24 researchers have found the herb to be used primarily by "marginal" Africans; by young migrant workers; by "organized political thugs;" or by "recently evolved secret societies with criminal aims, such as Odozi Obodo and the Leopard-men society of Nigeria"25 apparently used as a compensatory drug under stress. In contrast to some of the cases in East Africa where cannabis is well- accepted and used by males and females alike, in Nigeria we find that it is "almost entirely confined to the male sex."26 Further west, in Ghana, the situation is almost identical to that in Nigeria. The first illegal cultivation of cannabis in Ghana was reported by police in 1960 where the herb is called "Wee," which is seen by one author as "a corruption of 'weed' by seamen."27 It is smoked, but only in the form of a rolled cigarette. We can thus view it as a truly recent introduction without the normal accompanying paraphernalia of the waterpipe. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 21 THE LINGUISTIC PICTURE There are two important terms in the history of the herb: Sanskrit bhanga which resulted in the Hindi use of bhang; and Arabic kinnab, a word which probably accounted for the adoption by Linnaeus the botanist of the sub-order cannabis. In its natural form in India, growing either wild or in a cultivated state, cannabis was referred to as bhang. This term applied to the dry 28 leaves of the hemp plant which were used either for a tea or for smoking. It is also the word which spread with the herb itself. Early Muslim writings, from the thirteenth century onwards, refer to banj or hashish29 but the former may in some cases have referred to henbane. Those early writers who criticized the use of the herb as a drug, however, did use banj for cannabis. Medieval Muslim society also recognized its use and distinguished it from all other medicinal herbs. The use of hashish, which could refer to grass as fodder, weeds, medici- nal herbs and so forth was simply a nickname and could be an abbreviation of al-hashish al-muskir "the intoxicating hashish." The early Arab traders introduced the term bang to Africa and in linguistic variant forms, it is found all over east and south Africa. Thus the Dictionnaire Swahili - Fransais prepared by the Institut d'Eth- nologie (Paris, 1939) refers to Bangi, which indicates Indian hemp or hemp-like dried top sections prepared as intoxicants. The origins of the term are listed as: Hindi: bang, Arabic: banj, and Persian bandz (banj). In the region of the East African Great Lakes, just south of Lake Victoria, cannabis is referred to as bhangi30--no doubt the result of early Swahili contacts. When the explorer Speke during the 1850's made his way from the coast to the Great Lakes he found Arab communities and cannabis in use. The use of banghi was common as it still is among the Swahili along the coast. Variations of bangi are, however, found further south. Thus the Thonga31 in the Zambezi valley refer to cannabis as mbange, while the Rhodesian Shona use mbanji. Just south of the Limpopo divide, south- west of the Thonga, live the Venda who refer to it as mbanzhe, and the Sotho speakers called it lebake or patse. A slight phonemic variation occurs among the Swazi-Zulu speakers who use the term ntsangu and the Lamba in the present Zambia have long used uluwangula.32 Referring to a much more recent situation in Rwanda, Helen Codere- reports on canna- bis use among the indigenous population. Cannabis, "called injaga in Kingarawanda," is associated with the Twa of both sexes and only very rarelK with Hutu and Tutsi. The latter, however, use the herb medicin- ally.34 We find then a geographical complex along the east coast and extend- ing some hundreds of miles inland, or along the Zambezi, where indigenous Bantu speakers adopted not only the herb but also the term bang. The presence of Arab traders among them probably had some influence in this regard but the early dates for smoking pipes suggest that cannabis may have preceded its Arab bearers in the process of diffusion. Bang and its Bantu derivatives are not found in all of southern Africa. In the southernmost part of the continent we encounter an historical accident which resulted in a common nomenclature which This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 22 E l-ang- l dagga -lomajor diffusion route -~- minor diffusion route This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 23 clouds the geographical and historical importance of this single term. This is due in part to an erroneous application of the term and to gen- eralization which followed. The earliest use of the term "dagga" of which we are aware occurs in the diary of Jan van Riebeeck, the first governor of the new Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. The date was 1658, and it was spelled as "daccha." It is almost certain that here and in numerous subsequent references we are not dealing with Cannabis sativa but with Leonotis leonurus a well-known flowering shrub used by the Khoikhoi. Van Reibeeck refers to this daccha as "een droogh cruyt dat de Hottentoos eeten ende droncken van worden" (a dry powder which the Hottentots eat and which makes them drunk). In discussing the medicinal and poisonous plants of southern Africa, J. M. Watt and M. G. Breyer-Brandwijk point out that Leonotis leonurus R. Br., also referred to as Rooi dagga, Wilde dagga, or Klipdagga was in early times smoked by the Khoikhoi instead of tobacco. They also quote early authors to the effect that the White Colonists employed the plant and that "the preparation produces narcotic effects if used incautiously,"35 and that "Laidler records that in olden times the Namas formed the powdered leaf into cakes which were chewed evidently for the intoxicating effects."36 Many of the same properties are ascribed to another member of the family, Leonotis leonotis R. Br., also referred to as Knoppies dagga or Klipdagga. While it is impossible to confuse the adult plant of Cannabis sativa and adult specimens of the Leonotis group which bear clusters of bright red flowers, it is likely that the common use and related effects of these two plants lead to the similar term being applied to both plants. This classificatory error also underlies suggestions that Cannabis pro- ducts were eaten or drunk in the Cape. As well as being eaten, the Leonotis leaves were also smoked, usually after being mixed with tobacco, so that a double confusion arose in contemporary writings. One of the most complete linguistic analyses of the term "dagga" 37 has been made by G. S. Nienaber in his study entitled "Hottentots" (1963). In suggesting two possible origins for this term he refers to the works of a number of previous researchers: (a) Following Hahn and Lichten- stein, it is possible that Dutch term tabak (tobacco), which frequently appears as twak, was corrupted to twaga, later toaga and finally dagga. This however seems a farfetched origin. (b) A much more plausible postulate is that the Khoikhoi term daXa-b or baXa-b, which among other things refers to tobacco, is the root noun from which dagga could be derived. When referring specifically to dagga we find the qualifier !am - (green) being added to the root mentioned above, and the result is !amaXa-b namely "green tobacco" or dagga. Lichtenstein, Meinhof, and Nienaber himself doubt that dagga is an original Khoikhoi word. Meinhof goes so far as to suggest that dagga is really a derivative of the Arabic word duXan (actually duXXan or tobacco,"38 which came in by way of the early Khoikhoi migrants.19 We should immediately point out that no other language group in South Africa ever used such a term or anything resembling it. Early European observers in South Africa normally had difficulty in recording phonetically the terms they heard among indigenous peoples. In time a variety of spellings for this common Khoikhoi word began to appear in the literature. Thus we find daccha (1658), dacha (1660), This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 24 dackae (1663), dagha (1686), daggha (1695), dagga (1708), tagga (1725), dacka (1775), and daga (1779), as writers recorded the practices asso- ciated with the plant.40 We must repeat that not all these writers in fact were referring to Cannabis sativa. Furthermore, not all of them were speaking of smoking the herb to which they referred. Since early white settlers were introduced to cannabis in southern Africa by way of the Khoikhoi herders, it was only natural that the term dagga became the common referrent. Today it is the standard term in formal English and Afrikaans references, social, medical and legal. We thus far have established two terminological complexes in Africa, namely, terms derived from the Hindi term bang, and the widely used but narrowly distributed term of dagga. There is, however, a third terminolo- gical complex which extends over a relatively wide region covering Angola and Zaire. Here we find the terms diamba, riamba, liamba, or chamba. When it was discovered that cannabis in Brazil was known by these terms it was thought that these words had perforce to be of Portu- guese origin. It was furthermore argued that either the herb had reached the African south-west coast by the time slaves were taken to the new world or that the Portuguese were instrumental in the diffusion of the term--and possibly the plant. One of the most interesting areas from which our analysis may begin is the Congo drainage area and its border districts. From ethnographic sources we know that cannabis was used in present day Zaire, where for example hemp-smoking was said to be "the curse of the Batetela in Kasai province.'41 Harry Johnston summarized the situation by stating that "hemp as a narcotic is not much used in the Congo basin except in the southern, south-western, and south-central parts, and the western Mubangi. This practice has nearly died out in the Kingdom of Kongo, though it was prevalent once. Of late years hemp-smoking has developed in a rather sensational fashion among the excitable Bashilange..."42 The latter is a sub-group of the larger Luba people and occupy the area around the confluence of the Lulua and the Kasai. It would appear that Swahili traders from Zanzibar43 introduced Cannabis into the region after the 1850's and the original "bhang" was here referred to as "riamba." During the civil strife in the early 1870's a secret society calling itself Bena-Riamba was formed. Early writers translated this as "Sons" of hemp, but Johnston pointed out that we should differentiate bena (meaning "brothers") from bana (meaning "children"). He suggested the use of an initial D- rather than R-44 to read Bena-Diamba. Because the use of riamba is ubiquitious we will retain it in this discussion. In time there was concern about the increasing use of the herb in the Congo region and secret societies were formed to counter its use. A quarter of a century after Johnston's remarks H. Wissman pointed out 45 that "among the younger generation it is already beginning to decrease." It is interesting that among the Badjok, a southern Bantu people, who reside in the same region reported on by Johnston and Wissman a research- er met informants who "denied ever smoking hemp, but a great quantity of it grew near Mayila's hut--probably as an ornament."46 47 Cannabis was also smoked in the northern part of Zaire and had spread into the former French Congo. A. L. Cureau stated that people smoke tocacco moderately, but "the same cannot be said for Indian hemp, the habit of indulging in which is making frightful progress"'(sic )48 49 even using what was then recognized as a "peculiar pipe for smoking it." This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 25 Northeast of the area just discussed namely in the Great Lakes region, around Ujiji, Richard Burton discovered that almost every one, "even when on board the canoe, smokes bhang",50 but it was not as common in the Lower Congo. Writing slightly later than Burton, Herbert Ward51 tells us that "wild hemp smoking (Liamba) is practiced by some of the natives...The practice however is not extensive, and it would appear to be a habit of comparatively recent origin." The picture which emerges is one in which cannabis was used widely but not necessarily by all ethnic-linguistic groups. We do, however, find a common term through- out the Congo drainage region. According to Jose Pedro Machado's Dicionario Etimologico da Lingua Portuguesa52 the words diamba and liamba are derivatives of the Kimbundu word riamba which refers to the cannabis plant. Also in TchiLuba the herb is referred to as diamba and, we are told, but need to confirm, that it is known in KiKongo as mfanga. We find the same noun-stem being used in the southern and eastern part of Angola among the Vangangella53 and the Ovimbundu. The latter in fact refer to cannabis as epangue and it is cultivated and smoked exclusively by men.54 We are thus left with the major terminological divisions of an -ang- complex derived from the term which was originally introduced and an -amb- complex said to be of Mbundu origin. It is significant though that neither J. Gossweiler and F. A. Mendonca in their highly regarded Carta Fitogeografica de Angola (1939)55 nor Do Espirito Santo in Nomes Vernac- ulos de Algumas plantas da Guine' Portuguesa (1963)56 refer to cannabis in these territories, either by botanical classification or by the more general term. We might suggest oversight on their part or failure to recognize the presence of the plant. (This would not be an out-of-the- way explanation, for in a volume entitled Harvest of Time - Angola of the Past the author, Jose Maria d'Eca de Queiros, uses a photograph of him- self57 smoking a cannabis water pipe apparently without being aware of the content since the caption reads: "After choking several times, the author at last learns to smoke the water pipe of the Quicos." The Ango- lan onlookers were obviously enjoying the experiment.) What we would suggest is that cannabis might be of fairly recent origin so that it is still seen as a foreign herb and not one of the "native" plants of Angola or Guinea. CURRENT DIFFUSION HYPOTHESES The literature contains a number of suggestions on the spread of cannabis into southern Africa: (1) J. M. Watt, a pharmacist, has suggested that: "the plant may have been introduced by the early travellers circumventing the Cape from the east."58 Almost all our historical documentation and linguistic evidence suggests a date long before the fifteenth or sixteenth century return of European navigators. (2) Theodore James, basing his argument on a single case of termino- logical agreement (namely Hindi and Shangaan /Thongaj - already men- tioned) states that: "the plant was first carried to the coast of 59 Mozambique...by the Portuguese militant traders returning from India." This sets the date even later, and certainly does not recognize documents regarding early use. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 26 (3) J. E. Morley and A. D. Bensusan, point out that the plant is not indigenous to Southern Africa. "It appears most likely that it was brought by Arab traders to the Mozambique coast from India. From there it was carried southwards by the migrating Hottentots and Bantu."60 In general, this position is supported by A. J. H. Goodwin.61 While rec- ognizing an earlier date of introduction of cannabis, this hypothesis is rather vague as to "Hottentots and Bantu." (4) James Walton refers to his own survey of archaeological reports which refers to pipes found in early Bantu settlements, and also to Dos Santos' description of cannabis cultivation by the eastern Shona in the sixteenth century. He then suggests that cannabis "was introduced into southern Africa by the very first waves of Bantu invaders from the North."62 The use of the herb would then have spread from Bantu to Khoikhoi and San. Walton's suggestion certainly comes closest to the accumulated evidence being presented in this paper. (5) There is one additional route we must keep in mind, although this has not been incorporated in any of the diffusion hypotheses: a spread from south Arabia through Ethiopia. It is well established that the Amhara people very early on came from Arabia, but a variety of products preceded and followed this Semitic invasion. Thus Simoons suggests that contacts between ancient Cushitic peoples and settlements north of the Red Sea were continued in later times when Amhara settlers continued these contacts.63 In the process, plough agriculture, a zebu strain of cattle, and various agricultural products spread to Ethiopia. The question which arises is whether cannabis could have been one of these products. Recently N. J. van der Merwe reported on two ceramic pipe bowls excavated at Lalibela cave near Lake Tana. Both were parts of water-pipes and had been impregnated with definite cannabis-derived compounds. The author concluded that "some variety of Cannabis sativa was smoked around Lake Tana in the 13th-14th century, in much the same way as it is today."64 The importance of the Lake Tana find and the associated radiocarbon dates are of great significance. They imply either that cannabis entered Ethiopia from southern Arabia, or that it spread from the east African coast in a northerly direction from Bantu-speaking to Cushitic peoples. One problem which arises is that Lake Tana is in the north central part of Ethiopia. Could we postulate a trade route from the present-day Kenya into northern Ethiopia? Unfortunately we have not yet come across a thorough study of early trade routes in northeast Africa and are thus not able to suggest diffusion from the Kenya coastal region to Lake Tana. Such diffusion may in fact have occurred prior to the east Africa settlement of the Arabs. However, if we are dealing with a spread of cannabis from the north into Ethiopia, and Franz Rosenthal suggests that "the use of hashish spread through India, China and Ethiopia...,"65 there remains one cri- tical issue involving the way it was used. Referring to the use of hashish in medieval Muslim society Rosenthal also notes emphatically 66 that "in our sources, hashish is never described as having been smoked." Since the estimated date for the Lake Tana excavation is no more than a century later than most of the other references used by Rosenthal we are dealing either with a very rapid change in method of use, or with an independent diffusion not typical of the other methods used around the region. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 27 The available evidence then seems to allow for a possible diffusion of cannabis from Syria to Ethiopia. Diverse sources of evidence suggest Khoikhoi contact, for instance in the presence of pottery, cattle, and words. Merrick Posnansky points out that "evidence of a trickle of peoples from the Horn in the last millennium of the pre-Christian era and in the first of the post-Christian era is available from the Eryth- riote (or caucasoid) skeletal remains from the Horn, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi."67 The first contacts with Khoikhoi found them to possess "a form of zebu cow which probably accompanied them sometime in the first half of the present millenium if pottery parallels between East Africa and South Africa are any indication of a fold movement." We have already mentioned the Khoikhoi word for tobacco. If the argument outlined here is considered seriously it would imply that Khoikhoi had close contact with Ethiopia and then spread south along the east coast prior to the Bantu expansion. As the Bantu occupied the coastal region and migrated southward, they forced the Khoikhoi into a similar migra- tion which finally brought them to the Cape. An alternative explanation, of course, is that cannabis and the water pipe diffused from East Africa. This would certainly tie in with the rest of the data presented here. It also rests very heavily on a dispersal from the south into Ethiopia along trade routes described for a later period by Richard Pankhurst.68 Just as likely an hypothesis is one which postulates the spread of cannabis from earlier Arab settlements or Indian trade centers around the Horn of Africa. Diffusion would then have been effected along the salt-trade routes discussed by Abir.69 This would even allow for the spread of cannabis directly from India, since it is recognized that in the tenth century "Indian merchants were visiting Sokotra in vessels 70 called baraja, and /that/ they were often in conflict with the Muslims." If we were to accept the Horn of Africa as a diffusion center it would imply either that these Indian traders used the water pipe and introduced it along with cannabis, or that they learned about the water pipe from Arab traders during these excursions, or, finally, that the water pipe was independently invented near Lake Tana, a somewhat unlikely conclusion in the light of the subsequent diffusion of the water pipe. Though he was not concerned in detail with the diffusion of canna- bis, A. H. Dunhill, writing for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, apparently has his chronology and his migration routes backwards. He states:71 "The Bushmen and Hottentots of southern Africa used the dakka pipe; which cooled and mitigated the effects of hemp smoke by drawing it through a horn of water.72 While Africa continued to produce more orthodox pipes of almost every possible material and size the water pipe spread to India... and the Far East, and...was popular...in Persia in the 17th Century." Most scholars eg. Laufer73 recognized the water- pipe as originating in Persia and spreading south and east from there. We should once again point to the significance of van der Merwe's statement (vide supra) that the two 13th century ceramic pipe bowls excavated in Ethiopia "formed part of waterpipes."74 We are aware of course that the water pipe did not require the elaborate parphernalia now associated with it. In Africa a wealth of forms appeared, as gourds, antelope horns, and other containers were adopted. In modern urban settings everything from milk bottles and soft This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 28 drink cans to coconut shells are used as water containers. In this respect it is of interest that the waterpipe which was integrated into Indian hemp smoking came to be called the Nargila, derived from Nargil, the word for a coconut, and based on Sanskrit narikera meaning coconut. CONCLUSION In the light of all the evidence available to date, none of which is either conclusive or quite satisfactory, we should like to offer the following hypothesis regarding the diffusion routes of cannabis in major outline only in sub-Saharan Africa. We have, for reasons cited above, presumed that the Khoikhoi, who preceded the later Negroid migrants southward across the African plateau and along the east coast, were not the major bearers of cannabis. During the first centuries A.D. Arab traders who had settled around the Horn and southwards from Mogadishu had introduced cannabis to the indigenous African population. It would appear that the herb was intro- duced as a product to smoke rather than in the form of hashish to be eaten as it was in Egypt. From these northern locations along the coas- tal settlements of what is today Somalia and Kenya, cannabis was carried and traded into the interior where its presence and use in northwestern Ethiopia have been documented. At about the same time Bantu speakers were living not only on the east African plateau but also occupied "in force the humid coastal belt" as far north as the Juba.75 This is just south of the city of Mogadishu in the general area of the earliest settlements referred to above. The Arab settlements during this period which are best documented, however, were further south on Pemba and Zanzibar, and also on the mainland as far south as Kilwa. From here Swahili (and Arab) traders introduced the herb to Bantu settlers. The latter were mostly Iron Age peoples who were expanding their population and incorporating new territory, inclu- ding most of the drier inland areas of Kenya and Tanzania and no doubt northern Zambia and Katanga (Shaba). The herb needed no advocate. It is after all a "social" plant, basically associated with human settle- ments and given the warm climate of central Africa it was capable of spreading quite readily. It would seem logical that with the early contact and trade by Africans from Angola cannabis might have reached the Kongo and Mbundu by the early part of the sixteenth century. This was a period of inten- sive interaction during which slaves were traded and political alliances formed. In his discussion of valued items traded by the Kongo, Mbundu, and Ndongo, David Birmingham76 does not mention cannabis or anything related to it, but he does show the kind of networks which extended from the west coast to peoples in the interior. The Portuguese traders first moved up the Kwanza and contacted the Mbundu. They also traded slaves from the Kongo, and these two groups (the Mbundu and the Kongo) were in contact with the Lunda and the Luba further east. It was here, we would suggest, that cannabis was used in the form of mfanga and where the phonemic change occurred so that it was referred to as riamba. This was also the word accepted by the Portuguese and exported to Brazil with the slaves. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 29 At the same time that cannabis was carried into the interior of Africa, Arab traders settled further south, and then moved up the Zam- besi River in order to trade with the Rozwi Empire. Brian Fagan and D. W. Phillipson77 refer to a pipe "with a male stem" which was un- earthed at Sebanzi in Zambia. They date it as coming "from the level dated cir. A.D. 1200." In a personal communication Joseph Vogel, who is currently conducting research in the area, informs us that he tends to treat "the Sebanzi conclusions as interesting, worth investigating more fully, but necessarily tentative." It still leaves us, however, with an early date for the presence of a smoking pipe.78 The Zimbabwe complex may offer more convincing evidence. Within an archaeological stratum which reached its climax about 1450 A.D., Summers found "some pipes for smoking dagga (Indian hemp)."79 He neither indicates the depth of the particular find in terms of the level, nor whether the ash in the pipes was tested for cannabis deriva- tives. We are thus left with archaeological evidence of smoking pipes and cannabis in southern Africa no later than the middle of the 15th century, and possibly earlier. The hypothesis regarding this diffusion would then allow for the spread of cannabis from Rhodesia southward or westward into and across the Kalahari. It would seem likely that the Bergdama by this date were already growing the herb which they had received from earlier Khoikhoi or from their neighbors to the north, the Ovambo and Ovimbundu, repre- senting the furthest known spread westward of the linguistic stem -ang-. The Ovimbundu refer to epangue, a term very close to the Ovambo epangwe. The Bergdama speak of daXab suggesting that they obtained knowledge about the herb from Nama-speakers prior to contact with the Orambo. While the herb was never of major economic significance throughout most of Africa it was recognized as having a strong traditional value and therefore formed part of the trade goods of many peoples. The hypo- thesis which has been presented in this paper pointed at a number of areas in which more information is needed. The linguistic picture is perhaps the most complete.80 Much of the historical and archaeological evidence may have been clouded by acceptance of the argument that nothing was smoked before the Portuguese introduced tobacco. Currently I am involved in an extensive literature survey to trace all references to cannabis use. Such research is linking historical information with the modern situation. As its users migrated to urban areas, cannabis has gained in economic importance and finally its illegal status has placed an even greater monetary value on this ancient herb. NOTES The research on which this paper is based was supported in whole by P. H. S. Research Grant D.A. 00387 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Field work was conducted in southern Africa during 1972-1974 and the analysis of research data is now being concluded. While I express my sincere gratitude for the financial support, the findings are not necessarily shared by the granting agency or any person associated with it. Appreciation should also go to Drs. Haig Der-Houssikian, and David Niddrie who commented on an earlier draft of this paper. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 30 Richard E. Schultes, "Man and Marijuana," Natural History, Vol. LXXXII, No. 7, 1973. 2Neville Chittick, "Kilwa and the Arab Settlement of the East African Coast," Journal of African History, Vol. IV, No. 2, 1963. 3Neville Chittick, "The 'Shirazi' colonization of East Africa," Journal of African History, Vol. VI, No. 3, 1965. 4Franz Rosenthal, The Herb, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971, p. 160. 5Ahmad M. Khalifa, "Traditional patterns of Hashish use in Egypt," in Vera Rubin (ed.), Cannabis and Culture, The Hague: Mouton Pub- lishers, 1975, p. 199. 6A. Mc Martin, "The introduction of sugarcane to Africa and its early dispersal," The South African Sugar Year Book, 1969-70, Durban, 1970, p. 16. 7See the excellent discussion in M. D. D. Newitt, Portuguese settlement on the Zambezi, New York: Africana Publishing Co., 1973. Brian Fagan, Southern Africa, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1965. 9Chittick, "'Shirazi' colonization," p. 271. B. M. Fagan, "Early trade and raw materials in South Central Africa," Journal of African History, Vol. X, 1969, p. 10. lJ. Vansina, "Long-Distance trade routes in Central Africa," Journal of African History, Vol. III, 1962. 12Jacques Nenquin, "Notes on some early pottery cultures in northern Katanga," Journal of African History, Vol. IV, No. 1, 1963, p. 236. 13N. Sutherland-Harris, "Trade and the Rozwi Mambo," in Richard Gray & David Birmingham (eds.), Pre-Colonial African Trade, London: Oxford University Press, 1970, and S. S. Dornan, Pygmies and Bushmen of the Kalahari, London: Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd, 1925. 13aH. Vedder, Quellen zur Geschichte von Siidwest - Afrika, Vol. 2. Type- script in State Archives, Windhoek. 14See the discussion in Brian M. du Toit, "Dagga - the history and ethno- graphic setting of Cannabis sativa in southern Africa," in Vera Rubin (ed.), Cannabis and Culture, The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1975. 15Ibid. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 31 16Phillip V. Tobias, "Physique of a desert folk," Natural History, Vol. 70, 1961, p. 24. 17Dornan, "Pygmies... ," p. 122. 18R. R. Inskeep, "The Archaeological Background," in Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson (eds.), The Oxford History of South Africa, New York, Oxford University Press, 1969, p. 32. 19Fagan, Southern Africa, p. 93. 20Leon Jacobsen, personal communication, September, 1975. N. J. Van der Merwe, "Cannabis Smoking in 13th-14th Century Ethiopia: Chemical Evidence," in Vera Rubin (ed.), Cannabis and Culture. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1975. 22du Toit, "Dagga..." T. Asuni, "Socio-psychiatric problems of cannabis in Nigeria," Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol. 16, 1964. A. Tella, et. al., "Indian hemp smoking," Journal of Social Health in Nigeria, Vol. 40, 1967, p. 40. T. A. Lambo, "Medical and Social problems of drug addiction in west Africa," Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol. 17, 1965, pp. 3 and 6. A. Boroffka, "Mental illness and Indian hemp in Lagos," Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol. 18, 1966, p. 378. E. C. Sagoe, "Narcotics control in Ghana," Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol. 18, 1966, p. 8. 28Brian M. du Toit, "Historical and Cultural factors of drug use among Indians in South Africa," Journal of Psychedelic Drugs (in press). 29Rosenthal, The Herb, pp. 19-20. P30aul Kollmann, The Victoria Nyanza, London: Swam Sonnenschein, 1899. 31H. A. Junod, The Life of a Southern African Tribe, New York: Univer- sity Books, 1962 (originally published in 1912). 32V. Clement Doke, The Lambas of Northern Rhodesia, London: George G. Harris, 1931. 33Helen Codere, "The Social and Cultural Context of Cannabis use in Rwanda," in Vera Rubin (ed.),Cannabis and Culture, The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1975. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 32 34By deleting the typical Bantu noun prefixes and allowing for some pho- netic adaptation, the reader will be able to see the noun-stem -ang- or slight phonemic variations on this form. 35J. M. Watt and M. G. Breyer-Brandwijk, The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern Africa, Edinburgh: E. And S. Livingstone, 1932, p. 156. 36Ibid, p. 157. 37G. S. Nienaber, Hottentots, Pretoria: Van Schaik, 1963, p. 157. 38Ibid, p. 243. 39See also in this regard the discussion under diffusion hypothesis no. 5 below. 40Vide Nienaber, Hottentots, pp. 241-242 and R. Raven-Hart, Cape Good Hope 1652-1702: The First Fifty Years of Dutch Colonization as seen by callers, Vol. 1, Cape Town: Balkema, 1971, p. 507. M. W. Hilton-Simpson, Land and people of the Kasai, London: Con- stable and Co. Ltd., 1911, p. 156. 42Harry H. Johnston, British Central Africa, London: Methuen & Co., 1897, pp. 607-608. 43A. Keane, Man, past and present, Cambridge: The University Press, 1920, p. 114. 44Johnston, British Central Africa, p. 608. 45H. Wissman, My second journey through equatorial Africa, London: Chatto & Windus, 1891, p. 308. 46E. Torday, On the trail of the Bushongo, London: Seeley, Service 6 Co., Ltd., 1925, p. 271. 47M. R. P. Dorman, A Journal of a tour in the Congo Free State, London: Kegan Paul, 1905, p. 88. A. L. Cureau, Savage man in central Africa: A Study of primitive races in the French Congo. London: T. Fisher Unavin, 1915, p. 229. 49Ibid., p. 238. 50Richard F. Burton, The Lake Regions of Central Africa, Vol. II, New York: Horizon Press, 1961, p. 70. 51Herbert Ward, A Voice from the Congo, London: William Heinemann, 1910, pp. 265-266. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 33 52Jose' Pedro Machado, Dicionario Etimolo'gico da Lingua Portuguesa (2nd Edition), Vol. II, Lisbon, 1967, p. 812. 53Childs points out that the Ovimbundu recognize a common humanity with their southern and northern neighbors who are seen either as "people" or "comrades." "Similar recognition is not extended to the eastern and south-eastern neighbors who are lumped together under the dero- gatory term 'va Ngangela' or ovingangela. This eastern region as far as the Great Lakes was the happy hunting-ground of the slave- traders..." (G. M. Childs, Umbundu Kinship and Character, London: Oxford University Press, 1949, p. 189). 54Wilfrid D. Hambly, The Ovimbundu of Angola, Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 329, Chicago, 1934, p. 152. 55 55. Gossweiler, F. A. Mendonga, Carta Fitogeografica de Angola, Edicao, Do Gog'erno geral, Angola, 1939. 56J. do Espirito Santo, Nomes Verna'culos de Algumas plantas da Guin4 Portuguesa, Lisbon: Estudos, Ensaios E. documentos No. 104, 1963. 57Jose Maria d'Eca de Queiros, Seara dos Tempos - Harvest of time, Lis- bon: Empresa Nacional de Publicidade (1969?), p. 290. 58J. M. Watt, "Dagga in South Africa," Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol. 13, 1961, p. 9. 59Theodore James, "Dagga: A review of fact and fancy," South African Medical Journal, Vol. 44, 1970, p. 575. 60J. E. Morley and A. D. Bensusan, "Dagga: tribal uses and customs," Medical Proceedings, Vol. 17, p. 409. A. J. H. Goodwin, "The origins of certain African food plants," South African Journal of Science, Vol. 36, 1939, p. 456. 62James Walton, "The Dagga pipes of Southern Africa," Researches of the National Museum, Vol. 1, 1963, p. 85. 63Frederick J. Simoons, "Some questions on the economic prehistory of Ethiopia," Journal of African History, Vol. VI, 1965, pp. 11-12. 64 van der Merwe, "Cannabis Smoking...," p. 80. 65Rosenthal, The Herb, p. 45. 66Ibid, p. 65. 67Merrick Posnansky, "The Origins of Agriculture and Iron working in Southern Africa," in Merrick Posnansky (ed.), Prelude to East African History, London: Oxford University Press, 1966, p. 89. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 34 68Richard Pankhurst, "The trade of Southern and Western Ethiopia and the Indian Ocean Parts in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries," Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. III, No. 2, 1965. 69M. Abir, "Salt,Trade and Politics in Ethiopia in the ZThmihai Mgsafent," Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. IV, No. 2, 1966. 70 Richard Pankhurst, "The 'Banyan' or Indian Presence at Massawa, the Dahlak Islands and the Horn of Africa," Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. XII, No. 1, 1974, p. 186. 71 A. H. Dunhill, "Pipe Smoking," Encyclopedia Britannica, 1969, p. 1098. 72 In this regard see also Brian M. du Toit, "Continuity and Change in cannabis use by Africans in South Africa," Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. XI, Nos. 3-4, 1976, and Brian M. du Toit, "Ethnicity and Patterning in South African drug use," Brian M. du Toit (ed.), Drugs, Rituals, and Altered States of Consciousness, Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema, 1976. 73Berthold Laufer, "The Introduction of Tobacco into Africa," in B. Laufer, W. D. Hambly, and Ralph Linton, Tobacco and its Use in Africa, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 1930, p. 10. 74 van der Merwe, "Cannabis Smoking...," p. 78. 75Roland Oliver, "The problem of the Bantu expansion," in J. D. Fage and R. A. Oliver (eds.), Paper in African Prehistory, Cambridge, the University Press, 1970. 76David Birmingham, Trade and Conflict in Angola, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966. 77Brian M. Fagan & D. W. Phillipson, "Sebanzi: The Iron Age Sequence at Lochinvar, and the Tonga," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 95, Part 2, 1965, p. 261. 78Phillipson suggested that, since these pipes, and particularly the oldest bowl referred to in our discussion, predated 1492 when smok- ing tobacco was introduced to the Old World from the New, these people smoked some other form of tobacco or cannabis sativa. (D. W. Phillipson, "Early Smoking Pipes from Sebanzi Hill, Zambia," Arnoldia, Vol. 1, No. 40, 1965, p. 2). One problem with this suggestion is that these pipe bowls seem not to have been parts of water pipes. 79Roger Summers, Ancient Ruins and vanished civilizations in southern Africa, Cape Town: T. V. Bulpin, 1971, p. 164 and illustrated p. 226. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 35 80We can reconstruct the diffusion of the term bhang in the following way. It is hoped that many of the questions which still remain will be answered as the research continues. bh(ang) b (ang)hi bh(ang) i Hindi Swahili Great Lakes inj (ag )a mf (ang) a ep (ang) ue ep (ang)we Rwanda Kongo Ovimbundu Ovambo mb (ang) e uluw(ang) ula mb (anj)i mb (anz)he nts(ang) u leb (ak )e p(ats)e Thonga Lamba Shona Venda Zulu Sotho Sotho This content downloaded from 71.172.230.211 on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:40:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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