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Medicinal Resistance: African Plant Knowledge through Bondage and Beyond

African American herbalism forms part of the backbone for many healing traditions across the Americas. It is often overlooked, just as the rich African herbal traditions. It is now that lineages like these can be recognized and honored as part of the rich tapestry healing created over thousands of years and thousands upon thousands of miles of transformation and transition.

Many people think of Africa as a poor continent, rife with strife and struggle. Although struggle and strife are still a reality in many parts of Africa, the notion of "poor", however, is not absolute. Africa is rich in both mineral and biological resources. Like many other places, distribution of goods is often avoided to favor a few domestic and international elite.

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My Story

This is my story, as I am the child of a Dutch woman and an African American man. My dad married a Jamaican woman, from whom I have learned a lot over the years. Although I am a descendant of healers from the African American part of my biological family and possibly further back in Europe, very little of this knowledge has been passed on to my generation. Despite this, I spent many years studying the literature on African American healing traditions and learning from current practitioners and scholars. Even so, I am continually humbled by the amount of knowledge available to share about how Black people have influenced herbal traditions in the Americas. It isn't surprising, considering the influence they had on many forms of our amalgamated culture. The continent of Africa is the first place to look for the roots of African American herbalism.

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Plants and Traditions of Select African Countries

Khemet is also known as Egypt and is one of the most popular of the 54 African countries. It is home to thousands of years of herbal traditions. The Ebers Papyrus, which dates back over 3,500 years, contains hundreds of remedies. These traditions were influenced by Asian and Middle East traditions.

Ethiopia, also known by Abyssinia is another East African country rich in rich traditions that span millennia. It is also the origin of coffee ( Coffea spp. It also contains botanicals such as frankincense, khat, and Commiphora spp from neighboring countries.

South Africa has a wealth of plant species, with many that can only be found there. One well-known group is the San Bushmen. They are known for their herbal practices that go back millennia. This area is home to many of our favourite houseplants and ornamentals. The rooibos is a major commercial plant ( Aspalanthus linearis).

Madagascar is the largest island on Earth. This is another location in the world that thousands of endemic plants can live. One of the most well-known medicinal plants is the Madagascar Periwinkle ( Catharanthus Roseus). Although vanilla ( Vitamin planifolia), is native to Mexico and is used for its world distribution, most of it is hand-pollinated in Madagascar.

These are only a few of many rich cultural and botanical traditions found within Africa.

The Slave Trade

West Africa includes many smaller countries such as Benin, Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea Bissau. It also includes Senegal and Sierra Leone along the coast. The interior is home to larger countries like Mali, Algeria, Niger, Mali and Nigeria. Many African enslaved persons were transported to the Americas from this area. Slavery traders from Europe were the British, French, Dutch, French and Portuguese. The Portuguese were particularly active in the slave trade along the coasts of Angola, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It was a massive slave trade. Over 350 years, more than 11 million slaves were chained to America. At least 1,000,000 were brought to North America from that number. The waves of people brought to America by bondage included many ethnic groups. Among the cultural groups are the Akan and Bamileke as well as Ewe and Fulani.

Although many people tend to view slavery as historical, it is important that we understand that millions of children from countries like Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and other African countries still work in slavery-like conditions within the chocolate ( Theobroma cocoa) industry. Although cacao was originally cultivated in the Americas, much of it is now grown in Africa. It is truly shocking that chocolate made from child labor is used in our most sacred rituals, such as Easter, Halloween, Valentine's Day, and Christmas. The pleasure of one person is at the cost of another child's pain. In difficult subjects such as this, ignorance is often bliss. This article is not about me, but rather how I can help to eradicate ignorance for the benefit of these children and many other agricultural workers who are often black and brown in color all around the globe. You can enjoy a delicious treat by buying fairtrade organic cocoa.

Spiritual Traditions from the Diaspora

Traditions are rich in diversity in an area as complex and large as Africa. The importance of the ancestors is important across the continent. The cultures of Nigeria, Togo, and Benin have had a significant impact on herbal and spiritual practices in the African diaspora, from Brazil to North America. In this instance, diaspora is the involuntary dispersion of African peoples and their scattering. Particularly, the spiritual path of Ifa, which originated from the Yoruba people has had a significant influence. These traditions are dedicated to the Orishas, a pantheon of deities with various areas of influence and personalities. Osanyin, one spirit associated to herbalism, is Osanyin. Many traditions have sprung from Ifa in the Americas including Candomble and Lucumi, Santeria and many others. These traditions should not be confused with Vodun or Voodoo. Vodun is a largely Fon and Ewe culture that originated in Benin and Togo. Voodoo is distinct from Hoodoo which is less religious and more syncretic, and is from the southeastern United States.

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African Plant Material

The African continent is extremely diverse. It contains thousands of native plants, roots, fruits and vegetables. These foods and medicines have been a cornerstone of international commerce. There are many more that could be researched and popularized. Many more are likely to be subject to further research and popularization.

Judith Carney, an anthropologist, has described the transfer of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), plants from Africa to the Americas. Black-eyed peas, okra ( Abelmoschus succulentus), and senna are all fruits and vegetables that are of African origin. ), sesame (Sesamum indicum), sorrel (Hibiscus sabdariffa), and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus). Aloe ( aloe and other food-as medicine plants are also available. The bitter melon ( Momordica Charantia).

Some trees are the African oil palm ( Elaeis Guineensis), and baobab ( Adansonia). ), cola (Cola acuminata), coffee (Coffea spp. ), mango (Mangifera india), horseradish tree, Moringa oleifera, miracle fruit (Synsepalum dicipum), and shea (Vittelaria paradoxa). Oils are extracted from many of these trees for use in food, body care, and healing. It is difficult to emphasize the importance of trees in many African countries for spiritual and sacred purposes. 10 Some of the finest and most important groves of old growth trees in Africa are being preserved by religious groups. 11 The famous baobabs are perhaps the most well-known tree on the continent. You can see some impressive examples in South Florida in this picture.

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Africa is almost entirely in the tropics. This climate zone also includes large parts of Central, South America, and the Caribbean. They share a similar collection known as a Flora. In recognition of their origin, introduced plants from Africa were often given the names "Angolan" or "Guinea". Angola grass, Brachiaria mutica, Angola peas (Cajanus Cajan), Guinea peppers (Xylopia aethiopica), Guinea squashes (Solanum aethiopicum), Guinea yams (Dioscoreacayensis), Guinea grass (Panicum maxim) are just a few examples.

African Context Holistic Healing

Traditional African healing practices and other Indigenous groups worldwide treat sickness holistically. There is an inherent psychic, spiritual and emotional component to healing and sickness. People across the continent use special clothing, music, dancing, or other methods in rituals of healing. It is important to take into account the harvest time. Sometimes, formulas of plant combinations may be used instead of relying on one drug or herb to solve a problem.

Botanical Knowledge Transfer

Understanding the transfer of agricultural and herbal knowledge and traditions in the contexts of forced roles of enslavement is difficult. It's important to remember that knowledge of enslaved persons was usually considered their property and not credited back to them. Enslaved peoples didn't have the ability to read or write so healing was mostly a family tradition. It is evident that there were many ideas shared through the slave trade. These ideas included the use of plants from both the "old" world of colonizers as well as the "new" world being explored and exploited. Many white settlers from Europe's northern regions were dependent on the tropical knowledge of Africans. This knowledge was combined with that of local Indigenous peoples to create a plantation system that used natively-occurring and locally-introduced plants. This reliance of the owner class upon Black and Indigenous knowledge also extended to agriculture--especially regarding warm-weather crops like cassava (Manihot esculenta), cotton (Gossypium spp. ), sugar ( Saccharum oficinarum), yams( Dioscoreaspp. ).

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Enslaved peoples were greatly outnumbered in many colonies. These areas were often lacking in professionals such as doctors. Therefore, Black people often played many roles within society, including the role of healer. However, the acceptance or rejection of Black folk medicine varied from one place to another. Graman Quassi, a healer from Black folk medicine, was an enslaved man who became a free man in the 18th century. The only botanical species, which Linnaeus has named out of more than 8,000, is dedicated to him. It honors an formerly enslaved individual. With his nameake, the bitterwood plant ( Quassia amara), he saved many people in Dutch Guiana/Suriname during the 1700s. Suriname is not the only place where Maroons are common. Maroon, a Spanish term that refers to escaped slaves who established autonomous communities without the control of the dominant class, is Spanish in origin. ^11-14 Maroon healing traditions are well-studied in Suriname and Jamaica.

Conclusion

We hope this article helped to highlight some of the contributions made by both Africa and its peoples to the rich mixture of herbal knowledge that we all enjoy in our modern age. Additional writing will explore the African American traditions of North America, and provide many additional resources for exploration and reading.

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Refers

1. Manniche L. An Ancient Egyptian Herbal. Rev. British Museum Press; 2006.
2. Naeem M., Aftab T. Khan MMA, eds. Catharanthus Rosaus: Current Research, Future Prospects. Springer; 2017.
3. Eltis D, Richardson D, Blight DW, Davis DB. Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Illustrated edition. Yale University Press, 2015.
4. Iwu MM. Handbook of African Medicinal Plants. 2nd ed. CRC Press; 2014.
5. Sofowora A. Traditional Medicine and Medicinal Plants in Africa. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1982.
6. Burkill HM. Useful plants of West Tropical Africa: General Index. Vol 6. 2nd ed. ; 2004.
7. Hutchings A. Scott AH. Lewis G. Cunningham. Zulu Medicinal Plants - An Inventory. University of Natal Press, 1996.
8. Cook F. Emerging Planetary Medicals. Self-published Master's Thesis; 2009.
9. Carney J, Rosomoff RN. In The Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in Atlantic World. University of California Press, 2011.
10. Bhagwat SA and Rutte CC. Sacred Groves: Potential for biodiversity management. Front Ecol Environ. 2006;4(10):519-524. doi:10.1890/1540-9295(2006)4[519:SGPFBM]2.0.CO;2
11. Price R, Ed. Maroon Societies - Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas. 3rd ed. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
12. Harris I. Healing Herbs from Jamaica. AhHa Press; 2010.
13. Cohen M. Medical Beliefs and Practices of The Maroons of Moore Town: A Study in Acculturation. Published online 1973. Accessed September 15, 2016. http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=3394370
14. PR. The Guiana Maroons - A Historical and Bibliographic Introduction. 1976. The Johns Hopkins University Press.