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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Spread of Crops into Sub-Equatorial Africa during the Early Iron Age
Authors:Wigboldus, J.S.
Rossel, GerdaISNI
Langhe, E. De
Swennen, R.
Vuylsteke, D.
Year:1994-1995
Periodical:Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa
Volume:29-30
Pages:121-129
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Subsaharan Africa
Africa
Subjects:Iron Age
food crops
bananas
prehistory
Anthropology and Archaeology
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History, Archaeology
crops
history
agriculture
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/00672709409511665
Abstract:These papers contribute to the history of the main foods of Bantu Africa. J.S. Wigboldus discusses crops considered to originate in southern monsoon Asia (coconut, sugarcane, rice, taro and banana), and those thought to be indigenous to northern tropical Africa (finger-millet, pearl-millet and sorghum). He puts the introduction south of the equator of sorghum at the beginning of the Early Iron Age, coconut, sugarcane and banana towards its end, taro and rice at the transition to the later Iron Age, and pearl-millet and finger-millet later still. Gerda Rossel examines the taxonomy, nomenclature and uses of 'Musa' and 'Ensete' in Africa, with the aim of establishing a theory about the introduction and spread of 'Musa' - that is of plantains and other bananas - throughout the African continent, and examining the history of the domestication of 'Ensete' in Africa. E. De Langhe, R. Swennen and D. Vuylsteke argue that distinct groups of bananas have reached Africa in successive waves, with the plantains arriving first. The plantain rapidly became the staple food in the equatorial rainforest (Zaire basin to Cameroon) some 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, but the circumstances of its movement from the East Coast to the forest, over perhaps a thousand years before that, remain an enigma. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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