A History of Cannabis in Africa
Five hundred years ago, some white men found
themselves in the jungles near the Cape of
Good Hope. They were “discovered” by the
aborigines who took them to their chief. After
the greeting ceremony that required genufl ec-
tion and perhaps even prostration, and after the
chief had made his position of authority clear;
these men were entertained. They were offered
food, and bangue – an intoxicating drink made
of the leaves and fl owers from a plant that was
being cultivated in and around the Cape of
Good Hope, and which, the foreigners realized,
was marijuana. (Source: Marijuana – The First
Twelve Thousand Years.)
This is Important for two reasons:
1. Cannabis isn’t native to Africa – and yet,
these tribes that were focused on getting
almost everything they required from their
immediate environment, didn’t just use mari-
juana, they also cultivated it.
2. The name they used for it was bangue,
which sounds almost like “bhang” which is
the common Indian name for Cannabis.
Around 1700 A.D., the Khoikhois who were
then known as Hottentots (a term now con-
sidered derogatory) and who were the original
inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope; were al-
ready using hemp as a recreational drug. They
called it Dagga. They had been ingesting it for
almost a century before the Europeans arrived,
but the Europeans taught them the art of smok-
ing it.
Another interesting fi nd that tells us about
Africa’s historical connection with cannabis
are the Ethiopian smoking-pipes. Archaeolo-
gists have found two ceramic smoking-pipe
bowls containing traces of cannabis, in Ethio-
pia – a country situated near the horn of Africa.
These artifacts date to the fourteenth century,
and they are possibly the earliest evidence of
cannabis smoking in Africa.
All these facts raise an interesting question:
How did Cannabis, which wasn’t a native Afri-
can plant, arrive in Africa? There are many pos-
sible answers to this question:
1. It’s highly probable that cannabis was
brought into Africa around 1300 AD – by ei-
ther the Arab Merchants or by the Chinese
traders, or by both. The term “bangue” or
“bang” (in Swahili) indicates an Indian con-
nection, which of course, tilts the scales in
favor of the Arab Merchants bringing it to the
African continent.
2. Around 1300, the Sufi saints (the nomadic
breakaway group of Islam that had already
been using cannabis for almost 200 years,)
had also begun journeying into the Medi-
terranean, the Egypt, and the African East
Coast. They, along with the Arab merchants
may have brought cannabis to Africa.
3. Ancient Egypt boasts of a very long asso-
ciation with cannabis. About four thousand
years ago the Egyptians were already enjoy-
ing the benefi ts of Marijuana. Upper Egypt
that spread through today’s Sudan, could
possibly be held responsible for the two
smoking-pipe bowls that were discovered
in Ethiopia, which shares its northern border
with Sudan. It’s possible that the spread of
Marijuana began in Africa through Ethiopia,
and that it began a lot earlier – perhaps dur-
ing the time of the New Kingdom?
While all of this is possible no one can be
sure. What we defi nitely know is that when
Europeans turned their attention to Africa, the
natives of the South-Eastern Africa were not
only cultivating and consuming cannabis but
they were also referring to it as bangue.
In Africa, cannabis use wasn’t restricted to
recreational use it was also used for medicinal
and spiritual purposes. Medicinally, it was used
to help treat diseases like Malaria and also as
an anesthetic.
Background information for this article was
provided by MJLinks.com.
NUGL Magazine 29