The Environmental History of Africa

Topic 14 - Bananas in Buganda

  1. Temptation of environmental determinism in African history is great because of paucity of written historical documentation to counterbalance evidence of environmental context.

  2. The foundation and growth of the kingdom of Buganda on the northeast shore of Lake Victoria offers a useful case for the importance of environmental factors in shaping political and economic growth
    1. Buganda (attached chronology) was the best known and largest (pop. c. 1 million) East African political kingdom of the 19th century.
    2. Buganda was a major destination for the Swahili trade in slaves, ivory, cloth, etc. that penetrated from the East African coast (i.e. Zanzibar) in the mid-19th century.
    3. Buganda was also key destination for European explorer/geographers who left "thick" descriptions in published form, including Richard Burton, John Speke, James Grant, Henry Stanley, etc.
    4. Buganda was site of deep religious conflict between Protestants, Catholics, and Muslim elements in society of the late 19th century.
    5. Ganda ethnic group of the kingdom/empire of Buganda later formed core of successful farm entreprenuers in the production of coffee, cotton on freehold ("Mailo") land.

  3. Underlying the foundation of the kingdom in political terms were key environmental/agricultural structures
    1. Long-term historical base had been Lakes region cattle complex that established authority over small scale farmers who produced grain (millet and sorghum) and yams. Land was abundant relative to other economic factors.
    2. Central historical question is why did Buganda emerge from this general pattern when and where it did? Why did population and political authority concentrate in northeast lake region in mid-19th century.

  4. One major factor was the unique conjuncture of the introduction of bananas (called matooke, plural or ttooke, singular in Luganda) as food and wealth into an ideal environment for their propagation.
    1. Bananas are of Malaysian origin and consist of many cultivars and types (sweet, starchy) and uses (as dietary carbohydrate, for beer brewing, roasting, use of leaves for construction, storage, wrapping). Bugandans identify four types, not including sweet bananas that were imported in the 20th century. All other starchy types are derived from Musa acuminata, a type native to Malaysia. Another type Musa balbisiana tolerates drier conditions (its origins were in monsoon Malaysia where it had to survive a dry season) and may have merged with Musa acuminata that arrived later.
    2. High in calories, but low in both protein and fat.
    3. Bananas require rich, loamy soil, consistent rainfall.
    4. Bananas are propagated vegetatively by planting suckers, rather than by seed. They also quickly evolved through local mutations and farmer selection into locally adapted varieties.
    5. East Africans in environmentally suited places were able to build a cuisine and an elaborate economic and material culture around bananas.
      1. In northeast Lakes region soils are volcanic and rich with a stable temperature
      2. Rainfall is 1500 mm per annum, well distributed throughout the year.

  5. Culture of bananas evolved as economic and social basis of a political kingdom
    1. Young men obtained land to plant a lusuku (banana grove) of 1-2 acres by planting banana shoots. Plants began to bear fruit in 10-18 months and groves produced continuously over course of 30 years, i.e. the farmer's lifetime.
    2. Average yields for bananas were 5 tons per acre; less that cassava but 2-3 times the calorie yields from cereals.
    3. After initial planting by young men, women tended the established groves, thus releasing male labor for politics, trade, and seasonal military activities.

  6. What is the evidence for the introduction of banana and its role in building a densely settled political kingdom?
    1. Bananas must have arrived in East Africa before the 19th century (when they are described by outside visitors) and the opening of the Indian Ocean trade system.
    2. Previous foods much have been African cereals (sorghum, finger millet) and indigenous types of African yam that require high labor input. Protein in diet came from beans, earthnuts, pigeon peas, and game.
    3. Historian C.C. Wrigley speculates that first clones of Malaysian bananas came in the second half of the second millennium (i.e. after 1500) to the northern shore of the lake via ivory trade. Other varieties that tolerated drier conditions may have preceded them but took hold only as a minor part of food supply in areas south and west of the lake.
    4. Second migration of the most common type of banana came later. Can we associate that arrival with the foundation of the Bugandan political kingdom in the late 18th century?

  7. What other factors may have interacted with food supply to account for the growth of a dense and militarily powerful kingdom at that particular place?