Today I was delighted, when looking for something totally different in one of the ‘Lost Crops’ volumes published by the National Academy of Sciences, to find a chapter on native African potatoes. Here in Burundi I have heard about ‘local potatoes’ from upcountry folk, as being a kind of ‘famine food’. Very few are said to be left.
No one has paid attention to them, as so many indigenous crops and livestock breeds of local origin.
African Potatoes (pictures)
Here is some information from NAS:
Despite the name, the plants …are neither potatoes nor potato relatives. Nor are they related to sweet potato, yam, or cassava. They are members of the mint family. This 3,000-member family graces human existence with numerous herbs and fragrances, including lavender, mint, spearmint, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, basil, and marjoram, but no major root crops. Indeed, Africa’s native potatoes are the only mints producing human food below ground.
The “northern” species (S. rotundifolius) is most often referred to as Hausa potato, Sudan potato, Zulu round potato, fabourama, and frafra potato. The “southern” species (P. esculentus) is most notably referred to as Livingstone potato, Madagascar potato, and scrambled eggs. The literature also treats them under a (sometimes inaccurate) mix of common names…
These data elaborate what, coincidentally, I read in Livingstone’s travel diaries last night, who in 1867 describes them as follows:
Among the vegetable products of this region [upland central Africa], that which interested me most was a sort of potato. It does not belong to the solanaceous, but to the papilionaceous or pea family, and its flowers have a delightful fragrance.
It is easily propagated by small cuttings of the root or stalk. The tuber is oblong, like our kidney potato, and when boiled tastes exactly like our common potato.
When unripe it has a slight degree of bitterness, and it is believed to be wholesome; a piece of the root eaten raw is a good remedy in nausea.
It is met with on the uplands alone, and seems incapable of bearing much heat, though I kept some of the roots without earth in a box, which was carried in the sun almost daily for six months, without destroying their vegetative power…
Nearly 150 years ago, Dr. Livingstone was considering the possible expansion of indigenous potatoes to address problems of hunger. Interesting to contemplate.