Page 47 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 24
P. 47
Food health
The kernels inside the seeds West Indies. And everywhere it and Namibia seem likely to
are commonly compared to grows, people enjoy the shade provide the genetic means
macadamia nuts. cast by its feathery foliage, for creating new varieties,
not to mention the curiously new seed foods, new pickles,
8. Melon sweet-sour pulp found inside and new types of watermelon
The melon (canteloupe, its brittle, grey-brown pods. fruits with unusual colors,
muskmelon; Cucumis melo, What is not widely known is shapes, sizes, and flavors. It
Cucurbitaceae) is one of the that tamarind is actually from is entirely possible that genes
two African fruits that are western Africa. The original from Africa’s wild types could
known around the world. All wild version, a common soon spark a watermelon rebirth
the warmer regions produce it, savanna tree, can be found over worldwide.
of course, and millions enjoy an area stretching from the
a melon for breakfast, lunch, Atlantic seaboard to the verge Now, concerning the thought
or dessert. Today’s melons of Central Africa’s rainforests around the lost fruits of Africa,
are based almost entirely on and east. Senegal’s capital is the only reason why these
seeds carried out of Africa, named for this tree, which in the fruits are considered ‘lost’ is
probably on the backs of camels local Wolof language is called because Africans have lost
northward across the Sahara in “Dakar.” Despite its current their connection to the beauty,
the time of the Pharaohs. While spread, this species is far from nutrition and ability of these
today India, Japan, and many fully exploited, and it could fruits to save the continent from
other countries have greatly become an even greater tree in the so-called food insecurity.
improved, locally selected the tropics, notably including We have embraced foreign
varieties, the full wealth of the countries within the boundaries fruits and abandoned the very
species’ diversity was not only of its home continent. indigenous African fruits that
left behind, it was forgotten, were tailored to our nutritional
and remains to this day largely 10. Watermelon needs.
untapped. Who knows what Other than botanists,
kinds of 21st-century melons few people consider that To show you how much we
can be developed by finally watermelon (Citrullus lanatus, have lost connection with our
utilizing the “lost” half of this Cucurbitaceae) is indeed indigenous fruits, ask yourself,
fruit’s heritage? African. Yet this crop’s when was the last time Tamarind
wild ancestors are scattered came to your mind when you
9. Tamarind abundantly across the dry were planning to go shopping?
Throughout the tropics wastes of the continent’s semi- That’s how deep our
tamarind (Tamarindus indica, arid southern hinterland. The disconnection from our African
Leguminosae) provides ancestral genes to be found in crops is. But we can make
an attractive backdrop to the wild and tended watermelons changes. We can start now.
roadsides, fields, and markets bespeckling millions of hectares
from the East Indies to the in countries such as Botswana
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