Re: Marijuana use in Africa?

Robert Roosen (roosen@crash.cts.com)
Fri, 7 Apr 1995 06:02:28 GMT

A friend did field work in Botswana about 20 years ago. He told me that,
among the bushmen, the only person who actually was employed full time
was the guy that grew the ganja.
They smoked it in pipes, mixed with tobacco.
The way he would connect, was drive out into the bush and camp.
Which is what he did anyway for his research. Bushmen would come up and
ask them if they had any ganja. When he said, "no", they would huddle
among themselves and take up a collection. Then the spokesman would come
over and say, "you must be poor people if you have not ganja. Here, we
will give you some."
My friend would put some in his pipe, light it and pass it
around. Then the spokesman would say, "we find it tastes better if you
mix it with tobacco. Do you have any tobacco?" So he would mix in
tobacco, and the trade was complete.
He was invited to talk about the bushmen in an Albuquerque, NM
school class. One of his pictures showed bushmen smoking marijuana. His
name is now on a list of people banned from speaking in the public schools.

Robert