A-maize-ing

New research on how maize shaped agricultural in Africa

Agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo reported last week that intense El Niño-induced dryness could put the entire southern African maize crop at risk. The fall in output, says Sihlobo, is primarily a ‘function of lower expected yields rather than a reduction in the acreage planted, reflecting a negative impact of the drier weather conditions and heatwave’.

This is devastating news for South African farmers and consumers. Maize makes up half of the country’s farmed land. A staple food, it is primarily consumed as ‘mealie meal’, which is ground maize used to prepare ‘pap’ or ‘mieliepap’. Maize also finds its way into other dishes, such as ‘umngqusho’, a traditional Xhosa dish made from samp (white maize) and sugar beans, flavoured with onions, garlic, potatoes, and spices. It is difficult to imagine something more South African than a mielie.

Yet it is, of course, an import. The story begins with Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the Americas in 1492, which led to the widespread transfer of plants, animals, cultures, human populations, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World of Europe and Africa, known as the Columbian Exchange. One consequence was the devastating impact of Old World diseases on indigenous populations in the Americas. Diseases such as smallpox, influenza, and measles decimated indigenous peoples, causing significant social and economic disruptions. This depopulation contributed to the European colonisation of the Americas, including the establishment of plantation economies that relied heavily on enslaved Africans. It is usually in this context that the Columbian Exchange is tied to Africa.

But another significant economic impact of the Exchange was the introduction of new crops and animals to both the Old and New World, transforming agriculture, diets, and ultimately, economies. For instance, the introduction of horses from Europe to the Americas revolutionised transportation, warfare, and hunting for many Native American societies, while European agriculture was significantly boosted by the introduction of crops like potatoes and maize (or corn or mealies) from the Americas.

These crops transformed African agriculture too. Maize, in particular, can be grown in climates that were unsuitable for the cultivation of native African grains like millet and sorghum; New World plants, therefore, enabled African farmers to produce food from soils that, prior to 1492, were marginal because of sandiness, altitude, or aridity. And, most importantly, maize results in caloric and nutritional improvements over native staples giving more predictable food security. In short, maize allowed for much bigger populations than before. For that reason, it is today Africa’s most important crop; about 30% of energy intake across Africa comes from maize.¹

Yet, despite its impact, its history is somewhat murky. Thought to have been introduced to Africa by Portuguese traders in the 1500s, maize quickly became popular among African farmers for its high yield, low labour requirements, and short growing season, surpassing indigenous staples like millet and sorghum. Although there is evidence that maize cultivation first took root in West Africa, from where it spread inland and southward, reaching East Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa last, the specific introduction sites and responsible parties remain unclear.

That is, until now. A new research project within LEAP at Stellenbosch University, the Time Traveller project, uses a corpus of more than 3,000 firsthand traveller accounts to document the spread of maize across the continent. Searching for mentions of maize and the two most prevalent native grains, sorghum and millet, the researchers first uncovered the diverse nomenclature for maize across Africa, compiling a dictionary of 147 synonyms for maize. Of all the synonyms, ‘corn’ was the most prevalent (82 %), yielding 11,039 hits from a possible 220,000 pages (10%). A surprisingly large proportion of journeys in their corpus contained some reference to maize (623 out of 712).