East African highland banana
Banano de tierras altas de África oriental
- Date
- c. 1000 BCE (muy discutido) · confidence low
- Place
- Munsa, Bunyoro, Uganda
- Credited to
- Bantu farmers of the Great Lakes
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Cultivation of bananas (Musa AAA-EA) in the Great Lakes region, where it diversified into hundreds of varieties used as a staple and to brew beer. The phytoliths at Munsa would be the oldest evidence in inland East Africa.
Lejju and colleagues (2006) propose banana phytoliths at Munsa with ages of several millennia, but the dating and possible intrusion of later material are disputed (Neumann and Hildebrand, 2009); similar finds exist at Nkang (Cameroon) around 500 BC. Genetics places the origin of African bananas in Southeast Asian introductions some 2000-3000 years ago. Approximate coordinates.
What it led to
- a staple food underpinning dense economies in Buganda, Rwanda and Burundi
- banana beer and wine of ritual and social use
- one of Africa's largest reservoirs of banana diversity