Origins of Some East African Food Plants

Abstract

In a recent issue of a local journal an author was puzzled because Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, when he anchored in April, 1449, off the north-east Tanganyika coast in view of the Serras de San Rafael, was provided by some Mohammedans with a supply of oranges. The author had thought that the Portuguese introduced the orange to East Africa. As this view is incorrect and some 0f us" may know little of the derivation of many of the food plants grown 1n East Africa I thought it might be of interest if an account was given of their origins.