"Especially if you look at the ever-praised usage of "ganja"/marijuana and consider the fact, that marijuana has not been grown or used in a spiritual way in large parts of ancient africa at all.
Now, that is not to state that i support the prohibition of marijuana, but rather to say that i think large parts of the rastafarian dogma seems to be based on wrong facts."
I disagree with this assertion, many African cultures have used marijuana. It may not be as well documented as say Indian culture's use of marijuana, but Africans have used it throughout history. Many associate Cannabis with India, because the Indians were the one who brought that plant to Jamaica when they worked as laborers for the British.
Here is just One example of African use of Cannabis:
A Historical Tradition
The first historical record of cannabis in what is now Lesotho dates back to the 16th century. According to historian Stephen Gill, oral tradition has handed down the story of a "colonizing" use of marijuana by the Koena people. The Koena group moved from the northeast of what is now Mpumalanga province (the former Orange Free State) and settled in Lesotho around 1550 (thereby becoming one of the ethnic components of the Basotho group today) by "purchasing" land from San tribes (the earliest inhabitants of South Africa, better known today as "Bushmen") in exchange for marijuana. It is nevertheless very likely that the San knew and used cannabis long before the Koena arrived, these latter simply providing it in great quantity. Furthermore, Gill notes that in the nineteenth century - shortly after the bases of the Kingdom of Lesotho were firmly established by King Moshoeshoe I and the local populations began to depend more on agriculture than on livestock - marijuana figured among the main staples grown in Lesotho, along with sorghum, gourds, and beans.
This historical background suggests why matekoane is now one of the seven plants most often cited by mountain dwellers for their curative and magic qualities. Rural people still use marijuana to treat ailments like heartburn, high blood pressure, and "nerves". It is also used to rid horses and donkeys of parasitic worms (papisi in Sesotho). Two of the six OGD-growers also claimed to smoke marijuana in order to "get strength" and work harder, one of them saying that it stimulated his appetite. According to other sources questioned by the OGD (a psychiatrist and members of a prevention/rehabilitation NGO), these two "utilitarian", or functional, properties are ascribed to matekoane by a high proportion of users throughout Lesotho, both urban and rural.
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