Cultivate Cultural heritage
Zanzibar’s rich cultural heritage is entrenched in the living landscape: plants and animals are of central importance for food, architectural fabric, livelihoods, medicine, religion and ritual.
Our gardens and tended landscapes are a place to cherish and celebrate the diversity of especially wild varieties of plant traditionally used – to safeguard the ancient knowledge and indigenous cultural wisdom along with the varieties of plant intrinsic to the cultural practices.
Traditional Greens
Traditional Fruits
TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL PLANTS
Coming soon:
Aromatic plants for a scented garden
Sacred plants
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We have learned much of what we share here from the excellent plant books listed here.
But we have gained the most from – and there is no substitute for – time spent in shamba in the company of traditional Zanzibari farmers, cooks and herbalists kind enough to share their phenomenal knowledge and to whom we owe enormous gratitude. Asanteni sana!
Traditional Greens
Through the centuries, people in Zanzibar have valued many indigenous plants for their nutritious green leaves.
The traditional knowledge of the free food of the forest is at risk of being lost as markets are flooded with mass-produced, and chemically sprayed greens of just a few varieties.
The ancient wisdom of local plants deserves to be celebrated and shared, and space reserved in our kitchen gardens for these precious plants.
VIEW THE FULL Traditional Greens CHECKLIST!
Traditional Greens:
Traditional Fruits
The tropical fruits we enjoy here in Zanzibar come from all over the world – many brought by travellers through the millennia. But some arose here in East Africa and are native to these isles’ ecology.
The following fruits belong to the indegenous flora of the Zanziibar archipelago. They are the staple food of and their seeds are naturally dispersed by local fruit-eating animals: growing indigenous fruit is important for supporting many of our most charismatic wild animals, including fruit-bats, bushbabies, monkeys and numerous birds.
Our indigenous fruit-bearing plants are also important culturally and economically. Bungo season is celebrated especially in Pemba for its glut of the iconic tart fruit for delicous juice. And Tamarind is a key ingredient in a number of iconic and culturally celebrated Zanzibar dishes.
Ancient knowledge of how food plants were traditionally used is at risk of being lost too – so ask your community elders which forgotten fruits they remember enjoying as children.
VIEW THE FULL Traditional fruits CHECKLIST!
Traditional Medicinal Plants
One of the most important used of plants is for medicines, to keep us healthy and heal disease. Even in our small islands hundreds of species are, or have been used for their medicinal properties, encyclopaedic knowledge of which has been accrued through generational practice of traditional healers.
Important note: – not all medicinal uses are internal, and no part of any plant should be consumed on the basis of its inclusion in this site nor without knowledge and training in safe practice, dosage, preparation, application and dispensation. (Remember even staple food plants can be toxic if incorrectly prepared. e.g. raw kidney beans or potatoes that have gone green will make you terribly ill.) We offer no medicinal advice, only awareness that these species are worthy of recognition and nurturing for their profound cultural as well as ecological value.
We also have socio-ethical reservations about publishing any proprietary detail of traditional medical knowledge and practice. Of course, we want to preserve the valuable species, and safeguard ancient knowledge of their medicinal properties to be available for future generations. However, this knowledge is the intellectual property and livelihood source of the traditional practitioners who are the generational stewards of this wisdom. Some unscrupulous pharmacological developers have failed to compensate licenced traditional medicinal practitioners adequately for sharing their expertise in medical uses for plants that proved economically lucrative. We are at pains not to enable this behaviour.
Lastly, the overharvest of some medicinal species may risk wild populations becoming depleted or locally extinct.
For all these reasons, we have not supplied information about what medical properties are attributed to each plant, nor on how they are traditionally prepared. Those who wish to know more should consult the professional services and publications of licenced traditional practitioners.
We do, however, encourage space be given for these plants in our living landscapes – and recommend you to consult your local herbalist to learn more about cultural history of traditional medical practice.
VIEW THE FULL Traditional Medicinal Plants CHECKLIST!