332 THROUGH ANGOLA 



them in 1920 when travelling through the 

 country. 



The mandioc (Manihot utilissima), originating 

 from Brazil, but widely distributed in Africa, is 

 a bush 5 to 8 feet high, with knotty brittle 

 branches and dark green palmated leaves ; which 

 grows readily in a dry soil from cuttings placed 

 in ridges or mounds of earth. The root, from 

 6 inches to 2 feet long, covered with a dark, easily 

 detachable skin, but white inside, attains maturity 

 in eighteen months, but can be eaten earlier or 

 later, and I have more than once solved an urgent 

 supply question by meeting abandoned fields of 

 this plant. Indigestible when eaten fresh, it is 

 better tolerated by Europeans in preparations 

 made from the flour (fuba), which makes indifferent 

 bread and a poor substitute for mashed potatoes 

 with milk and butter, but a tolerable sauce when 

 mixed with lime juice. The natives ferment this 

 root both for beer and preparatory to drying it 

 and before grinding it into flour, which is either 

 eaten as porridge (infundi) or cakes (guinguanga). 



An economic product of value for oil and 

 making margarine, but just now little utilized in 

 Angola, is the ground-nut (Arachis hypogcea) 

 (Ginguba of the natives), a foot or more high, with 

 yellow, pea-like flowers, which are pulled to the 

 ground by the weight of the growing pod which 

 develops just below the soil. This delicious nut 

 has provided me with soup, pudding, dessert, and 

 lamp oil on many a trip and on many a day. The 

 natives make a paste of it (quitata) with chillies 

 from a bush which grows half wild round nearly 



