Thursday, October 22, 2009

TUBER DETOUR

Uganda Log: Thursday 22 October 2009

The Batwa revelled at being back in the forest.

Blackie photographing two women digging for tubers.


CLICK HERE to view a article about Nate Dominy's research on tubers. Be sure to watch the podcast which is embedded in the article.


The Batwa can spot a slim vine in the forest which leads into the ground where tubers grow. The women appear very excited when they find one of these and will immediately go and start digging for this yam type tuber. When they lived in the forest, they would usually take the tubers back to their camp and cook them. Now they would sometimes just dig them up and eat them raw. The Batwa would leave the vine intact along with some of the root so that the tubers would grow back. For thousands of years the Batwa and other pygmy groups have coexisted in the forest which they left literally undisturbed. These people delighted at being in the rain forest and used the opportunity to relive some of their traditional practices. See video on YouTube, CLICK HERE.

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