Mpondoland is the heartland of South African legacy cannabis. In the foothills and coastal areas of the Eastern Cape in what used to be known as the Transkei. The Mpondoland Cannabis Belt Association represents tens of thousands of traditional growers, and the communities that depend on them, who have farmed indigenous landraces for generations yet are being marginalized by legislative reform and market dynamics. Cannabiz Africa gives voice to the MCBA and its initiative to open up market access for growers and keeps you up to speed with the latest news and developments affecting South Africa’s heritage cannabis communities.
Africa is one of the six most important geographic locations for the world’s cannabis landraces which have evolved through natural selection in specific areas over centuries. They are invaluable to our understanding of the genetics of today’s commercial strains.
Mpondoland Cannabis Belt Association secretary general Snoux Poswa says legacy growers have a wealth of accumulated wisdom and practical knowledge around the healing benefits of indigeous landraces. Yet government will not listen, and instead continues to criminalize the people it is meant to represent.
In the face of growing threats to South Africa’s landrace varieties, the African Cultural Heritage Trust has initiated a bold programme to reintroduce indigenous cannabis genetics back into the communities they came from. Working with Druids Garden, the Trust has original genetic material dating back to the late 1940’s.
Professor David Katerere’s team at the Cannabis Hub has launched a landrace research project that seeks to document and commercialize local seed heritage. Among the Hub’s aims is to upskill indigenous farmers in agro-processing so they can add value to landrace biomass.
South Africa’s cannabis landraces hold significant medicinal properties that are only just being discovered. In fact, researchers are still determining how many indigenous landraces there are, with the African Cultural Heritage Trust having identified up to 40 different strains across all nine provinces.
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