Excerpt from Useful Plants of Nyasaland: Edited by P. J. Greenway
The honest are generally prepared to admit that the longer they have been in Africa the more they realize how little they know about It. Others are not so ready to acknowledge their ignorance and are all the more in need of enlightenment on that account. Tor all of us the tempo of modern times makes it very difficult to find the opportunity to delve into the detail of African affairs for ourselves.
There is no question of the need for greater knowledge of the things that affect the daily life of the African people. Not only does it make for more efficient work among them and for better understanding which is so essential, but it provides an Interest and enjoyment which are in themselves a reward and a stimulus to further study.
We are very fortunate in Nyasaland that Mrs. Williamson has accumulated such a wealth of information on plants of day to day importance to its Indigenous inhabitants and presented it in a form so easy to use and to understand. The majority of the items listed and described are eaten in one form or another at varying times and circumstances during the year. They are therefore very much the concern of the women who are the traditional gatherers and cookers of food. This makes the material in this book all the more valuable in that it sheds light into one of the darkest and most important corners of African life and better understanding of it will help to gain the confidence of the women on which so much of the progress In Africa depends.
Indeed it was only by the utmost patience over many years that Mrs. Williamson herself gained the confidence of the people - particularly the women - from whom she gathered much of the material for this work. She has provided us with a very necessary part of the foundation on which to build further understanding and progress.
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