1965/03/01 by Frederick J. Simoons · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #African history and culture analysis #Banana Cultivation and Research
paper · doi:10.1017/s0021853700005296
openalex publication_date 1965/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
This paper considers several questions in the economic prehistory of Ethiopia. Who domesticated the banana-like ensete, the food plant which in parts of southern Ethiopia forms a monoculture? Was the ensete cultivated in ancient Egypt? Was it once cultivated extensively in northern Ethiopia as a food plant? Did the Semites, who invaded Ethiopia from South Arabia, starting about 1000 B.C., introduce the plough to Ethiopia and first develop cereal-plough agriculture there? The Sidama peoples of southern Ethiopia are viewed as likely candidates in ensete domestication. The evidence for ensete cultivation in ancient Egypt is weighed and judged inconclusive. The cultivation of ensete for food in northern Ethiopia is viewed as recent. The suggestion is made that cereal-plough agriculture pre-dated the Semitic invasions. The ancient Cushitic inhabitants of northern Ethiopia are seen as having been in an excellent position for contacts with countries at the north end of the Red Sea, particularly Egypt, whence wheat and barley and the plough could have been introduced.