Meat and Sustainability
Intensive, industrial livestock production is an environmental justice disaster, adversely impacting communities of color. In the eastern part of North Carolina, a billion-dollar hog industry is clustered in the African American community. Hog farms collect billions of gallons of untreated pig urine and feces in cesspools, and dispose of the waste by spraying it into the air. The droplets of waste permeate the homes, clothes, and bodies of the Black residents of the area. Five hundred primarily African American residents have sued Murphy-Brown, the state’s largest hog producer, for compensation. Many had lost access to their wells because the hog waste imparted unhealthy colors and odors to the water.18
Further, animal agriculture is possibly the most environmentally impactful human activity. About 30 percent of the world’s ice-free surface is used not to raise fruits, vegetables, and grains, but to support livestock for human consumption. Animal agriculture devours a full third of the world’s fresh water. In industrialized nations it takes 75 to 300 kilograms (kg) of feed to produce 1 kg of animal protein. In sub-Saharan Africa that number is much higher, as a cow might eat 500 to 2,000 kg of dry matter to produce 1 kg of protein. Livestock produce at least 18 percent of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Meat is arguably destroying the planet.19
At the same time, meat is part of our cultural heritage and ancestral cuisine. The offering of animals is even central to many of our traditional religious practices. Many people experience that their health is dependent on the consumption of animal protein. How are we to reconcile these contradictions?
Pigs and poultry have a smaller environmental footprint than cows, sheep, and goats, especially when raised on forage.
Collard greens with turkey neck provide the answer for some of us. We can think of meat as a spice rather than a staple, something we add in small amounts to flavor a dish. We can reserve the consumption of meat in quantity for special occasions: religious ceremonies, holidays, and life-cycle events. Further, we can focus on the most climate-friendly meats, pigs and poultry, which account for only 10 percent of total livestock greenhouse gas emissions even as they provide three times as much meat globally as cattle. Poultry and pork also require five times less feed per kilogram of protein than cows, sheep, or goats. I personally have found a home in the flexible vegetarian diet. Plant foods are the center of our family’s cuisine, but we are open to eating Grandmommy’s chicken soup or the goat stew prepared for us by friends in Haiti. We participate in the cultural cuisine of our people with joy and also keep love of the planet and the sanctity of life at the center of our consciousness.
CHAPTER TEN
Plant Medicine
Self-care and healing and attention to the body and the spiritual dimension—all of this is now part of radical social justice struggles.
—ANGELA DAVIS
At the end of morning “hands on the land” teaching block during Black Latinx Farmers Immersion, we traveled to each work area to share lessons on what we learned. Team Onyx spent their morning transplanting Eritrean basil and other medicinal herbs with sweet peppers as part of an intercropping system. This basil is native to Eritrea, as its name suggests, and offers an attractive spicy aroma that is central to East African cuisine as well as myriad health benefits. We challenged each team to come up with a creative way to impart their new knowledge to the other teams. Onyx chose a call-and-response song that undoubtedly deepened our reverence for this sacred plant.
Feeling anxious and sad?
Eritrean basil!
Got phlegm in your lungs?
Eritrean basil!
Itchy swelling skin?
Eritrean basil!
Need to pass a kidney stone?
Eritrean basil!
Bad breath got you down?
Eritrean basil!
Eyes feeling fatigued?
Eritrean basil!
For your spiritual needs?
Eritrean basil!
Earlier that year a few members of our team traveled to my ancestral homeland of Haiti for a delegation of Ayiti Resurrect, a solidarity project with farmers in Komye, Leogane. While the central work of the trip was to complete the projects identified by the farmers of Komye—the installation of irrigation systems, digging of a new well, and planting of mango trees—we also managed to fit in a spiritual pilgrimage. We traveled to the town of Ville-Bonheur for the annual festival for Ezili Dantor, lwa of motherhood and healing. Ever since she appeared at the Sodo waterfall in the mid-1800s and began healing the sick, tens of thousands of Haitians have journeyed to these waters every July 14 through 16 to ritually bathe in the waterfall and pray for blessings. When we arrived in the crowded and peaceful town, the first local we met sold us a large bunch of bush basil to use for washing ourselves in the waterfall. Basil anointed us with its healing energies and spiritual purification.
Basil is just one of the thousands of medicinal herb species used by African people across the Diaspora. Our people’s relationship with plant medicine extends even before our first written account in 1500 BCE on the Ebers Papyrus, on which ancient Egyptians listed the recipes for over 850 herbal medicines. Our knowledge of plants traveled with us in the bowels of slave ships and was kept alive in the root and conjure work of the Black American South, in Harriet Tubman’s deft use of wild plants to keep her Underground Railroad passengers healthy, and in the natural pharmacies of orisa worshipers. In this chapter we explore how to cultivate, wildcraft, and use herbs that have been important to Black health. In an elegant interplay of spiritual folk wisdom and Western science, this chapter helps the reader understand how plant allies can assist in our physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
During the annual pilgrimage to Sodo, Haiti, to pay homage to Ezili Danto, devotees bathe with basil and other herbs in the sacred waterfall.
UPLIFT
Traditional Medicine of Africa
According to the World Health Organization, over 80 percent of people on the continent of Africa rely on traditional medicine as their primary health therapy. This percentage is over 90 in Ethiopia. While Western medicine views the isolation of phytochemicals and their single-use chemical entities as superior for targeted remedies, traditional African medicine values the synergy of phytochemicals as collectively surpassing the individual constituents. For example, a single plant may have bitter substances that stimulate digestion, phenolic compounds that act as antioxidants, anti-inflammatory compounds that reduce swelling, antibacterial and antifungal tannins, diuretics to support waste elimination, and alkaloids to enhance mental well-being. Not to mention, this same plant may also attract pollinators, stabilize soil, and fix nitrogen.1
Africa is blessed with astounding biodiversity resources, estimated to host up to 45,000 plant species of potential medicinal value, of which 5,000 are in active use. Western pharmaceutical companies have extracted and capitalized on that biodiversity, patenting and marketing medicines from many African species including Acacia senegal, Aloe ferox, Artemisia herba-alba, Aspalathus linearis, Centella asiatica, Catharanthus roseus, Cyclopia genistoides, Harpagophytum procumbens, Momordica charantia, and Pelargonium sidoides. Aloe ferox is native to South Africa and has been used by the local population since time immemorial. Its use is depicted in the ancient San rock paintings. Today the export of aloe is central to the South African economy and supplies the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries with a powerful ingredient that is anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer, soothing, and healing. Similarly, Artemisia herba-alba or wormwood, a plant native to North Africa, is now used worldwide to treat hypertension, diabetes, and malaria.2 African herbalists have also provided the world with rooibos, honeybush, castor bean, and myriad other plant allies.
Species Accounts of Cultivated Plant Allies
Our medicine cabinet is lovingly planted in stone-lined raised beds right outside of our home and education center. The plants that thrive there were chosen as allies for
the specific needs of our human community. Like so many Black and Brown survivors, members of our family struggle with anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Lemon balm, vervain, codonopsis, skullcap, chamomile, and lavender are here to support us. We’re a multigenerational collective with children among us, so colds and flus abound. Wormwood, bee balm, yarrow, thyme, echinacea, and elderflower provide the immune support and symptom relief to keep our children well. Some of us lean on rosemary, oregano, and sage to help manage high blood sugar and diabetes. Others harvest delicate calendula flowers to make healing salves. The children enjoy eating the fresh peppery nasturtiums and mild sweet borage flowers that sneak up between the perennials.
Herbs That We Cultivate
The accounts in this section are of just a few of the medicinal species that we have firsthand experience cultivating or wildcrafting. All of the species are included because they have deep and enduring relationships with Black people in the Diaspora. I recently had the honor to ask Wande Abimbola, the Awise Awo ni Agbaye (Spokesperson of Ifa in the Whole World), about his perspective on the use of New World plants for spiritual medicine, when so much of our ancestral knowledge is connected to African plants that may not grow in the US. He affirmed the expansion of our apothecary, simply saying, “Yes, this is very good!” The species accounts below are rooted in the research of Stephanie Mitchem,3 Peter Burchard,4 Dr. George Washington Carver, Herbert Covey,5 Katrina Hazzard Donald,6 Crystal Aneira,7 Jerome Handler and JoAnn Jacoby,8 and Wanda Fontenot9 on African American herbal medicine and supplemented with Western perspectives by Andrew Chevallier,10 Steven Foster and James Duke,11 Jessica Houdret,12 and Steve Brill and Evelyn Dean.13
Asafoetida (Ferula assa-foetida)
Victoria Adams recalls of the plantation, “We dipped asafetida in turpentine and hung it ’round our necks to keep off disease.”14 It was one of the herbs most commonly used by enslaved Africans. The fumes helped alleviate respiratory ailments. Asafoetida contains disulphids and foetidin. A tea of the herb helps with gas, bloating, indigestion, and constipation by altering the microflora in the gut. Inhaling or ingesting the herb aids with influenza, congestion, asthma, cough, and high blood pressure. It has a persistent aroma, similar to garlic, and is used as a flavoring in sauces. In spiritual medicine a bath of asafoetida is used to rid a person of negative habits. Known as Devil’s Dung in Louisiana Voodoo, it is used to ward off negativity and keep away the police.
Disclaimer
The information about the medicinal uses of plants is for educational purposes only and not meant to substitute for consultation with a licensed physician for treating illness. The author and publisher assume no responsibility for problems arising from the reader’s misidentification or use of medicinal plants. Please check with your doctor before using any herbal medicine if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have any pre-existing medical condition.
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)
Ashwagandha has been used for thousands of years in East and North Africa, India, and the Middle East as a tonic, aphrodisiac, narcotic, diuretic, anthelmintic, astringent, thermogenic, and stimulant. In Africa people use Ashwagandha to alleviate fevers and inflammatory conditions. In Yemen the dried leaves are ground into a paste that is used for treating burns and wounds, as well as for sunscreen. For external healing the berries and leaves have been applied to tumors, tubercular glands, carbuncles, and ulcers.
Basil (Ocimum basilicum and O. gratissimum)
Known as the king of herbs, basil has profound medicinal and spiritual properties. As a tea it is taken to reduce anxiety, remove phlegm from the bronchial tubes, alleviate fever, reduce cold and flu symptoms, expel kidney stones, reduce stress, cure headaches, and cure sores of the mouth. The leaves can also be chewed or gargled to relieve a sore throat. Applied topically, basil relieves itches and swelling from insect bites and may also cure leucoderma. Dried basil leaves make an effective tooth cleansing powder that removes bad breath and strengthens gums. A few drops of basil juice applied to the eyes helps with night vision and eye fatigue. In Santeria and Vodou basil is a common herb in baths for purification and good fortune. Basil is also burned to remove negative spirits from the home. Some of the important heritage varieties of basil include African Blue Basil, West African Basil or adefetue (O. viride), Tulsi basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum), and African Spice Basil.
Known as the king of herbs, basil (Ocimum basilicum) has profound medicinal and spiritual properties. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa)
This native plant contains triterpene glycosides, isoflavones, isoferulic acid, and salicylic acid concentrated in the roots. A decoction or tincture of the root is used for gynecological problems, earning the name squaw root among the Penobscot people. Black cohosh reduces menstrual pain, menopausal symptoms, and depression. It also alleviates arthritis inflammation, high blood pressure, and asthma. In spiritual medicine a bath of black cohosh is useful for releasing addiction, toxic relationships, and fear. Caution: Do not use during pregnancy.
Marigold (Tagetes erecta) is considered a bridge plant to the ancestors and has a central role in Day of the Dead celebrations. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Calendula (Calendula officinalis and Tagetes erecta)
Calendula is a powerful medicine for the healing of skin. Calendula oil and salve can be used to heal wounds, reduce inflammation, soothe burns, heal acne and rashes, kill fungal infection, and soothe diaper rash, cradle cap, and nipples sore from breastfeeding. Calendula tea reduces inflammation of the digestive system, relieving conditions such as gastritis, peptic ulcers, and colitis. In spiritual medicine, a calendula bath is used to bring respect and admiration. Calendula and marigold are considered bridge plants to the ancestors and have a central role in Day of the Dead celebrations. In Voodoo inhalation of the herb brings good fortune.
Chamomile (Chamomilla recutita and Matricaria recutita)
This sweetly aromatic herb contains proazulenes, faresine, spiroether, flavonoids, bitter glycosides, and coumarins. Chamomile tea is suitable for young children and relieves colic, indigestion, bloating, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, hiatus hernia, and peptic ulcers. It has an antispasmodic effect, relaxing aching muscles and relieving menstrual pain. The steam can be inhaled to relieve allergies. Externally, it can be applied to the eyes to relieve strain and to the skin to reduce itchiness. In spiritual medicine the tea is taken to clear up mental confusion, to prevent nightmares, and to attract love. The flowers are scattered about the home to remove negativity.
In spiritual medicine chamomile (Chamomilla recutita) tea is taken to clear up mental confusion, to prevent nightmares, and to attract love. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Echinacea (Echinacea angustifolia and E. purpurea)
Echinacea is a popular immunostimulant that contains isobutylamides, caffeic esters, humulene, echinolone, and betaine. A tincture or decoction of the root is taken to cure chronic infections, colds, flu, skin disorders, and respiratory infections. As a gargle, it combats throat infections. It inhibits the ability of viruses to enter and take over cells, and has antibacterial and antifungal properties. In spiritual medicine echinacea flowers are used as offerings to river spirits. The flowers can also be worn around the neck to bring strength in challenging times.
Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea) is a popular immunostimulant. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.
Epazote (Dysphania ambrosioides)
West African epazote, ‘Megbezorli,’ is a milder form of the well-known Mexican herb. It originates in the Volta region of West Africa and is used to mask strong cooking odors. A paste of macerated epazote and water is taken medicinally to treat anxiety and shortness of breath. In spiritual medicine the permission of the spirits is sought to allow the plant to intervene in nightmares.
Horehound (Marrubium vulgare)
Horehound is a much-overlooked herb that was central to health care on the plantation. It contains the diterpenes mar
rubiin and marrubenol, flavonoids, alkaloids, and volatile oils. It is a strong expectorant that is used for chest problems, usually taken as a syrup made with sugar or honey. A decoction of the herb can alleviate the symptoms of asthma, bronchitis, and tuberculosis. The herb also acts to normalize heart rhythm and improve eczema and shingles. In spiritual medicine, a tea of horehound is taken to increase concentration and mental clarity. Ash of horehound attracts healing energies. Horehound candy is offered to guests to bring blessings.
Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)
The beautiful flowering tops of hyssop are rich in terpenes, camphor, pinocamphone, hyssopin, and resin. It is a strong expectorant that encourages the production of a more liquid mucus, while stimulating coughing. This clears thick and congested phlegm after an infection has passed. Hyssop is also a sedative and lessens the symptoms of asthma. In spiritual medicine hyssop tea is used for cleansing and purification of the body and home. In the Book of Exodus in the Torah, lamb’s blood was applied to the doorposts of the Israelites’ homes using hyssop, and it was also used by priests in the Temple of Solomon for purification rites. Caution: Hyssop essential oil can induce epileptic seizures.
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
Lavender is a sweet, fragrant herb rich in 40 volatile oils, flavonoids, and coumarins. A tea or tincture of lavender has a soothing and calming effect that relieves insomnia, irritability, headaches, and depression. It also relieves gas, bloating, and indigestion. The essential oil is strongly antiseptic and can be applied to heal wounds and sores. Massaging a few drops of essential oil on the temples eases headaches. A bath of lavender calms the nervous system and promotes sleep. In spiritual medicine lavender is used to attract love. A bath of lavender purifies energy and promotes psychic dreams. The ashes of lavender are scattered to bring peace and harmony to the home.
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