The improvement of native agriculture in relation to population and public health / by Sir A. Daniel Hall.

  • Hall, A. Daniel (Alfred Daniel), Sir, 1864-1942.
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The improvement of native agriculture in relation to population and public health / by Sir A. Daniel Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    their diet consists of maize and millet, and sweet potatoes account for a further 25 %. The women ... add more liberal quantities of legumes and plantains and have a virtual monopoly of the green leaves.’ It is explained that the women gather the leaves of certain plants, of which the native names only are given, and mix them with the porridge made from ground millet or maize, which is the staple food, and this especially during preg¬ nancy. The analyses of Orr and Gilkes show that the leaves examined are especially rich in calcium, more so even than the leaves of British leguminous plants. The earth from certain salt-licks and the ashes of certain water plants are also eaten. Some of these contain considerable proportions of sodium and calcium. Orr and Gilkes sum up the dietary thus: ‘The diet of the Kikuyu male is adequate in protein (though of a relatively low biological value) but very low in fat. It contains more than enough phosphorus, but is very low in calcium and possibly in sodium.’ The diet of the women is much the same except that their intake of calcium and sodium is much higher, of calcium about the optimum. Of the results of this unbalanced ration the authors give several illustrations, of which the most cogent is perhaps: ‘Of a labour strength of 14,400 employed on the construction of the Uasin Gishu Railway in 1923 the death-rate was 35-4 per 1,000 and the admissions to hospital during the year were 5,331. Improve¬ ment in the hygienic conditions and a change in the dietary in the direction of making it more varied and more like that consumed by Europeans, by decreasing the amount of maize and increasing the legumes, green vegetables, and meat, was followed by a fall in the death-rate. In 1924 it was io-8 per 1,000.’ Orr and Gilks conclude by saying: ‘The general improvement of agriculture and animal husbandry amongst the Akikuyu will almost certainly be followed by an improve¬ ment in the health and working capacity of the natives themselves.’ Turning now to the Masai, of old one of the most feared and ruthless warrior tribes of Central Africa, we have to deal with a Nilotic race and a more primitive culture, for