BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET

is an overview of dietary practices of traditional Bantu Ganda, noting that
eighteen unidentified "wild leaves" are common along with seven species of
mushrooms. The second, by Tallantire and Goode (1975), is a recent monograph
examining wild plants (many utilized as food) of West Nile and Madi districts,
especially species whose leaves and fruits are used to supplement domesticated
staples (Table 16). Tallantire and Goode comment severely on the loss of
knowledge relative to edible wild plants in recent times and they note with
concern that more and more of the important dietary supplements will be elimin­
ated from diet by traditional Ugandans who will no longer be able to identify
such potential foods.
Kenya
Gerlach (1961; 1964; 1965) has presented a series of excellent publi­
cations on diet, food habits, and nutritional characteristics of Bantu peoples
occupying the coastal regions of north-central Kenya but the classic work on
food and nutrition in Kenya must stem from Boyd-Orr and Gilks (1913) in their
important examination of diet and health comparing the Masai (a regimen based
on flesh foods) and the Kukuyu (diet based on vegetable foods). Important re­
cent work on nutrition and wild plants has been completed by Taylor (1970)
who investigated diet of the Kikuyu, noting important roles for Chenopodium
opulifolium and Maranta arundinacea as the principal wild plants used. Taylor
(p. 343) noted with concern that the development and expansion of agriculture
has led to a significant decline in the dietary utilization of indigenous wild
plants, with resulting decreased nutritional values in humans for vitamins A,
B-complex, C, and the minerals calcium, iron, and phosphorus.
Huntingford (1969, p. 59), writing on the Dorobo of the Kenya Highlands,
states that wild foods include Rubus rigidus, Ximenia americana, wild forms of
38.