BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET

411) reported that the Tlhaping satisfied their thirst using juice from wild
fruits and cucurbits. Campbell (1822, Vol. 1, pp. 149, 205, Vol. 2, pp. 103,
215-216) also visited the Tlhaping and noted a dietary staple called "wild
potato", a probable reference to undomesticated tubers gathered in the region
of Litakoo, the Tlhaping capital. Mackenzie (1887, Vol. 2, pp. 28-29) worked
among the Tswana Ngiato during the middle decades of the 19th century and
commented on their ability to survive well during drought by use of edible
wild fruits. He wrote that it was possible that the wild food resources avail­
able to the Ngwato during periods of drought were superior to domesticated
Tswana food resources.
Complementing the historical accounts of Tswana wild plant use as food
are numerous nutritional/dietary studies. Nutrition work in Botswana (Bechuana­
land) begins with the report by Macrae (1920) on food ard health in relation­
ship to tropical disease. Subsequently, Gerber (1937) presented detailed
information on nutritional quality of diet and use of indigenous food resources.
Systematic research on Tswana nutrition, however, stems from Bernard Squires
who examined seasonal and ecological distribution of nutritional disease in
1939a;
Botswana (Bechuanaland) (1938a;/1939b; 1943; 1956) and the protective, anti­
scorbutic properties of Tswana wild and domesticated food resources (1938b;
1938c; 1952). Squires and Deverall (1949) identified thirteen wild plants
commonly utilized as food by both Tswana Kwena and Ngwaketse peoples.
Except for the work of Squires, little research and field investigations
on Tswana food, diet, and nutrition were conducted until the drought of the
mid 1960's. The most important research to emerge from the nutrition/drought
studies, however, was the report by Burgess (1972) on three Tswana villages
documenting that nutritional problems were relatively minor, when contrasted
59.