toxicity - pesticides, herbicides and insecticides - Blackherbals.com

Continued from page 94 - Tombs of Buganda Kings atKasubidates, however, are known only from Suuna II (1836-56), who established his palace at Kasubi. He wassucceeded by his son Muteesa I who did likewise,constructing the present tomb structure as his palace in1882. He became a very powerful Kabaka, the first tobe influenced by foreign cultures. He adopted someIslamic religious practices learnt from ivory and slavetraders from Zanzibar. He also showed interest inEurope after acting as host in 1862 to John HanningSpeke, the first European visitor. In 1875 he askedHenry Morton Stanley, the explorer, for teachers ofEuropean learning and religion. Some remainingartefacts reflect this pivotal period in local history whenthe Baganda were first exposed to Arab traders andEuropean explorers.When Muteesa I died in 1884, he broke two traditions:his body was buried whole and it was buried in hispalace, Kasubi, not somewhere else. This practice wasfollowed when, in 1910, the remains of his successor,Mwanga II (ob. 1903), were brought back from theSeychelles and also buried there, establishing Kasubi asan important burial place of the Kabakas of Buganda.This status was reinforced when his son and successor,Daudi Chwa II, died in 1939 and was also buried atKasubi.His son and successor, Edward Muteesa II, was first inconflict with Britain and then, after independence in1962 when he became President, with his own PrimeMinister. Kasubi was stormed in 1966 and the Presidentwent into exile, but when he died in 1969 his remainswere returned and buried at Kasubi in 1971. Foursuccessive Kabakas of Buganda were therefore buriedin the same tomb house at Kasubi, the building which isat the core of this nomination. Each prince and princesswho is a descendant of the four Kabakas is also buriedthere behind the main shrine.Between 1967 and 1993 the site was controlled bycentral government, but the traditional institutions ofkingship were restored in 1993. Kabaka Ronald MutebiII was crowned as the Kabaka of Buganda, and in 1997the Kasubi tombs were returned to the Bugandakingdom. Buganda is today one of four kingdoms inUganda. The site is now not only the most importantcultural shrine for the Baganda but also the mostattractive tourist site in the country.http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1022☻☻☻☻☻☻SUFFIX “Cide” – TO KILLWe are the only species on this planet that knowingly orunknowingly commit suicide and knowingly commitgenocide. We are creatures of melanin; a living moleculethat can protects us from the environment to a certainextent. Pesticides and insecticides are designed have an“affinity for” or to attack melanin in pests and insects.But doesn’t this also lead to an attack on the melanininherent in humans and animals. When our melaninbecomes toxic, we have reached our body burden ofdangerous chemicals. When melanin becomes toxic,there is no barrier to disease. The idea, of incorporating aman-made pesticide in living plants so that damage frominsects will not affect the monetary value of our crops,having no regard for people or animals that are forced toeat this garbage, is to risk our health for corporate greed.It does seem a bit farfetched doesn’t it? Is it greed thathas doomed humanity? This is genocidal. There aremany pleasures in life. Eating good food is one of them.We must eat to exist. But does it mean we will eatanything? This is suicidal. Africa is now posed to useDDT, the granddaddy of all poisonous pesticides toeliminate malaria. It behooves us to understand whywhen we have a treasure trove of organic herbs andplants that can be used in malarial control. It only takes alittle research, people. This is what we are seeing. Weare a diseased species. We are suffering from digestiveand heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes,obesity, cancer, infertility, autism, neurological,respiratory, kidney and reproductive diseases, genderchanges, pollution in our waters, our soil, the air webreathe, killing bees and contributing to the loss inbiodiversity. Did we know we would be hurtingourselves? We know now. The answer is not more“cides”, but less. To be greedy you must be selfish.Everything has its degrees, its limitations, and itsaspirations. The idea to make our harvests free of insectdamage so we can feed a more populous world was goodin a very naïve way, but this idea has been hijacked forother ideas of world domination. The idea was good butthe means is terrible. We must “stand our ground”against corporate greed, callousness and these genocidaltendencies to kill every man, woman and child on theplanet. It is up to us to stop it. “The black man shall notbe a creature of the past, but a full-fledged man of thepresent and a power to be reckoned with in thefuture.” Marcus GarveyBlackherbals – A Marcus Garvey Pan-AfricanUniversity’s Community Site of Knowledge95-- Traditional African Clinic July 2013