hallucinogens
Leshoma, the visionary plant of southern Africa
By: LUCA PASQUALI – The bulbaceous plant Boophone disticha – known mainly by the term leshoma given by the Sotho ethnic group – is characterized by powerful hallucinogenic properties and is used as initiatory and divinatory plant among many southern African ethynes. Once known as the main compound of San arrow poisons, its psychoactive properties have been recognized by Western…
La plante alan et le culte des ancêtres chez les Fang du Gabon
By: GIORGIO SAMORINI – The alan plant and the ancestor cult among the Fangs of Gabon” – During the past centuries, the Fang, a Bantu-speaking ethnic group of the Western Equatorial Africa, used the hallucinogenic plant alan (Alchornea floribunda) in their Byeri initiatory ceremonies. Byeri was a cult of ancestors that involved the conservation and worship of…