Illustration of a ‘Liamba Leaf’ aka Wild Hemp (cannabis) from the book ‘Adventures in the great forest of equatorial Africa and the country of the dwarfs’ by Du Chaillu & Paul Belloni in 1890
Liamba Leaf
“I found in these hill villages a plant they call the liamba, and which the men cultivate with great care. The leaf is used to smoke in their clay pipes, and has powerful exhilarant and narcotic effects. From some leaves which I brought home I have discovered that this liamva is nothing else than the well known Cannabis Indica, or Indian hemp, from which the far famed Eastern drug hasheesh is made.
One day I found a village in great excitement. One of the men hed been smoking liamba leaves, and had run out to the forest in an insane state, and it was feared he would be eaten by wild beasts. Such cases are not uncommon in the Ashira country. Under my own observation afterwards, one liamba smoker became furiously and permanently insane, and I saw many who were miserably dibilitated by the habit.
Ther are among the Ashira many confirmed liamba smokers, and the habit seems very quickly to fix itself with a fatal tenacity. Beginners I have seen fal down in convulsions from the first few puffs. Practised smokers are seen laughing, talking, quarrelling, and acting in all respects like drunken persons. Insanity is often its ultimate result on those who persist in its use. I have several times seen men run into the forest under the influence of a few whiffs of liamba, perfectly unconscious and raving.
The negroes acknowledge its pernicious effects, but yet its votaries increase; and though the plant is yet unknown to the sea shore tribes, they will soon fall under its subjugation, for it is making gradual but sure advances. I never saw the leaf on the sea shore, but once saw a few of the seeds in the possession of a slave in a slave factory. He was carefully preserving them, intending to plant them in the country to which he should be sold.”
– ‘Adventures in the great forest of equatorial Africa and the country of the dwarfs’ by Du Chaillu & Paul Belloni in 1890
Illustration of a ‘Obindji in his easy chair’ smoking liamba/cannabis from the book ‘Adventures in the great forest of equatorial Africa and the country of the dwarfs’ by Du Chaillu & Paul Belloni in 1890