A Brief History of Cannabis in South Africa

A Brief History of Cannabis in South Africa

Cannabis is thought to have been introduced to the east coast of Africa by early Arab or Indian traders at least 1000 years ago (Watt, 1961). New genetic research reveals that the plant has its roots in what is now north-west China, where local strains are most like the original strain (Ren et al, 2021). A Chinese treatise on pharmacology attributed to the Emperor Shen Nung and alleged to date from 2737 BC contains probably the earliest reference to cannabis and its potential (Grocotts 2018).

From China it spread, whether through trade or natural dispersal, to India, where historical records show its widespread use dating back to 2000 BC (Psychology Today 2021). Sources from India show evidence of trade between India and the east coast of Africa dating back as far as the 7th century BC (Modi et al 2017).

There are several current diffusion hypotheses offered to explain the diffusion of cannabis into Africa. One is the theory of natural dispersal, whether through wind or ocean or animal movement. Du Toit (1980), however, argues that dagga is a social plant and is associated with human settlements.

Through studying the words used by African cultures for the plant, anthropologists, using a system called language geography, can attempt to construct a model for its introduction prior to any available documented history. They found that relatives or derivatives of the Hindi word bhang are in widespread use on the east coast and adjacent interior of Africa, notably in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique. Indian and Arab traders had made use of seasonal trade winds of the Indian Ocean to carry their laden dhows to the new markets of Africa since at least the 15th century (Duvall, 2019).

James (1970 as cited in du Toit 1980) maintains that the plant was first introduced to the coast of Mozambique by militant Portuguese traders who were returning from India in the early 16th century. He based his argument on the relationship between the Hindi and Shangaan (Tsonga) languages. Morley, Bensusan and Goodwin theorise that it was then taken south by trade and/or migrations of Bantu and KhoiKhoi tribes. In South Africa, marijuana is colloquially called dagga by all races and languages. It is derived from a Khoisan word, dacha, used to denote all species of Leonotus and Cannabis, a word that now refers to the latter exclusively. Tribes have their own words. The Xhosa and Zulu call it insangu or ntsangu, the Thonga, mbange, the Venda, mbhanze, There are references to dagga smoking in the histories of the Khoi, San, Sotho and Tswana according to research conducted by local historian, Hazel Crampton (Grocotts, 2011).

So when, in 1652, the first European settlement was established by the Dutch East India Company at The Cape of Good Hope (present-day Cape Town), cannabis was already in widespread use by the indigenous KhoiKhoi and San people. Jan van Riebeeck, the first governor of the Cape, wrote the first written record of the plant in South Africa when he ordered the officers of the ship Voorman to purchase ‘daccha’ in Natal for trade with the Khoikhoi. In 1658 he wrote in his journal that the KhoiKhoi ‘grow daccha, which made them drunk, and which they highly esteemed’, adding that it ‘drugs their brains, just as opium’ (Abel, 1980). The company ‘attempted to establish a monopoly on its sale, and to that end prohibited cultivation of the plant by Cape settlers from 1680. However, the ready availability in the wild and through trade with indigenous peoples meant that there was little profit to be made. Consequently, the prohibition was lifted in 1700’ (Paterson, 2009).

We learn that, for the indigenous population, eating marijuana had been the norm. Abel, in his fantastic book, Marihuana, The First 12 000 Years, writes of an account by a Dutch surgeon named van Meerhof , who had married a Hottentot[KhoiKhoi] girl who spoke both Dutch and Portuguese, who stated that ‘the Hottentots had tried to smoke dagga but they could not master the technique. By 1705, however, both the Hottentots and their neighbours, the Bushmen [San] were smoking, having been taught the art by the white man’ (Abel, 1980).

Further, Abel writes ‘once the natives learned the technique of smoking, the inhalation of burning leaves quickly spread from tribe to tribe. The popularity of smoking even created a new demand for pipes, and a new skill, pipe making, came into being. Intoxication by means of smoking instead of chewing also altered African culture. No longer was dagga consumed alone. Smoking transformed the taking of dagga into a communal event, especially among those tribes that had few pipes’ (1980).

By the end of the 18th century tobacco was beginning to become popular too. The Dutch explorer, Thunberg, wrote that ‘the Hottentot loves nothing so well as tobacco, and, with no other can they become so easily enticed into a man’s service: but for smoking and producing a pleasing intoxication, he finds this poisonous plant not sufficiently strong, and therefore in order to procure the pleasure more speedily and deliciously he mixes his tobacco with hemp chopped fine (Abel, 1980).

In 1818 an explorer, G. Thompson, wrote that white landowners cultivated cannabis for their servants, even, in his opinion, though ‘its intoxicating and deleterious effects were not in the best interests of the whites’. The reason for this anomaly, explains Thompson, was that the white man
used dagga ‘as an inducement to retain the wild Bushmen in their services, whom they have made captives at an early age .. most of these people being extremely addicted to the smoking of dacha'(Abel, 1980).

[Other] historical accounts suggest rich bodies of [local] knowledge about horticulture, ecology, pharmacology, and drug manufacturing (Duvall, 2019). Historical farmers produced the crop in a wide variety of conditions, and harvested inflorescences. Cannabis gardens were documented in eighteenth-century South Africa and Mozambique, and nineteenth-century Egypt, Angola, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Tunisia, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was a field crop in Angola in the 1890s, and Botswana in the 1880s, where it was the only irrigated crop. Y¬et the plant also grew in isolated patches away from farmland across Central Africa (1850s to 1900s), and people harvested feral plants in Sao Tome (1860s) and South Africa (1890s). The most basic process was to dry the flowers before smoking, but more complex techniques are documented (Duvall, 2019). In South Africa, for instance, people lightly fermented moist herbal material that was dried before use (Bourhill, 1913).

Hazel Crampton also came across recipes for old boere [predominantly Dutch settlers who became the Afrikaners of today] remedies that required dagga. Tea was made from the leaves to alleviate high blood pressure, and the smoke was used to treat open wounds and poisonous bites’ (Grocotts, 2011). She also relates how missionaries at Klaarwater, now Griquatown, grew the herb in quantity to trade with the neighbouring San (de Villiers, 2015).

The Natal Colony began to import Indian workers (called ‘coolies’ at the time) in 1860 to supplement their labour force. This was in response to a worldwide shortage of cheap labour due to the global movement to abolish the slavery in the 1840s. According to Wikipedia, these Indians brought with them the habit of consuming cannabis and hashish, which blended with local, extant African traditions. The European authorities were concerned by this practice, believing it sapped the vitality of their workers , and in 1870 they passed a law ‘prohibiting the smoking, use, or possession by the sale, barter, or gift to, any coolies what-soever, of any portion of the hemp plant (Cannabis Sativa) (Abel, 1980).

In the 1870s, an explorer, A.T. Bryant, whose contact with the Zulus is described in his book, The Zulu People, wrote that ‘young [Zulu] warriors were especially addicted [to dagga] and under the exciting stimulation of the drug were capable of accomplishing feats’ (Bryant, cited in James, 1970). David Livingstone, speaking of the Sothos, wrote that the warriors “sat down and smoked it [hemp] in order that they might make an offensive onslaught (Livingstone, 1857).

When the gold mines started needing a lot of African labour on the Witwatersrand in the 1890s, capital became concerned about its use. A commission at the time recommended controlling the use and sale of dagga to African workers, as it supposedly caused “unsteadiness in the performance of work “ and an “incapacity for exertion”. In 1903 the Orange River Colony, now under the control of the British after the Boer War of 1899 to 1902, passed the Dagga Prohibition Ordinance Act, making it an offence to sell dagga. In 1908, Natal began to regulate the sale of cannabis. In the Transvaal, dagga was sold “openly and normally” by storekeepers and miners (Chanock, 2001).

In 1911 the second International Opium Commission was held in the Netherlands and the South African delegation proposed that dagga be treated as [as] addictive as opiates (de Villiers, 2015). In 1922 the Customs and Excise Duties Amendment Act 35 prohibited in general the importation, conveyance, sale and supply, and the use and possession of habit-forming drugs, including dagga (de Villiers, 2015). Opinion was, nonetheless, still divided. A report in 1916 noted that South African mine workers were encouraged to smoke because ‘after a smoke the natives work hard and show very little fatigue’ (Grocotts, 2018).

Apparently many missionaries on the African continent indulged in smoking dagga, which was still being used as a sundowner until the First World War (Crampton, 2011). In 1921, ‘serious signs of a moral panic focusing around [the consumption of ] dagga appeared, centred on the Western Cape’ (de Vos, 2017). A concern developed about the ‘camaraderie’ which led some to ‘lay aside race and other prejudices with regard to fellow drug users’ (de Vos, 2017).

There was a time when dagga was ‘as traditional as biltong [dry cured, spiced meat, a South African delicacy], boerebeskuit [rusks, another traditional Afrikaner staple] and Witblits [a potent distilled alcohol], but cannabis culture changed in 1928, when the plant was made illegal” (Crampton, quoted in Grocotts, 2011).

The Medical, Dental and Pharmacy Act of 1928 made the criminalisation complete. Suddenly the magistrates’ courts had very extensive powers of punishment for any offences (de Villiers, 2015).
From the 1930s to the 1950s there was a flurry of reprints of the writings of missionaries and explorers to avoid embarrassment, and their accounts were edited to make it appear as if they had been using Leonotis Leonurus, which is dagga’s legal cousin, wild hemp (Grocotts, 2011). Incidentally, wild dagga ‘does have a mild calming effect when smoked. In some users, the effects have been noted to be similar to that of the cannabinoid THC found in Cannabis, except that it has a much less potent effect’ (Wikipedia, 2023).

In 1937, the South African government introduced the Weeds Act, ‘which made the occupant or owner of a property accountable for preventing the growth of cannabis, or any other plant classified as a weed, on the property ‘(Paterson, 2009).

Concern among the ruling, socially conservative, Calvinist Nationalists about the proliferation of cannabis in the country continued to grow and, in 1971, The Abuse of Dependence-producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act 41 now deemed it a prohibited dependence-producing drug. It carried extremely harsh minimum sentences (Burchell, 2013). The mandatory sentence was a minimum of two years in prison for possession! Five years was the minimum sentence for selling, and dealing was defined as automatic in the case of anyone possessing more than 115 grams. The only Progressive Federal Party MP at the time, Helen Suzman, was the sole dissenting vote against this repressive law. She was a campaigner for decriminalisation, a position which was vilified by the Nationalists. The courts and prisons could not cope with the numbers being imprisoned and, three years later, the Act was amended to allow for suspended sentences (de Villiers, 2015), which vindicated Suzman’s position.

We find that the law was racially motivated. A report commissioned by the Nationalist government to examine the prevalence of cannabis users made distinction between its use among racial groups as defined by apartheid. “ The Native[African] view that there is nothing reprehensible about dagga smoking in itself,” it said, “has not been changed by the fact that the law of the white man forbids the practice” (Paterson 2009). The Commission then addressed cannabis use in “the coloured community” (meaning, in uniquely South African terminology, those of mixed descent). Here they made their view known by saying ‘[the Coloured community] recognise the habit as a concomitant of poverty, backwardness, dirtiness, crime, unemployment and general lack of respectability’ (Paterson 2009). So the Coloured community recognise this, but the African doesn’t, is the implication. Next in line, Asians were deemed to be abstinent, on the whole. The report states ‘it is only the poorer classes who take to dagga-smoking and are, in consequence, looked down upon by the others.’ Of Europeans it says, ‘it is hardly ever practised by persons who are, or wish to be thought, respectable.’ As Paterson points out, it is by linking ‘respectability’ with cannabis use, the Commission portrayed “natives” [the term then in use by the government for indigenous Africans]
as unapologetic cannabis users, to be less respectable. Further, he states that, ‘while the “Coloured community” retained a degree of respectability, the presence of use in this segment of society still showed them to be less respectable than “Europeans”, who “hardly ever” used cannabis’ (Paterson 2009).

It is acknowledged that this law was also implemented to deal with domestic political opponents of the apartheid project, much as Nixon used the law to go after his political enemies, particularly the anti-Vietnam War movement. Opposition to both was largely espoused by the counter-culture. People known to indulge in something illegal were now vulnerable to politically motivated harassment, arrest, conviction and imprisonment for mere possession.

Despite all these efforts, South Africa was acknowledged, at the time of these harsh laws, as a significant exporter of cannabis to Europe, mainly the UK.

Following the adoption of an interim constitution in 1992, courts found that guilt without the burden of proof on the state infringed on the constitutionally enshrined presumption of innocence, and consequently invalidated those parts of the 1971 Act (Burchell 2013).

A study released in 2014 established that the arrest and conviction of a single ‘low level drug user [in South Africa] had ballooned to R240 000’ (approximately 20 000 USD at the time) and added tremendously to the strain on our legal system and overburdened taxpayers (de Villiers 2015).

In March 2017, in a case brought by activists Gareth Prince, Jeremy Acton and Jonathan Rubin to the Cape High Court, ‘presiding Judge Dennis Davis ruled that any law disallowing the use and cultivation of cannabis by an adult in a private dwelling, was unconstitutional and therefore invalid, on the grounds that such infringement of the constitutional right to privacy could not be justified’ (Evans 2017).When the state appealed, it became necessary to have this confirmed by the Supreme Court before it could take effect (The Weed Edition 2017).

In September of 2018 the Constitutional Court ruled that the private use of cannabis is no longer a criminal offence. The main points of the ruling are as follows. It is legal to have up to 600 grams in a private dwelling, while 100 grams is the limit allowed in public spaces provided one conceals it from public view. Possession or use in the workplace is still prohibited. Drug tests can be legally performed by employers in line with internal policy. Selling seeds or weed is still prohibited, however, as is smoking in a public place. Selling it can carry up to a ten year sentence. All pending prosecutions pertaining to the possession of weed in a public place will be postponed until the new laws are finalised. One is allowed to have an unlimited number of seeds or seedlings, a maximum of four flowering plants per adult up to a maximum of two persons in a dwelling. There are laws against smoking in the presence of a child or non-consenting adult, in a vehicle on a public road. For these offences, fines or a prison sentence of between 2 and 15 years can be imposed.

In 2021 the South African marijuana market was estimated to be worth around R88 million (around $5.5 million), It is estimated that it will grow to R406 million by 2026, according to an article in the investigative Weekly Mail and Guardian (Slabber 2022). It goes on to say that the global industry is set to boom because of the relaxing laws around using cannabis to treat conditions like Alzheimers, chronic pain and nausea. By 2022, 76 licences had been issued by the South African Health Products Authority for growing medicinal cannabis, with many more to come. ‘There is a well developed pharmaceutical industry and medical research presence in South Africa, making it an ideal location for research into medical cannabis, Slabber argues. Further, it states, ‘Major strides were made in early 2022, as amendments to the Private Purposes bill were tabled in Parliament, which will allow for the commercialisation of the sale of cannabis – having previously allowed for private use only’.

Cannabis is an important crop in South Africa, as in other parts of Africa. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, African farmers produce enough to meet demand on the continent and to export small quantities to Europe. As pointed out by Duvall, the crop provides income in rural communities, and to those who distribute and sell (Bloomer, 2008; Kepe, 2003). Further, he states, ‘cannabis is widely a cash crop for poor farmers where legal agriculture has become economically or ecologically untenable (Laniel, 2006).

According to Fields Of Green For All, there are an estimated 900 000 cannabis farmers in South Africa, and collectively they support upwards of 3 million people. Further, the activist collective estimate 20 million people use or have used Cannabis and tens of thousands of people use Cannabis to treat illness. South Africa [also] has 350 000 traditional healers, who customarily are the producers and retailers of all traditional medicines, which traditionally includes Cannabis. There are studies that show that a majority of South Africans consult a traditional healer before a Western medicine practitioner [Groundup, 2019]. The booming market, according to consultancy group, Prohibition Partners in 2019, could be worth 27 billion Rand (about 1.5 billion USD) in 2023.

Since decriminalisation in 2017, many new commercial farmers have felt emboldened to enter the market. Since the situation is, in rural areas such as the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal, often conducive to openly visible grows going unmolested, there is more higher end product being produced than ever. The law of supply and demand now dictates the price trends downward, and buyers have become scarce. The pandemic hit business hard, the wartime inflation-induced recession is also undoubtedly a factor. An allegation has been made in Parliament by the progressive drugs-policy activist and lawyer, Ricky Stone, that a ‘Stellenbosch Mafia’, who had obtained licences for export, but whose product had not met the grade, subsequently illegally dumped it on the local market, further disrupting it.

A confusing scenario is also being played out daily in SA. Unlicensed shops selling marijuana trade openly, yet we read numerous reports of ‘dagga labs’ (a blanket term used by the authorities for indoor grows and processing set-ups alike) being raided. There are also many anecdotes of protection money being demanded by the authorities for grows to remain untouched. Police are not consistent in application, interpret the law differently in different provinces or according to the personal attitude of local commanders. This uncertainty and selective policing has been the subject of protests by activist organisations.

In his State of the Nation address of 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated his stance that South Africa should focus on developing the industry so as to get a decent slice of the market, and that the traditional, rural growers of the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal should be licensed to participate. He talked about its potential to create 130 000 jobs and further stated “We will review the policy and regulatory framework for industrial hemp and cannabis to realise the huge potential for investment and job creation.” Critics say they are yet to see the specifics and argue that the present rules around CBD and THC levels in complementary medicine set the limits way too low for the medicine to be effective.

In an interview with Chris Whitfield of Cape Talk Radio , Anthony Cohen, an entrepreneur in the industry, stated “Big Pharma doesn’t want a non-patentable product on the market that can bring relief to millions of South Africans in a cost effective way.” “The second hurdle is that we are not allowed to put hemp and CBD into food.” He touched on the plight of the “thousands of traditional farmers in this country [that] are being locked out of the equation. We need to make sure that we include them, and in a way that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg for them to be able to get a license.” Whether the president’s statement means they will assist in funding the attainment of licences for co-operatives or private businesses in these provinces, we do not know as no concrete policy has been proposed as of 2023.

Fields of Green For All have this to say; ‘the existing, largely unregulated Cannabis industry is ready and willing to compromise its complete autonomy under prohibition for a regulated industry that allows for best practice and customer safety without undue barriers to entry’ (2023).

Duvall argues that, in terms of licensing becoming accessible to the under-resourced, we don’t have reason to hope, as ‘current processes of cannabis liberalisation are, with one exception, instances of accumulation through dispossession (Harvey, 2004) by Global Northern companies, enabled through the exercise of neocolonial power’ (Nkrumah, 1965; Langan, 2018). Opportunities to profit legally were denied the rural farmer through prohibitions under colonial and post-colonial regimes. By the effective denial of access to newly liberalised and burgeoning cannabis markets, the establishment get to reserve the market for themselves again. The ANC, as our governing party, is betraying its electorate if it can not or will not stand up to powerful corporations and companies, thus perpetuating the gross inequalities of the past. It seems that the informal market will have to remain underground until enough pressure is brought to bear on policy-makers to truly liberalise it. As ever. (Almost) everywhere. The struggle is real. The struggle continues.

Bibliography

Abel, E. Marihuana, The First 12 000 Years. 1980
Crampton, Hazel A Short History Of Dagga. 2011
du Toit, Brian
Duvall, Chris S. A brief agricultural history of Africa, from prehistory to canna-colony 2019
Oates, Joshua Dagga decriminalised: how to avoid breaking the law. 2020
Paterson, Craig, Prohibition & Resistance: A Socio-Political Exploration of the Changing Dynamics of the Southern African Cannabis Trade. c. 1850 – the Present. 2009

Recommended reading;
Crampton, Hazel, A Short History Of Dagga. 2011

Abel, E., Marihuana, The First 12 000 Years. 1980