Our contemporary human diets consist for the most part of 12 plant species, but primitive humans had some 100,000 edible plant species at their disposal.

At the 1996 World Summit, 10,000 participants agreed that, “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”  At that time,  Chairman H.E. Romano, set a benchmark, " to reduce by half the number of chronically undernourished people on the Earth by the year 2015."

Will we make the deadline? Diversifying Africa’s food staples is critical to reach and surpass this goal, experts say. Countless studies conclude that hunger can be eradicated across the African continent by tapping into ancient crops that have fed people for millennia. Here are 15 ancient super plants that could eradicate hunger in Africa make the continent more bountiful. Some of them are gaining ground. Others have been barely heard of outside Africa.

Sources:  Agriculture Research for Development (CIRAD)  |  Food Reference.com  |  University of Wisconsin  |National Center for Biological Information   |  Feedipedia  |   Alternative Field Crops Manual   |  University of Wisconsin Agronomy  |  Research to Nourish Africa  |  Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II: Vegetables  |  |  Archaeologyabout.com   |   Infonet-biovision.org  |  Nourishing the planet  |   Trees for Life   |  Botanvyn  |  University of Pennsylvania  |  Permaculture Research Institute  |  Food and Agricultural Organization  |  The Journal of Food Technology in Africa, Vol. 6  |  R4dreview   |  Prota.org  |  Scientific Journals  |  Report on the African Eggplant   |  World Watch  |   Foodtank  |  Plants For A Future  |  Tropical Forages

2. Baobab (Adansonia digitata)
Besides its powerhouse delicious fruit, baobab seeds, kernels and leaves are packed with nutrients. The leaves of the “upside-down tree” are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, rich in calcium, and quality proteins. They make great salads and condiments and are used medicinally. It is said the deity Thora was not pleased with a baobab growing in his garden, so he tossed it out over the wall of Paradise and it landed upside down on Earth. Its roots kept growing to the sky. It is a symbol of the strength of Africa.

Sources: National Center for Biological Information   |  Feedipedia

3. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)
The cowpea is one of Central Africa’s oldest legume crops, dating back some 6,000 years in West African cereal farming. It was closely associated with the cultivation of sorghum and pearl millet. The pea itself and its leaves are edible, and the plant is drought resistant and thrives in poor soil conditions. It is rich in amino acids, lysine and tryptophan and is 25-percent source of protein. The cowpea is known in the U.S. as the black-eyed pea, having migrated with the slave trade.

Sources: Alternative Field Crops Manual   |  University of Wisconsin Agronomy  |  Research to Nourish Africa

4. Amaranth (Amaranthus)
This ancient grain was not long ago hidden in plain site, being considered a “poverty grain,” and ignored as a cash crop. It is now cultivated widely and becoming lucrative. It is a versatile plant, growing easily and quickly in humid lowlands of Africa. Amaranth is typically eaten in Togo, Liberia, Guinea, Benin, and Sierra Leone. The ancient grain, with roots dating back thousands of years to Mesoamerica, is rich in vitamin C and dietary minerals calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc. It is credited with an exceptional quality of protein.

Sources: Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II: Vegetables  |  National Academy Press  |  Archaeologyabout.com 

5. Spider plant (Cleome gynandra)
The spider plant, also known as shona or African cabbage, is high in protein, antioxidants, vitamins, and micro nutrients. It's used much like the curry leaf in southern parts of Africa. It is a fast-growing plant and ready to cultivate in as little as three weeks. The leaves contain protein, carbohydrates and are high in vitamins A and C, calcium, phosphorus and iron.

Sources: Infonet-biovision.org  |  Nourishing the planet

6. Moringa (Moringa oleifera)
The super food that the moringa tree provides is packed into its pods, leaves, seeds, and roots. It is also raw material for products that make village life more self-sufficient, including lamp oil, its wood, and liquid fuel. Nutritionally it packs seven times the vitamin C of oranges, four times the vitamin A of carrots and the calcium of milk and three times the potassium of bananas and twice the amount of protein as yogurt. It is considered one of the world’s most useful trees.

Source: Trees for Life  |  Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II: Vegetables  |  Botanvyn

7. Enset (Ensete ventricosum)
A banana-like herb, the enset is a starchy staple from Ethiopia's highlands known as the Ethiopian banana. Like its cousin the banana, it has lost its ability to reproduce and can do so only by cultivation. Like most ancient plants, many parts of the enset are useful. It is able to hold its water content during droughts up to seven years. The enset's fibers are used for rope, mats, medicinal purposes and even housing. The pulped starch of enset is buried in large pits for three-to-six months to ferment into kocho, a hearty food staple.

Sources: University of Pennsylvania  |  Permaculture Research Institute

8. Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa)
The well known source for shea butter is packed with vitamins, minerals and protein. The oblong seeds contain a mixture of edible oils and fats that produce the shea butter, a staple nutritional source that enhances taste, texture and digestibility for millions in rural areas of Africa. It is also used for skin care and has gone globally ballistic as an ingredient in countless health and organic beauty products.

Sources: Food and Agricultural Organization |  Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II -- Vegetables

9. Bambara bean (Vigna subterranean)
The bambara bean or groundnut, Congo goober, ground bean, hog peanut, earth pea and njugo bean has hundreds of names to describe what has been considered by the scientific community a “poor man’s crop, despite its heartiness. It's one of the two most drought-resistant legumes. The seed makes a complete food, as it contains sufficient quantities of protein, carbs and fat. It can be eaten raw or cooked, milled into flour or made into a paste with long shelf life. Its energy value exceeds that of lentils or cow peas.

Sources: Biodiversity International

10. Marama plant (Tylosema esculentum)
The magic marama has many names including groundnut, gemsbok beans, camel’s foot, braaiboontjie, tamani berry, and most appropriately, green gold. It's rich in oil, and as nutritious as soy beans and peanuts, with twice the oil content. It tastes like roasted cashews and resembles a large tuber with seed pods. It is loaded with protein and high in amino acids, carbs, calcium, and vitamin A. It grows in the sandy soil of Namibia, Botswana, and the Kalahari Desert, and has been a staple of the Khoisan peoples for centuries.

Sources: Prota.org  |  Scientific Journals

11. African eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum)
A very significant indigenous crop for its high yield, the African eggplant is resistant to drought, has a three-month shelf life, and can grow in poor soil conditions. The leaves of the eggplant are eaten boiled. The red-orange vegetable -- technically a fruit -- is stewed, pickled, steamed and boiled for stews. It is 92 percent water and high in beta-carotene, vitamin E, riboflavin, folic acid and calcium. Like many of these ancient super foods, it is used medicinally, and is effective as an anti-inflammatory. It is a cash crop and has a high yield.

Sources: Report on the African Eggplant   |  World Watch

12. Argan (Argania spinosa)
The flowering argan tree, native to the southern coast of Morocco, produces fruit containing a valuable hard kernel of seeds which produce a thick golden oil with an unmistakable, rich flavor that's high in essential fatty acids. Argan has become very popular recently. A number of women’s cooperatives dedicated to producing the oil have made it a lucrative crop. The region relies heavily on argan oil economically and the trees are even a tourist attraction -- many goats climb the branches to reach the delicious kernels.

Source:  Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II -- Vegetables  | Foodtank

13. Fonio (Digitaria genus)
For the Dogon people of Mali, fonio is the “seed of the universe” and rightly so. It packs a nutritional super punch. Fonio has amino acids to help synthesize protein. Its ease of growth in the region feeds approximately four million people across West Africa. It's considered Africa’s oldest cereal.

Sources: Prota.org  | Agriculture Research for Development (CIRAD)

14. Lablab (Lablab purpureus)
The mature seed of the lablab, also called the hyacinth bean, has a mild flavor when thoroughly cooked. It can be prepared similarly to soy beans, fermented like tempeh or sprouted and eaten raw like the mung bean. The pod can be eaten whole. Its leaves are tender like spinach. It is a staple food, rich in protein with excellent storage capabilities. It's said to have the medicinal properties for a host of ills. It tolerates drought conditions and is widely cultivated throughout Africa.

Sources: Plants For A Future  |  Tropical Forages

15. Celosia (Celosia argentea)
A beautiful edible flowering plant as well as a delicious green leafy vegetable, celosia has as many varieties as it has uses. Also referred to as Lagos spinach, Nigerian sometimes call it soko yokoto, meaning "make husbands fat and happy.” Celosia packs a high content of micronutrients and protein. It's used for a wide range of ailments including intestinal worms (especially tapeworm), blood diseases, mouth sores, and eye problems. The seeds treat respiratory ills and the flowers treat diarrhea. The leaves are used as dressings for boils and sores, and the boiled vegetables are said to be slightly diuretic. The celosia is also used widely in Asia.

Sources: Echo Technical Note  |  Prota.org  |  Lost Crops of Africa: Volume II -- Vegetables

Lord Shiva, in the yogic tradition, is considered not a deity but an adiyogi, or the first yogi. Thousands of years ago, legend has it that Shiva transmitted yoga to the Saptarishis -- seven sages who remained by his side watching him dance in ecstasy and abandon himself to stillness. 

There on the shores of the Kanti Sarovar lake near Kendanarth, the first Guru was born as Shiva imparted his wisdom to the seven sages in the art, science and mechanics of yoga. The tradition continues. Here are 12 of the many yoga gurus who helped change the world.

Patanjali (5000 years ago)

“Yoga chitta vritti nirodha (Yoga is yoking the modifications of the mind stuff into stillness)" Sutra 1.2

The history of the great yogic sage Patanjali is populated with legends and contradictory accounts of his origins. We do know that Maharishi Patanjali is considered the father of yoga when around maybe 200 B.C.E., he wrote the Yoga Sutras (thread). Comprised of 195 sutras strung together to form a yogic framework of daily ethical practice, it resides in an eight-limbed path (Ashtanga) and teaches student to be free of suffering, or at least to lead a better life. 

Today Patanjali’s seminal work is read by every student completing his or her yoga teacher training.

Source: YogaJournal

Swami Brahmanandna Saraswati (Dec. 20, 1868-May 20, 1953)

“Spiritual teachings destroy ignorance and therefore remove darkness, but they cannot throw light on the inner self,  for the self is light.”

Also known as Guru Dev,  he was born into the priest caste. At age 9 he left home on his spiritual path, renouncing his home life and heading to the Himalayas where at 14, he met his guru, Swami Krishnānanda Saraswati. He remained a recluse in a cave seeing his guru once a week for a decade, then emerged a siddha (accomplished one) and was immediately compared with the great Advaita philosopher, Adi Shankar. 

He influenced thousands and his disciples were great teachers, including the transcendental meditation leader, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Source: Paulmason.info

Swami Kuvalayananda (Aug. 30, 1883 – April 18, 1966)


“To practice Yoga daily and systematically is to develop immunity against all diseases.”

A pioneer in the scientific research and education of yoga in the 1920s, Kuvalayananda founded the Kaivalyadhama Health and Yoga Research Center, still in operation in Lonavla, Maharashtra, India. India is home to several other centers researching and promoting yoga. 

His master, Paramahamsa Madhavdasji, (Bengalese, 1798-1921) imparted his passion for the discipline of yoga and thus was born the scientific study into the psychophysical benefits of this ancient system. Kuvalayananda had 3000 students per year, including Mahatma Gandhi, J.R.D. Tata and Shrimati Indira Gandhi.

Source: Kdham.com

Tirumalai Kishnamacharya (Nov. 18, 1888-Feb. 28, 1989)

Chances are whatever yoga you practice was shaped in some way by this Brahmin-born, 5-foot-2-inch yogi whose influence spread like wildfire worldwide. He ascribed therapeutic values (having spent time with Swami Kuvalayananda in his yoga research center) and incorporated sequencing with counter poses for optimal  health results. Not much is known of his early years except that he was encouraged by his father at age 5 as a descendent of the great ninth-century yogi, Nathamuni. 

Under his guru Sri Ramamohan Brahmachari, he is said to have mastered 3000 asanas and could stop his pulse entirely at will. His passion for yoga led him to Mysore, where he remained and began a school we know as Ashtanga Vinyasa. The school was made famous more than 40 years later by his best student, Pattabhi Jois.

Sources: YogaJournal,  Ashtanga.info

Paramahansa Yogananda (Jan. 5, 1893-March 7, 1952)

"We are what we think we are. The habitual inclination of our thoughts determines our talents and abilities, and our personality. So whatever you want to be, start to develop that pattern now."

Like all of the other gurus listed here, Paramahansa was born under a different name. Raised in a devout family, he too left home for his spiritual search at an early age. At 17 he found his guru, Swami Yukteswar Giri. Like most of the other gurus listed here, he was dedicated to educating children and opened a how-to-live boys' school in West Bengal. 

It was to become the model for his worldwide initiative, the Self-Realization Fellowship, which he opened in California in 1920 upon visiting the U.S. for a conference in Boston. He lived most of his life in the U.S. and died after reading a poem about India to a room full of dignitaries.

Source: Ananda.org

Anandamayi Ma (April 30, 1896-Aug. 27, 1982)


“I have no particular path. All paths are my paths.”

Her name means Bliss Permeated Mother, and like a maternal figure she supported her followers to seek their own true nature. She refused to be considered a guru and was always referred to as Ma, though her childlike body remained chaste even when wed at the young age of 15, obeying inner voices who would guide her. 

Her teachings called on all humanity to seek self realization as a priority, with all other matters being secondary. Paramahansa Yogananda wrote of her in his well-known writings on self realization. She incorporated jokes, songs, and joyfulness into her teachings, which were always spontaneous and inspired. She went where she was invited and opened up the sacred rituals to female participation.

Source: Anandamayi.org

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Jan. 12 ,1918-Feb. 5, 2008 )

“With transcendental meditation technique we have a natural and effective means to dissolve even deeply rooted fatigue and stress. This is the way to unfold full value of life.”

The Maharishi gives full credit to his spiritual leader, Swami Brahmanandna Saraswati, for inspiring his teachings. He said it took him two years to master that feeling of “oneness." This guru from an upper-caste family became a household name in the 1960s and '70s. He was the “giggling guru” to the Beatles, Beach Boys and other celebrities. 

He taught his transcendental meditation technique to more than 5 million people while inducting more than 40,000 teachers and founding hundreds of colleges, universities and schools. Maharishi’s organization is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, all from that “one thing in mind that (he knew) would be useful to every man.”

Sources: Maharishi.org, TM.org

Sivananda Saraswati (Sept. 8, 1887-14 July 14, 1963)


“The mental ability to concentrate is inherent to all; it is not extraordinary or mysterious. Meditation is not something that a yogi has to teach you; you already have the ability to shut out thoughts.”

Sivananda was a physician for many years in Malaysia known for treating the poor. A frustration with traditional medicine led him back to India to pursue a spiritual quest. After meeting his guru, Vishwānanda Saraswati, he led a life of austerity and continued to doctor the infirm as he traveled the country. 


Through his yoga of synthesis, he was able in 1945, to establish an ayurvedic pharmacy, and create the All-World Religions Federation. He established the All-World Sadhus Federation in 1947 and Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy. His yoga vedanta centers exist worldwide.

Sourch: Sivananda.org

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (Dec. 14 1918-Aug. 20 2014)“


Yoga teaches to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”

To the world he was the beloved B.K.S. Iyengar,  King of Yogis. One of the earliest students and brother-in-law of Krishnamacharya, he went to Mysore at his invitation to study yoga and improve his health. Voted one of the most influential people by Time Magazine, he is known for popularizing yoga in India and the rest of the world, including getting the Queen of Belgium to stand on her head in sirsasana at age 80. 

His teaching methods focused on flexibility and stamina, incorporating heavy use of props from his own unfortunate accident that left him with a back injury.

Source: Iyanus.org

K . Pattabi Jois (July 26, 1915-May 18, 2009)

“Do your practice and all is coming.”

At age 12, Pattabi Jois attended a lecture by Krishnamacharya at the Jubilee Hall, and became a student the next day. He kept it secret from his family for two years. He made his way to Mysore, where later he was to meet up again with his guru and teach at his yoga shala (school). In 1933 he got married and had three children who ran his famous Shri K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore.

 An article written on yoga mentioned Pattabi Jois, thus opening the floodgates of foreigners who flock there to this day to take the three series of Ashtanga. These include some of most famous celebrities.

Source: Kpjayi.org

Gururaj Ananda Yogi (March 3, 1932 in Gurujat-May 17, 1988 in Cape Town)

“It is so simple to be happy but so difficult to be simple.”

Gururaj was a mystic, a philosopher and a poet who imparted jnana yoga (that of knowledge). He moved from India to South Africa and became a successful businessman. After learning from his spiritual guru Swami Pavitrananda, he began by giving meditation practice in his living room in Cape Town. In 1974 with the assistance of his devotees, he started the South African Meditation Society, the International Foundation for Spiritual Unfoldment and several mediation societies around the world.

Sources: Gururajananda.com,  IFSU.org, Britishmeditationsociety.org

Mata Amritanandamayi Devi  (Sept. 27, 1953)


“The duty of a doctor is to treat patients. In the same way, my duty is to console those who are suffering.”

Also known as Ammaji aka Amma, she is regarded as more of a saint than a guru, with a following that outnumbers the population of some island nations. From a young age she dedicated herself to feeding and helping those in need. She averted marriage and instead started a foundation, Mata Amritanandmayi Math. 

She imparts darshan (blessings or to see) in the form hugs and is known as the “hugging saint” to more than 32 million people. She has recorded some 1000 bhajans (devotional chants) in 35 languages. She embraces the world with food and services through her foundations in more than 40 countries. Recently there have been scandals regarding her ashrams, however she remains within a halo of peace.

Sources: Amma, Awaken

This article I first published in AFK Insider.com

After recently relocating back north (after some 30 years!) from my beloved richly connected yogi community in Miami, I find myself like a fish in the dark ;) so to speak...

So it was that I needed to begin making myself known amongst the lovely people up here who do yoga. It's not been easy, what with my travel that has delightfully increased this past year and the not so delightfully inconvenient snow storms I have not been able to network as much as I had done back  home in Miami.  I've had cabin fever indeed...

That is when I discovered THUMBTACk  and though I haven't connected to anyone just yet, I am hopeful. 
I have to say though, that it has put me out there and made me make myself available and ready for taking Long Island by storm... not the snowy kind.

Have you tried it? Click on YogaSense above or below.
Let me know how you fare.
NAMASTE!