ravaged the crops and rains were exasperatingly irregular. Most areas
experienced a drought about every eight years and some droughts were
severe and widespread, resulting in famine. There was a particularly devas-
tating drought over much of southeastern Africa during the first decade of
the nineteenth century. Yearslater, an elderly Zulu told a white questioner
that during the resulting famine "we were obliged to eat grass."50
The Bantu-speaking mixed farmers were generally a healthy people.
This was especially true of the Nguni, whose country below the mountain
escarpment was bountiful down to the late nineteenth century but is now
dessicated and eroded. Ludwig Alberti found that the Xhosa "enjoyexcep-
tional health [and] ...
very rarely suffer from infectious diseases or fatal
illnesses." The men, he wrote, "are remarkable for their imposing height,"
and "the female is no less well-built.">!
The farmers owed their robust health to their rich and varied diet.
Except in times of drought, pestilence, or war, they drank milk (always
used sour) in most seasons. They ate sorghum green during the growing
season and cooked after harvest. They regularly used vegetables. They
often ate meat from the hunt, and they consumed domestic cattle, sheep,