THEAFRICANS
they cultivated a field for several years, then allowed it to lie fallow for a
time. Whereas cattle care and ownership were a male monopoly, women
did most of the agricultural work. Every married woman cultivated at least
one field. The primary crop was sorghum. They also grew seve'ralvarieties
of millets, pumpkins, watermelons, and calabashes, and a type of tobacco;
in some places they produced beans and yams. Wh~re sufficient metal was
available, they dug with iron-headed hoes with wooden shafts, but where
iron was scarce they used spades made of hard wood. The Sotho-speaking
people stored the grain in large baskets, the Nguni-speaking people in
pits.4 4
Down to the nineteenth century, hunting was still an essential part of the
mixed farmers' economy. It provided food and clothing, and it was a major
sport. In about 1825, John Brownlee, a British missionary, described
Xhosa hunting, which was still practiced in the customary manner:
Though not, like the poor Bushmen, impelled to the chase to provide for their
subsistence, they are passionately fond of it, as an active and animating
amusement. They generally go out to hunt in large parties, and when they
find game in the open fields, theyendeavour to surround the animals, or drive