[CH] Chiles in Africa
GARRY SOMMERVILLE (GARRY@kaitaia-fire.co.nz)
Tue, 22 Jun 1999 20:41:08 +1200
Greetings Children of the Revolution. Its a cold and
wet night in God's
Own and what was my one acre chili patch has turned
into a sea of mud
soup relentlessly flowing down the local creek towards
the blue South
Pacific Ocean. About 1 mile East of where one of the
first canoes
arrived in New Zealand from the mythical Polynesian
homeland of Havaiki.
(Nothing to do with the island group revolving now
around Honolulu.) So
I've had more than an academic interest in your chat
about my ancestors.
The travels were never one way and legend has the
first accomplished by
Kupe in the 11th Century. There were regular toings
and froings
(season's tickets?) Charts would have been of no use
as the Polynesians
never had a written language and the closest they got
to ink was the
material they used for facial tattoos (moko). Kupe
discovered these
islands and got word back and the first great
migration was of seven
double hulled sailing canoes which arrived at various
places on the NZ
coast and begat the local tribes. Taipa is where our
one landed and
began the Ngapuhi iwi. Minimum distance travelled over
open water, even
assuming they could find islands to hop would have
been 1500 miles. The
incentive to travel was probably the desire not to
feature as the main
course at one of your neighbours feasts. Apparently
human meat is very
sweet but there is no meal on earth that will not
benefit from the
addition of a little heat. I don't know wether they
had chilies though.
Maori are not keen on the hot stuff, but perhaps they
lost that along
with their taste for long pig. One of my neighbours is
the guy leading
the renaissance in waka building and renegotiating the
Pacific. I don't
know how they did it either. But at the end of this
year you can watch
us all in action defending our grip on the America's
Cup of yacthing.
Perhaps it was all just native cunning. Anyone got any
good recipe
featuring human meat?
Garry