Contributions

• • The applied sciences of agronomy, metallurgy, engineering and textile production, as well as medicine, dominated the field of activity across Africa.
• In “Black Rice”, Judith Carnoy demonstrates the legacy of enslaved Africans to the Americas in the sphere of rice cultivation.
• Africans also used plants for anesthetics or painkillers, analgesics for the control of fever, antidotes to counter poisons, and anthelmints aimed at deworming.
• They were also knowledgeable in cardiovascular, gastro-intestinal, and dermatological contexts. Some of these such as hoodia gordonii (Bushman's hat) and combrettum caffrum (Cape bushwillow) are being integrated within contemporary pharmaceutical systems