Malanje
More actions
| Malanje | |
|---|---|
| Malange | |
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Geography | |
| Country | Angola |
| Province/State | Malanje Province |
| Coordinates | -9.54, 17.04 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 87,000 km² |
| Terrain | Fields of liamba among cassava and other food crops; approximately Malanje Province |
| Growing history | |
| Dated accessions | 1903 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 1 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Malanje is a cannabis growing area in north-central Angola, named after Malanje Province. A report of 2011 on a police burning of cannabis in the province said that the plant, called liamba, was grown across almost the whole of the province, and named the municipalities of Malanje, Calandula, Caculama, Cacuso and Kambundi-Katembo where its growers were likely to be.[1] Police and the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) have since reported destroying fields there, some of them hidden among cassava and other food crops. In 2026 the SIC put out of use a field of 15 hectares[2] and another of 17 hectares by its report's headline, both in the municipalities of Xandel and Kambundi-Katembo.[3]
Reports of cultivation
The botanist Friedrich Welwitsch, who collected in Angola from 1853 to 1861, took a specimen in flower and fruit at Pungo Andongo, now in Malanje Province. His notes, published in 1900, say that the plant was grown in all the interior districts of Angola, always in places more or less out of the way, to keep the plantations from the notice of passers-by.[4]: 994–995 A herbarium sheet gathered by J. J. Almeida at Malanje in 1903 is labelled Malange (Cultivada), "Malanje, cultivated".[5]
At a public burning in Malanje city in June 2011, held for the International Day against Drug Abuse, the provincial directorate of criminal investigation destroyed more than 110 kilograms of liamba and more than 100,000 cannabis plants. The head of its narcotics department gave figures for the period, compared with the same period a year before: 15 people detained for growing cannabis, 13 more than before, and 113,116 plants of narcotics seized.[1] A report of December 2015 said that the police of Cacuso had destroyed more than 10,000 plants in a field of cassava and maize some 23 kilometres south-west of the town, about 100 metres long and 30 wide; one of the field's owners said that another man had sown the cannabis there. The report placed the main growing areas of the province in the municipalities of Malanje, Cacuso, Calandula, Luquembo, Quirima and Kambundi-Katembo.[6]
In July 2020 the police of Kiwaba Nzoji seized more than a tonne of liamba from a lorry taking it to Luanda, hidden in 25-kilogram sacks of bombó (dried cassava). The report counted the municipality of Cahombo, in the north-east of the province, among the places with high levels of liamba production.[7] A report of June 2021 said that the SIC had put a plantation out of use in Kiwaba Nzoji and seized 2,200 plants hidden among cassava in fields of the Massango Canzonzo neighbourhood.[8] In February 2025 it was reported to have arrested four people in fields of the Puica neighbourhood in Quela with more than 2,000 plants.[9]
In June 2026 the SIC in Malanje seized more than ten tonnes of liamba in the Seca and Bamba neighbourhoods of the municipalities of Xandel and Kambundi-Katembo, put a 15-hectare field out of use and arrested a man it called one of the largest suppliers in the province.[2] Two weeks later, in the same two municipalities, it seized 11 tonnes and put out of use another field, of 17 hectares by the report's headline; its owners fled when the police arrived.[3]
Growing practice
The fields reported destroyed in Malanje were mixed with food crops: cannabis grown among cassava and maize at Cacuso in 2015[6] and hidden among cassava in Kiwaba Nzoji in 2021.[8] In a survey of the medicinal plants used by 20 traditional healers in Malanje municipality, carried out from 2018 to 2023, Cannabis sativa was recorded under its Portuguese name, liamba, among the introduced herbs, collected from cropland.[10]: 7 The healers gave a decoction of the leaf by mouth, rectally or under the tongue for psychosis, asthma, cough, bronchitis, nausea, vomiting, measles and tuberculosis.[10]: 11
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Collected |
|---|---|---|
| Almeida s.n., Malanje (1903) | Almeida herbarium specimen, Malanje (1903) |
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See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Soares, Isaías (29 June 2011). "Mais de mil pés de liamba queimados em Malanje". Voz da América (in português). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "SIC apreende mais de dez toneladas de liamba e detém um dos maiores fornecedores em Malanje". Novo Jornal (in português). 17 June 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Manuel, Guida (1 July 2026). "SIC apreende 11 toneladas de liamba e desactiva mais um campo de cultivo de 17 hectares em Malanje". Novo Jornal (in português). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ Hiern, William Philip (1900). Catalogue of the African Plants Collected by Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853–61. Dicotyledons, Part IV: Lentibulariaceae to Ceratophylleae (PDF). London: Trustees of the British Museum. pp. 994–995 – via Wikimedia Commons.
- ↑ "Occurrence 813396518: Cannabis sativa L., LISC055471". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Soares, Isaías (15 December 2015). "Malanje: autoridades destroem milhares de plantas de 'liamba'". Voz da América (in português). Retrieved 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Soares, Isaías (6 August 2020). "Polícia angolana apreende uma tonelada de 'liamba' em Malanje". Voz da América (in português). Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "SIC desactiva campo com mais de 2 mil plantas de liamba em Malanje". O Crime (in português). 8 June 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ "Detidos quatro cidadãos por cultivo de liamba em Malanje". O País (in português). 24 February 2025. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Barroso, Agostinho António; Martins, André Alberto; Morais, Agostinho; et al. (2026). "An ethnopharmacological assessment of medicinal plants in Malanje Municipality, Angola". Frontiers in Pharmacology. 16 1702353. doi:10.3389/fphar.2025.1702353.