North Africa
More actions
North Africa is the subregion of the African continent bordering the Mediterranean, and the part of it documented here comprises Morocco and Egypt.
The two contribute to the record in almost opposite ways.[editorialising?] Morocco is a producing country: its Rif carries the beldiya landrace and the kif and hashish complex built on it, and it supplies this wiki's only North African growing region, growing area and accession. Egypt is not documented as a landrace source at all. Its significance is documentary and legal: it is where the resin-bearing plant is first securely attested, and it produced one of the earliest sustained national prohibitions.[1]
The regional record
Two crops with the same name moved through North Africa at different times and from different directions, and the medieval geographers separate them cleanly.[original research?]
Hemp grown for fibre and seed was established across the Maghreb before the 10th century and was reported from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Tunis. Ibn Hawqal, travelling between 948 and 951, records cultivation in the Sous and around Carthage. Al-Idrissi, travelling between 1116 and 1137, adds Beni Warîfen in the Tenès region for seed and the Carthage region for textile hemp, and distinguishes the textile plant (qinnab) from the seed crop (šahdânaj).[1]
The resin plant came later and from the east, and Egypt is where it is first pinned down. Ibn Al-Baytar encountered it only in Egypt during his stay there between 1224 and 1227, and states that it did not exist in Andalusia; at that date the preparation was eaten rather than smoked.[1] Three centuries later it had reached the central Maghreb but not yet the far west: Leo Africanus, travelling between 1511 and 1519, describes hashish eating at Tunis and Constantine, and reports neither cultivation nor consumption in the Rif or the Jebala, which he crossed from west to east.[1]
The resin crop settled in its western end last. Bellakhdar places the shift that made the Rif a producing region in the 17th and 18th centuries, when growers found the resin more profitable than fibre and planted cultivars probably brought from eastern Algeria.[1] That is the crop the modern Moroccan industry descends from, and it is treated at Cannabis in Morocco.
Algeria, Tunisia and Libya carry parts of this record and are not yet documented here.
Countries
| Country | Capital | Legal status |
|---|---|---|
| Algeria | Algiers | Illegal (medical and scientific use licensed) |
| Egypt | Cairo | Illegal |
| Morocco | Rabat | Illegal (recreational) |
Growing regions
Growing areas
Accessions
| Accession ID | Name | Country | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACE-MAR-HOC-0120200001 | Morocco Beldia Kif Reproduction 2020 | Morocco | |
| Anon. s.n., Guémar (1858) | Herbarium specimen from the oasis of Guémar (1858) | Algeria | |
| Ascherson 2230 (1874) | Ascherson 2230 herbarium specimen, Al-Qasr, Dakhla Oasis (1874) | Egypt | |
| Barat s.n., Sig (1850) | Herbarium specimen from the Herbier Barat, Sig (1850) | Algeria | |
| Brichi s.n., Alger (1909) | Brichi herbarium specimen, Algiers (1909) | Algeria | |
| Calvo AQ2792 (2008) | Calvo AQ2792 herbarium specimen, Bab Taza (2008) | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| Chevalier 42218 (1931) | Chevalier herbarium specimen, Adrar (1931) | Algeria | |
| Davis 50730 (1970) | Davis 50730 herbarium specimen, Ketama (1970) | Morocco | Ketama |
| Dukerley s.n., Bône (s.d.) | Dukerley herbarium specimen, Annaba (undated) | Algeria | |
| Durando s.n., Sig (1850) | Durando herbarium specimen, Sig (1850) | Algeria | |
| Faurel s.n., Maison-Carrée (1930) | Faurel herbarium specimen, El Harrach (1930) | Algeria | |
| HCG-EGY-UNK-0120250001 | Egypt Sinai 2025 | Egypt | |
| HCG-MAR-UNK-0120220001 | Moroccan Beldia 2022 | Morocco | |
| Hernández s.n., Ketama (1987) | Hernández herbarium specimen, Ketama (1987) | Morocco | |
| Hooker s.n., Marocco (1871) | Hooker herbarium specimen, Marocco (1871) | Morocco | |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230001 | Bni Ahmed Charika 87 (Bni Ahmed) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230002 | Bni Ahmed Lgharbia 88 (Bni Mizar) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230003 | Oued Mmalha 89 (Oued Lmalha) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230004 | Bni Salah 90 (Taliouan) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230005 | Bab Taza 91 (Khzana) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230006 | Bni Drkoul 92 (Lkoub) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230007 | Iwan 94 (Alaoui) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ghomara |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230008 | Bab Barrad 95 (Bab Bered) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230009 | Tamourout 96 (Tamoror) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230010 | Bni Rzin 97 (Bni Rzin) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ghomara |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230011 | Mtiwa 98 (Kawarin) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ghomara |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230012 | Bni Smih 99 (Ikarouchn) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ghomara |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230013 | Dardara 100 (Akart) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230014 | Talambout 103 (Houama) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230015 | Stiha 104 (Keldet) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ghomara |
| INM-MAR-CHE-0520230016 | Fifi 105 (Al Hrayeq) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Chefchaouen |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0020220001 | Abdelghaya souahel 3 General Population 2022 | Morocco | |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0520230001 | Issaguen 63 (Issaguen) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0520230002 | Issaguen 64 (Ben El Meki) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0520230003 | Issaguen 65 (Dahbia) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0520230004 | Issaguen 66 (Arabi) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0520230005 | Issaguen 67 (Irmad) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0520230006 | Issaguen 68 (Assekssaf) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0520230007 | Issaguen 69 (Temouth) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0520230008 | Issaguen 70 (Azila) General Population 2023 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210001 | Snada 1 (Bni Chiker) General Population 2021 | Morocco | |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210002 | Snada 2 (Snada) General Population 2021 | Morocco | |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210003 | Zarkt 1 (Tizi Malloul) General Population 2021 | Morocco | |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210004 | Zarkt 2 (Tizi Malloul) General Population 2021 | Morocco | |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210005 | Zarkt 3 (Imachehouden) General Population 2021 | Morocco | |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210006 | Zarkt 4 (Bab Hakem) General Population 2021 | Morocco | |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210007 | Moulay ahmed cherif 1 (Ouarg) General Population 2021 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210008 | Moulay ahmed cherif 2 (Ouarg) General Population 2021 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210009 | Moulay ahmed cherif 3 (Tizi Tchen) General Population 2021 | Morocco | Ketama |
| INM-MAR-HOC-0920210010 | Moulay ahmed cherif 4 (Moulay Ahmed Cherif) General Population 2021 | Morocco | Ketama |
| ... further results | |||