TABLE OF CONTENTS

STAPLE FOOD PLANTING SEASON
CROP ROTATION SIZE OF FARMS

The Mambila have many different kinds of crops of which the chief are: maize, guinea-corn, millet; groundnuts and beans; cassava, sweet potatoes (H. Dan Kali), 'carrots' (H. risga), kokoyam (H. gwaza) pumpkins (H.-----); and plantains and bananas; peppers, okro.
Ingredients of soup. The leaves used for soup are those of many kinds of green vegetables, pumpkin leaves, bean leaves, kokoyam leaves, cassava, sweet potatoes and pepper leaves, okro fruit and leaves and a kind of plant similar to okro which is prepared like this: the plant skin is peeled and the plant soaked in water which then takes on a flavour very like okro

Staple food.
The staple food of the Mambilas is maize and guinea-corn, and they like no other foodstuff so well. When the women want to prepare either of these, they first of all pound and grind the grains into flour. Then they put a pot of water on the fire and when it boils the flour is poured in. It must then be well stirred and mixed with a stick; after which it is ready for eating. Maize can be eaten roasted on the cob when it is fresh, but not afterwards when it is dry.
The second favourite foodstuff is kokoyam. When the time for kokoyams comes the children will be very glad because of its delicious taste; and it is filling too so that when you have eaten you do not get hungry again so soon. They love it too because you cannot eat it without much soup. This is how the women prepare it: the skins are peeled off and the main kokoyams can then be cooked and pounded in the pot, and when well pounded can be divided up according to how much is wanted. The kokoyams can also be roasted without the skins being peeled and eaten without soup.
For travellers the best foods are bananas and sweet potatoes. When a woman wishes to prepare these, the skins are peeled off and they are cooked: then more water is added and when that is boiling maize or guinea-corn flour is added to the pot. This is well mixed up and is very tasty. For travelling or selling, however, the sweet potatoes are cooked in their skins, either roasted or boiled, and then they can be easily carried. Bananas are usually stored until they ripen, then sold, few being eaten. Pumpkins are treated in much the same way as bananas, but before preparation the seeds are removed, and these make the best ingredients for soup. Groundnuts are also used as an ingredient for soup and they can be eaten raw or cooked. They are mostly used for soup, and not much for chewing. They are also sold, but not much.
Cassavas and yams are very little grown, and mostly sold, since they do not know how to prepare them properly. Cassava roots are roasted or boiled with or without the skin, and yams are simply cooked, and if eaten, eaten without soup. Carrots, on the other hand, are a most popular food, and are usually prepared and eaten in the same way as for bananas and pumpkins. They can also be peeled and eaten raw or cooked.
Unfortunately they do not know how to prepare beans for eating, and are only concerned with the leaves. The beans are kept for seed. Millet is specially kept for corn beer, but sometimes they prepare it in the same way as maize or guinea-corn as 'tawo'. Plantains are not eaten but only sold. Their staple diet is maize or corn tawo, eaten with the soup as mentioned above. Planting Seasons. Maize is planted first, at the beginning of the farming year, when the fields are cleared and ploughed. This is mainly the women's job. A man who has an idle wife or mother may help in this work, but this is disliked by the priests. Planting of maize starts from late April and it is harvested in August.
During this period groundnuts and yams may also be planted. Yams will be interplanted with maize but groundnuts are planted in separate fields.
In May, Okro, sweet potatoes and pumpkins are planted.
July is the time for planting guinea-corn. This is usually planted in the same field as the maize. First they give the maize fields a thorough weeding and heap the weeds on the ridges, or on occasion make cross ridges with them. Then they add more soil on top of the weeds and plant the guinea-corn. By this time the maize is almost ready to harvest and as soon as it is ready they cut off the cobs. Some people leave the corn stalks standing until the guinea-corn is ready for its first weeding, but others remove them when they harvest the maize.
During this period, more groundnuts, and beans, cassava, and carrots are planted. Bananas and plantains are planted round the compound. Some people plant bananas in their farms but not more than 1/3 of their plants. About December corn is nearly ready for harvest. When it is cut some people will clear an acre or two and plant kokoyams which will be ready the following July. Crop Rotation. In one year a farm will carry maize and guinea-corn as explained above. Usually after this the farm will be left fallow under a 'Yum' (xxxxxxx) crop for 3 years, and then planted with maize and guinea-corn again. This rotation will be varied by the planting of kokoyams on parts of the cleared guinea-corn farm, as explained above.
When the kokoyams are harvested the following July they may either be left fallow for 3 years, or more often vegetables will be planted, as they do well on a kokoyam field, and they will then continue to be planted for many seasons - as long as they do well in fact.
Carrots are grown on the steep slopes where they do much better than in ill-drained valleys, and the same plot may be farmed for 2-3 seasons running before being left to a natural grass fallow.
Cassavas are planted on hard ground on hill-tops, and as groundnuts, are generally grown for 2 seasons running on the same plot. Okro on the other hand is a 'parasitic crop' and only grows in fields where other crops are planted. It has no field of its own. Size of Farms. Before a family begins to farm they first of all see how many of them there are in the family. Each one of the family must have a share but not as much as the mother of the family. This is how the father of the family will divide up the family farmland. If their land is about 10 acres in all, the mother will have 6 or 7 acres. From this she will feed the family and sell enough to buy salt and oil for preparing soup. The father will have about 112 acres, and the children will divide the remainder. From his share the father will earn the money for tax, and the children will begin to acquire household goods, cooking pots, etc. The children will help the mother and father on their farms.
A rich family may have 2 or 3 times this amount of land and wealth is measured in land. Those who have too much land may sell it, but not for money. The currency is hoes or dogs or goats. Formerly the currency was slaves. If a family found themselves with many children, they would take some and exchange them for land. Sometimes if a family is too poor to pay for land they will borrow it for a year or two. It is these poor families in which trouble usually occurs over the allocation of land, each person expecting the best bits and fighting if he doesn't get them. People may live happily with their neighbours for years until a quarrel arises over farmland, after which all relationships are severed.
The families with much land nowadays are generally those which had the largest numbers in old times. Women do most of the planting, after the priest has planted the first few rows of the crop suitable for the season.