Weed Central

Can you guess what type of plant is pictured above? This picture was taken outside of a village where I worked in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho. The reason I’m posting this photo is that I’m currently knee deep in data (quantitative and qualitative) from my interviews, surveys, and group discussion work and what I’m discovering is that the data from communities where this plant is cultivated is markedly different from those villages where it isn’t cultivated (for a variety of reasons). It will be interesting to see the final results. Matekoane/dagga/marijuana is more of a social and economic driver than I originally thought. I guess I shouldn't be too shocked considering all the nice cars and land rovers with Gauteng plates (Johannesburg/Pretoria region) I saw plying the backroads.