ABSTRACT

The only food crops of African origin that are known to have been diffused to Eurasian areas in pre-Columbian times are four millets (Hilu and de Wet 1976; de Wet 1977).1 Originating mainly (perhaps exclusively) in inland Northeast Mrica and, with one small exception, probably comprising all the original eastern African cereals, these millets spread in different ways. One of them, teff (Eragrostis te/), did not go further than Ethiopia and Yemen. The other three, sorghum (Sorghum bieolor), finger millet (Eleusine eoracana) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaueum), were carried both to many African areas and to more distant parts of the Old World.