ABSTRACT
Bananas (Musa spp.) are the great staple food crop of southern Uganda (Fig. 1). In 1958 they occupied a total area of over 1,200,000 acres and supplied the main subsistence of roughly 2,500,000 people, or 35 per cent of the total population of Uganda. Banana cultivation also supports densities of population well above the average for the country. In many areas, where the crop is paramount, densities of over 200 persons per square mile are frequent, rising in central Buganda to over 500 per square mile, and among the Gisu of the western slopes of Mount Elgon it reaches 1,000 per sq uare mile. The close association between banana cultivation and the Bantu-speaking tribes is demonstrated by Figs. 1 and 2. The nature of the association varies. The dominant importance of bananas is most clearly marked among the largest single tribe, the Ganda. This is true both of the past (1) and the present. A similar relationship continues into Tanganyika among the Haya of Bukoba District. The traditional dominance of bananas in the agriculture of the Soga and the Amba is also attested by Fallers (2) and Winter (3) respectively. Today, bananas are also the staple crop of the Gisu, although the extent of their former reliance upon them is uncertain (4). Among many of the remaining Bantuspeaking tribes of southern Uganda, notably the Nyoro, Toro, Ankole, Hororo and Gwere, the status of bananas is somewhat different. Formerly they appear to have been of subsidiary importance to finger millet (Eleusine coracana), but in the present century banana cultivation has expanded steadily in both acreage and popularity.
