I searched for Masisi on google maps 6hr trip, must be some really rough roads. They did have a picture of the area on maps. Looks kinda sketchy… you all should check it out
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Mike
My friend Kalamba and I was talking about an article about that Goma weed grows Masisi
I’m sure he sent you that info.
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The black pepper and green tea is similar to what I was getting from the Moroccan Beldia’s I grew.
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I mentioned the more central city neighborhoods of Muja and Mabanga because there are supposed to be Pygmies who are trying to integrate more there. Here’s another article, from earlier this year, where it says much of the same as the '17 Nat Geo one.
Toward the end, it has notes on several Pygmies who are living in that area, one apparently goes around with a cheap megaphone selling traditional medicines. If Kidete can’t get out to where the more rural ones are, somebody like that could be a good connection if he could find them.
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Howdy @Upstate, here are some of those aforementioned quotes:
In the Javadi Hills around North Arcot 'the plants are cut and carried bodily to the village threshing floor. There they are stored, the flower spikes and upper leaves being retained and the sticks thrown away. The selected heads are spread out for three to five hours in the best of the day to dry, and are then loosely rolled in the hand to work out such seed as may have been formed and to break up the leaf that remains. This working also causes the spikes to stick to one another to some extent. The broken leaf is then winnowed out, collected and powdered. The flower heads are then placed in a thin layer in a basket that has been dusted within with leaf powder, and are trodden by one or two men depending on the size of the basket. After the operator has passed over the layer four or five times, it is dusted with leaf powder, and a fresh layer of spikes is put into the basket on top of the other, and the treading is repeated. This process goes on till the basket is full. The contents are then turned out on to flat hard ground, and a stone is placed on the pile with other stones to add to the weight. The material is thus left for the night. Next morning each layer is taken off separately, broken up, and spread in the sun. Each piece is trodden and turned over from time to time. I’m the evening the pieces are again re-piled and weighted for the night, and the next day the process of exposure is repeated until the material is thoroughly dry. Great importance is attached to the thoroughness of the treading, the sufficiency of the pressing, and the completeness of the drying; the quality of the drug being said to depend on the manner in which those processes are carried out. If the latter are not dried sufficiently, they appear green and are of inferior quality, good ganja being brown.
It is interesting to note that Indians in Natal refer to “red (or brown) stuff.” In contrast to inferior “green stuff.” This could be a carry-over from India; it could also be a translation of the Zulu reference to ubomv, meaning red (or brown) versus uhlasa meaning green; or the Indian prototype referred to in the text above may have influenced the Zulu in their distinction between ripe versus immature, cured versus natural cannabis.
A second description of processing is relevant to our discussion:
In the Kistna district slightly north of the Javadi hills area just discussed, 'the plants are cut bodily and laid out in the field for three days to dry. On the fourth day they are tied in bundles of ten and piled head and tail. The heaps are opened and the bundles re-piled the next day, the process being repeated over several days. If the quantity is small the drying is done at the raiyat’s (village headman’s) house, but in all cases the crop is finally carried to his house. A month later the spikes are removed one by one, and spread out in the open for one night to soften and become pliable. In the morning the spikes are collected and put into gunny bags, being packed closely therein by a man treading them down. The procedure is then ready for sale.
Having come from areas where they could observe such preparations going on, the Indian migrants to Natal would have had little difficulty adjusting themselves to the conditions in coastal Natal. The living conditions to which these Indian laborers migrated allowed for much the same lifestyle. Most of them went to rural setting where they had their own gardens and adjacent uncultivated area. They also had private homes or facilities where the herb, if grown could be matured and prepared.
The above could possibly be the basis from which cobbing cannabis in Africa came to be. I also believe it could have been something else and that what we currently know of history is way off base. Many blessings and much love
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Here’s another entry:
Curing and Preparation for Selling
This final step by the grower before selling or consuming his cannabis is perhaps the most dependant in his skill at producing top grade cannabis. The desired product, insangu ebomvu, or “red dagga,” is the highest quality cannabis and fetches the highest prices on the market. In order to create insangu ebomvu from the fresh plants the leaves must be dried and cured with great care. Says one informant: “The leaves are stored in properly floored pits where they dry in the shade. The top of the pit is covered making sure that water does not enter to spoil the product yet leaving room for ingoing and outgoing air to ensure that moisture escaping from the leaves does not result in mold which would ruin the leaves.”
After harvesting, the cannabis is stored in pressed mealie bags and kept in a dry place far from the village…
Mr. Gasa varies the process somewhat: “Dagga clusters are reaped and dried on top of huts or roofs of houses until all the green stuff is out. It is then sprinkled with water and packed in air tight bags in which it is kept for six to eight weeks. It can thereafter be cut into pieces and smoked.” In some cases the clusters are shaken after drying so that the seeds fall off.
Finally, Mr. Gasa explained the recipe for ukuvundisa which literary means to make rich. “The cut branches and leaves are put in bags that are tightly closed and this is done to allow very little air in. From time to time the bags are opened and the dagga leaves are spread on the ground when there is sunshine. This dries the dagga and produces good quality insangu ebomvu.”
Many blessings and much love
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Thanks for sharing this 
Very interesting imo!
Me thinks that in these descriptions (or in translation) the terms leaf and flower (bud) might have been exchanged or mixed up sometimes…
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So neat. They use powdered leaf as if it were flour, to keep layers from sticking together. Thanks! Neat read.
Any idea what year this was?
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Fantastic post and many blessings for sharing! Wow. I’ve digested a lot of the old fermentation techniques and have come up with unique sweat procedures for cobs, bricks, thai sticks, and multi-step sweat/packing techniques in this vein but I’ve never come across such in depth account of the multi-step styles and more rhythmic processes. Truly thank you - if ever you want to talk on depth on these processes, I’m all ears and happy to share my experiences and experimentations.
Like others, it is my opinion 100% that the Black African Magic of old is not a strain to find (not to say there isn’t a specific strain known to the Pygmies or other groups), its a technique to be learned, to apply to the best potent NLD plants. And if the technique is combined, with true old world diverse cannabinoid profiles, and grown under proper sun in an environment known by the genetics - HERE is our ultimate prize 
Beautiful thread, and wonderful efforts all around. Inspiring to see magic in motion
Safest travels @Kidete
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Not my intention to derail the thread towards ferment techniques, but i wanted to leave some of these here for folks unfamiliar with the context of these products and techniques. Below are mostly Durban x Old Oaxacan, you can see green, red and black cures and the inbetweens of all 
CoyoteSmoke
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Hello @DragonflyCoyoteSmoke . Hey man if you would start a thread to illustrate your fermentation techniques, I am certain that many of us would find it very interesting. Please consider it. 
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Awesome posts @DragonflyCoyoteSmoke I don’t think they’re off topic to mention and show your “black magic” style fermentation work here casually but can only speak for myself.
Here is a thread you will probably enjoy, I don’t think I’ve seen you post in it yet so figure you might not have seen it yet:
Howdy @Upstate, in regards to the following:
Any idea what year this was?
I believe that earlier quoted text about harvesting and curing techniques was published in 1980. I think the techniques used and employed go back centuries in India and possibly elsewhere. I think it’s also why when the Colombian types that were made in a similar fashion showed up in the market, it was recognized for the style and technique as being black African magic even if it was possibly made in Colombia in more recent times. I think there are similar written accounts of large stacks of cannabis being prepared in a similar fashion in Colombia during it’s heyday as an epicenter of cannabis cultivation for the mass market. I don’t remember them being as detailed as the quotes above though. I think there may also be some great information about this sort of thing in the Indian Hemp Commission Report from back in the day.
Many blessings and much love
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Definately i’m agree with you brother
“Black magic african” isn’t a Strain
Just a bud cured technique.
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Cobbs are spectacular ways to extend your Buds… Loving all this info
Keep up the awesome work your doing @Kidete
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For sure. Ethiopia and India have historic ties for over 10 centuries, and it lasted many years. Ethiopia (Land of Kush or Cush) is fairly close to East Congo. Maybe there is a link. For sure fermentation has been around a long time. Hard to say how long it’s been used for cannabis though.
Heres a neat thought. Natural yeast occurs all over the place… Perhaps this potent Black Magic effect has something to do with trapped yeast making novel cannabinoids. Apples have naturally occurring yeast on their skins for instance. It is this yeast that made the hard cider that built America lol. (Maybe some good Ale too)
Maybe the yeast on certain leaves( corn husks or Banana leaves for example) adds the the fermentation effect. Awesome posts fellas. Yeast fermentation may be the answer to creating rare cannabinoids | Leafly
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I believe it 100%. I made some moldy cob once not good enough to use but it smelled exactly like brie cheese 
I think there’s real potential there.
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There are some interesting parallels between acid catalyzed isomerization used to synthesize THC from CBD and cob and other fermentation processes. Acetylation, methylation, decarboxylation, hydroxylation, oxidation, and other reactions are all potentially on the table with bacterial and fungal enzymes compatible with cannabinoids as well. On top of that you have cob process primarily being done with cannabis strains that express more diverse (and potent in some respects) cannabinoid profiles than modern hybrids, amplifying the effect when transformed through fermentation. And the possibility of additional non-cannabinoid psychoactivity from mycotoxins in certain ferments.
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Howdy @Upstate I went ahead and cross referenced the earlier mentioned quotes from the 1980 publication and found they seem to actually come from the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report 1893-1894, it was just summarized again in the 1980 publication Cannabis in Africa by Brian DuToit that I pulled the quotes from. Here’s another one from a different publication in 1969 by Kaplan where the information originally comes from the Indian Hemp Commission Report as well:
The manner of preparing ganja in Nepal is somewhat peculiar. The Drabar answers report that “when the plant is in the lata state, it is cut down and kept on the dew for about a week, and after that each lata is separately wrapped in a piece of fine plantain bark, and, being tightly tied with string, is put by. Some people flatten it by putting it under a piece of tat (gunny). Two or three days after this it becomes fit for use.”
The above sounds a lot like a sort of cobbing technique. It’s remarkable to read it’s a technique that used to be practiced in Nepal.
I had a bit of an epiphany with all of this. The past 100 years or so have basically been a dark age of cannabis and so much knowledge and understanding has been lost and/or forgotten due to global prohibition policies.
As for the yeast thing, that’s a bit beyond my current understanding. I can conceptualize the gist of it, but not yet the intricate details. I’ve read about endophytic fungi have beneficial and symbiotic relationships with cannabis but the technical aspect of those papers are still a bit over my head with regards to the different fungi being discussed. It’s postulated that these endophytic fungi share symbiotic relationships with cannabis and have the ability to mimic secondary metabolite production as well as other things for example biological processes like nitrogen fixation.
Here are the titles of the papers I have come across discussing endophytic relationships between fungi and cannabis:
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Cannabis Microbiome and the Role of Endophytes in Modulating the Production of Secondary Metabolites: An Overview by Taghinasab et al 2020
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Organically grown cannabis Cannabis sativa L. plants contain a diverse range of culturable epiphytic and endophytic fungi in inflorescences and stem tissues by Punja 2023
Many blessings and much love
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This idea of fermenting cannabis with naturally occuring local yeast and fungi is blowing my mind ! 
If these theories are correct this is the exact model as the wine industry. This could be the path to an entirely novel way of producing a cannabis product that expresses the “ Terroir “ of your specific location. A true “ craft “ smoke that can not be duplicated anywhere else. We need to pursue and develope this idea as a community. 
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Now this cat see’s the path I’m on and trying to blaze 
I couldn’t agree more that these techniques, with the “right” genetics will transform the industry and birth the conniseur market. A true one. Not one that can be claimed by a name of a strain or a held cut…truly the whole picture and execution. The seed, the grow, and the endless pathways of curing, long term cellaring, all affected directly by the local environment and the IMO and other factors it provides.
Possibly I will create my own thread soon, I havent seen many of the techniques I use discussed. Though, as to the establishment of the concept above…there is reason I’ve kept much tight
@Sbeanonnamellow thank you much for passing that link along. Ive spent most of my time dedicated to lurking in Tangwenas ICMag thread, and nearing the completion of 445 pages or so haha! I’ve felt obligated to finish my time there before posting in it or other of the fermentation threads. I surely will begin participating there soon I’ve been quite busy developing many many techniques and styles
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