ØTwo further observations;
ØDespite the great accumulation of data in
Rossel (1998) the
linguistic evidence does not support her conclusion of a late spread of plantains associated with
Islam.
ØThere is, moreover, no purely linguistic evidence for an east-west spread of the plantain across
the continent as proposed
by Murdoch, Simmonds and De Langhe in various forms.
ØThe introduction of the ‘tropical food
kit’, despite its enormous
impact on the peopling of Africa, remains unresolved, and only further phytolith
analysis is likely to shed
light on this issue.