Title: African Plant Explorer (15 minutes)
Producer: Gary Hochman

“When I look at plants, I see both food and medicine. In fact, sometimes the two are intertwined. That is, what is eaten as food can have medicinal effects, and sometimes what we're calling a medicine, actually is also a food.”
– Fatimah Jackson

Biological anthropologist Fatimah Jackson takes viewers on an exotic journey from her lab at the University of Maryland to Uganda in central Africa as she studies how one of the world’s most popular root crops, cassava, can be used as both food and medicine. Traveling with her 10-year-old son, Hasan, Fatimah teams up with horticulturist Olivia Maganyi, curator of the Makarere University herbarium, to conduct her research. Together, they travel to cassava research fields, outdoor markets, an international convention, and a rural farm to exchange views in English and Swahili with scientists, villagers, and farmers.

Introduction to the video

It's really remarkable, isn't it? The tree is so tall. How many stories do you think that it is?

Ummm...about...seven?

About seven stories, you think?

Hey, wait a minute. Ahh.

There is this one.

Yes, yes.

When I look at plants I see both food and medicine.

(Conversation with vendor.)

So many fruits and vegetables. It's really nice. When I look at plants, I see cures for diseases. I see help for famine. When I look at plants I see great potential.

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