Cannabis use is confined to Rwanda's Twa minority

Helen Codere’s fieldwork in Rwanda in 1959–1960 found cannabis use virtually confined to the men of the Twa, a despised minority of less than one percent of the population.^[1] The expectation that strong doses caused violent behaviour, smoking methods designed to produce such effects, and the link between Twa cannabis use and the group’s low social status combined to prevent its spread to the non-Twa 99 percent.^[1]

A photograph that smoked out the data

Cannabis — called injaga in Kinyarwanda — was never directly asked about.^[1] It surfaced among the answers of 252 Rwandans shown six photographs of traditional and modern scenes; the one that yielded cannabis commentary from 113 respondents showed a Twa man holding the gourd water-pipe special to cannabis-smoking.^[1] Respondents simply said whatever they wanted about each picture, during a revolution fought under great social tension, which is why the procedure had to stay neutral and unalarming.^[1]

Growing it hidden, smoking it hard

Injaga was grown concealed in the middle of patches of tall crops such as maize or sorghum, then dried and powdered after harvest.^[1] It was generally smoked in a special gourd water-pipe called urumogi: the tube filled first with injaga, often mixed with powdered charcoal, then little pebbles topped with glowing coals, the pipe set into a gourd partly filled with water.^[1] Twa dancers reportedly used a small clay pipe like a tobacco pipe, and Twa women smoked by emptying half the tobacco from a cigarette and refilling it with injaga — a different method from the men’s.^[1]

It had been smoked in the old days before fighting and hunting, especially elephant hunting, but use was not restricted to special occasions: mornings and evenings were the times for smoking it.^[1] The Twa reportedly had a ritual to make the injaga as powerful as possible, taking deep frequent inhalations that made the pipe water bubble loudly and produced clouds of smoke.^[1] Eyewitnesses said smokers’ faces poured with perspiration and their eyes turned very red; strength was desired, and the method aimed at a heavy dose in a brief time.^[1] Small amounts were instead said to banish fatigue and physical pain.^[1]

The violence depositions

Eyewitnesses reported the usual outcome as physical violence toward others — wild, mindlessly fearless, and undiscriminating, directed at a wife, a friend, a Tutsi protector, or whoever was about.^[1] A Twa woman of 28 said her husband nearly died from a lance wound received in a fight after smoking, and wished “once and for all to keep our husbands from smoking that terrible tobacco”.^[1] A Tutsi man described Twa smoking after a house ceremony and fighting so viciously they left two corpses; another told of Twa at Nzega attacking shops “wanting to kill a Hindu named Merali and a Swahili”.^[1] One smoker in the revolutionary days “became half crazy and just missed killing us though all the while he was proclaiming ‘Defend the Tutsi!’”.^[1]

Of 113 opinions, 99 were wholly against smoking, only one Twa man made an unqualifiedly favourable statement — “Injaga is strengthening. The Twa are very strong, because they smoke it” — and 13 gave mixed views.^[1] Reasons in favour cited strength, courage, fatigue dispelled, and rheumatism helped; reasons against centred on the violence it produced, labelled crazy and senseless.^[1]

Why it never spread

Codere’s conclusion is structural, not pharmacological.^[1] Injaga smoking sat on the list of Twa practices the Tutsi and Hutu saw as uncontrolled, excessive, almost animal-like — while the Twa themselves read the same list as proof of their distinctive talents and stronger appetites.^[1] The reported heavy-dosage methods, the expected and sought-after strong effects, and the attendant violence were all consistent and mutually reinforcing.^[1] The system insulated over 99 percent of Rwandans, who “remain quite content with their beer and with not being Twa”.^[1]

The alcohol contrast sharpens the point: native beers accompanied all sociability, even children received sorghum beer, “the milk of the poor” — while cannabis intoxication, unlike drunkenness, was disapproved as a state.^[1] With few exceptions respondents associated use with Twa men alone; rare notes mention Congolese and Bashi users, occasional medicinal use among Hutu and Tutsi by different methods, and one note of Twa women smoking.^[1]