Dagga () is a word used in certain areas of

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

to describe

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

flower. The term, dating to the 1660s, derives from the word ''daxa'' in the

Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...

language used to describe the plant as well as various species of

Leonotis ''Leonotis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the Family (biology), family Lamiaceae.Raymond M. Harley, Sandy Atkins, Andrey L. Budantsev, Philip D. Cantino, Barry J. Conn, Renée J. Grayer, Madeline M. Harley, Rogier P.J. de Kok, Tatyana V. Kr ...

. The leaves of specifically the

Leonotis leonurus ''Leonotis leonurus'', also known as lion's tail and wild dagga, is a plant species in the mint family, Lamiaceae. The plant is a broadleaf evergreen large shrub native to South Africa, where it is very common.

resemble the cannabis leaf and is known locally as wild dagga. The word has been spelled many different ways over time as various groups of people began using the term and some examples of these are: ''daggha, dacha, dacka, dagha, tagga, dachka, daga''. According to the ''Oxford Dictionary'', ''dagga'' was also used by the Khoekhoe to describe the sensation of intoxication.

Etymology

While it's fairly well known that the first written use of the term was in

Jan van Riebeeck Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator, ambassador and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company. Life Early life Jan van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg on 21 April ...

’s journal in 1658 and spelled ''daccha'', it was most likely as a reference to the indigenous " wild dagga" that has a similar leaf shape with the jagged edges. The two plants have a very different flower however and some scholars have questioned people's inability to tell them apart. Another theory put forward by two scholars (Hahn and Lichtenstein) in 1963 proposed that the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

word for

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, ''tabak'', which was then referred to as ''twak'', was morphed over time into ''twaga'' and later to ''toaga'' and finally into ''dagga''. Brian du Toit, in his book, ''Cannabis in Africa'' (1980) disagreed suggesting the Khoekhoe word ''daXa-b'' (tobacco), is the root noun from which the word ''dagga'' was derived. Their word for green is ''!am'' and when added to ''daXa-b'' it resulted in ''amaXa-b'' namely green tobacco. This theory is supported by Jean Branford, who in her 1978 book, ''A Dictionary of South African English'' drew similar conclusions.

1940s–present

In 1948, the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

came to power; they, like their predecessors, continued the

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

of the plant. Being an

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

political party and given that the phonetic ‘ga’ already expressed disgust in the language, they embraced the use of the word to extend criticism towards the drug and anyone that used it. This gave ''dagga'' a social stigma over time and as such, most pro-cannabis enthusiasts still refuse to use it. This has changed in more recent times as people involved in the anti-prohibition movement such as the

Dagga Couple The Dagga Couple or DC is a pro-cannabis lobbyist organisation from South Africa founded by Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke after the two were arrested for the Possession of a controlled substance, possession and Drug dealer, dealing in the subs ...

and the Dagga Party "reclaim" the word in an attempt to remind people of its history and meaning.

External links

Online Etymology Dictionary: Dagga

References

{{Cannabis, state=collapsed Cannabis culture Cannabis in South Africa English words Etymologies

Etymology

1940s–present

See also

External links

References