Join us for the first presentation in the Fall 2017 CNM*UNM LAS Lecture Series as professor Chris Duvall presents "¿Qué es marihuana? And Why It's Important to Know." In global popular culture, marijuana traces to Mexico.  This popular knowledge is inaccurate: Marijuana traces to Africa.  In this presentation, Duvall will excavate the plant drug's African past, as the foundation upon which Latin American cannabis cultures-from Argentina to New Mexico-arose historically.  Recognizing marijuana's African heritage is important for three reasons.  First, recognizing its African past challenges the enduring habit of denying African contributions to world culture, a legacy of slavery and racism.  Second, by specifying marijuana's African heritage, it becomes clear that drug use has been linked to specific social conditions for centuries, not cultural heritage or race.  Stereotypes about drug use have enabled drug-law enforcement that is biased against ethnic, linguistic, and racial minorities.  Finally, recognizing marijuana's African past exposes social and cultural inequities that have not been addressed in current debates about marijuana's legality in the U.S. and elsewhere.  This presentation features his collection of historic images of cannabis drug use, and anticipates his forthcoming book, Mariamba: African Roots of Marijuana.  

Duvall is an Associate Professor in the UNM Department of Geography and Environmental Studies. His research focuses on human-plant interactions, primarily in Africa and amongst the African Atlantic Diaspora.  His current work focuses on the historical geography of cannabis.  Dr. Duvall's publications on the topic include the book Cannabis (Reaktion Books, 2015), and an article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History.  His forthcoming book on the historical geography of cannabis in the Atlantic World is Mariamba: African Roots of Marijuana (Duke University Press, expected 2018).