ABSTRACT

The Island of Réunion, presently a French Department, in the Indian Ocean, has a polyethnic population of diverse origins: the descendants of African slaves and indentured laborers from India (principally from the south); Chinese and Europeans (principally from metropolitan France).

Cannabis, known as zamal, grown in cane fields and gardens, has been used ritually and medicinally, but these usages appear to be disappearing. Traditional secular use continues clandestinely among certain ethnic groups. Contacts with metropolitan France and the changing social structure have introduced "modern" uses of zamal, as a narcotic, among literary circles and groups of young people. The man-plant relationship differs in the ritual and narcotic uses.

Cannabis grows very well on the island of Réunion; it is relatively widespread in several regions, particularly in the mid-altitude zones of the western part of the island. Its use is rare but apparent in a wide variety of forms and in multivaried contexts related to the close articulation between the plant and the social and cultural diversity of the island. The multiplicity of current social changes is particularly well illuminated by the varied significance that the plant assumes in different contexts. The coexistence of different patterns and cultural traditions of cannabis use in such a small territory, within a polyethnic society, affords a grasp of the major values and functions attached to the plant in terms of individual and social consequences of its use.

The introduction of cannabis to Réunion is apparently quite ancient, but there is no precise documentation on this subject. The name most often used to refer to cannabis is zamal, which seems to be of Malagasy (Madagascar) origin, but is not found in present-day Malagasy vocabulary. Chaudenson (1973) notes that the word jamala is mentioned by R. Drury in his Vocabulaire de la langue de Madagascar, published in 1729, in the western part of Madagascar, at a time when the peopling of the island of Réunion, previously a desert, had only just begun. Regarding a crime committed on Réunion in 1830 by a Malay, an historian of Réunion (Meerlsman [18951) writes that the assassin "had smoked Amale to get his head high" before committing the crime.

It is probable that zamal was introduced to the island along with the slaves brought in from Madagascar. Consequently, the term "zamal" became current in Réunion, and seems to have been rediffused to Madagascar through immigration from Réunion. The term is not found in Mauritius, however, though this island is quite close to Réunion; the Mauritians use the word ganja. In Mauritius, traditional social functions of the plant are related exclusively to the Indian domain, the significant Indian presence provides a contrast to the situation in Réunion where African and Indian cultural currents meet.

I. ETHNIC GROUPS AND USE OF CANNABIS

The ethnic composition of Réunion is quite complex. On two thousand square kilometers there are more than 450,000 people, descendants of waves of migrants who began to intermarry at the end of the seventeenth century. The colonists came from Europe, their descendants, numbering several tens of thousands, occupy the highlands principally. The ascendancy of sugar cane cultivation at the beginning of the nineteenth century created a demand for manual labor that increased the importation of African and Malagasy slaves, and later of indentured laborers from the south of India. While the rate of European immigration was slowed down, it never actually ceased, and is now on the rise because of the status of Réunion, which has been a French department since 1946. Paralleling the migrant waves of population, other diverse groups, mostly minorities, were formed. Chinese immigrants spread throughout the island, taking over almost all of the food-trade business; Muslim Indians still closely attached to their region (Surat, in the Marastrya), have for three or four generations formed solid urban business communities; laborers from the Comores, more recent arrivals, constitute an urban sub-proletariat.

Outside these minorities, the different subgroups do not constitute a clearly contrasting society. Both legislation and official ideology, to the contrary, favor the integration of ethnic groups into the dominant culture, which is Creole and French. Without doing away with differences, this situation often masks them, and ensures transitions through which cultural particulars can be easily diffused. Each group — Indian (Malbar), European (white and Zoreil), African and Chinese — is thus open to influences from its neighbors, while still retaining certain ethnic and cultural traits.

While the use of zamal thus follows different patterns, associated with the origins of the different cultural components of the island, it also undergoes transformations through inter-ethnic contacts and contemporary social change.

(a) Ritual uses. It is in ceremonies related to Indian and Malagasy religions that the use of cannabis has retained some of the traits closest to those that characterized it in the societies of origin. But these uses are now quite limited and are gradually disappearing.

The Malagasy of Réunion, quite small in number, have intermarried with the colored creole population on a considerable scale, and in no way form a community. But certain magical activities and, more and more rarely, annual feasts marked by the sacrifice of cows, bring together people who have Malagasy ancestors, and thus call themselves "creoles" and "cafres" (Kaffir) with whom they are often confused. During these feasts, cannabis cigarettes are smoked communally. In the eyes of the creoles, this activity leads to violent behavior and gives the Malagasy people a reputation of brutality. The creole expression, son zamal y monte [his zamal is rising] signifies "he is getting angry."

In the few areas where the population of Malagasy origin is relatively numerous, the use of zamal, while clandestine, seems to be rather regular and provides a source of supply for other ethnic groups who pass through the area.

The Indians of Réunion lead a very active religious life. There are numerous temples throughout the island; however, while the faithful are mostly of Indian extraction, they come from all of the other ethnic groups on the island as well.

These Indians who are mostly from South India, practice beliefs profoundly marked by Tamil-Nadu village traditions. While the principal Hindu divinities (Shiva, Vishnu) are rather insignificant in local cults, the divinities that are strictly south-Indian rank quite high (Mariama, Madurai-veran, Karupuswami, and various forms related to Shiva, the Muni or Mini). The cult of Kali also has some following. It may, therefore, be concluded that we are dealing with Dravidian cults associated with the Sivaite trend of Hinduism. The priest-healer is possessed during certain ceremonies, and it is at this point that cannabis intervenes.

The religious role, as well as the social functions of cannabis, differs profoundly from what has been observed in the north of India. Only the possessed priest, in the course of specific possessions, is allowed to use the plant. He does not use zamal to initiate possession but, on the contrary, only after possession has occurred. The first words of "the spirit" spoken through his lips are to acclaim "candia." At this point, an assistant quickly places in the mouth of the priest one to three tobacco cigarettes, which he smokes at a very rapid rate. Only in certain circumstances (pos. session by Madurai-veran or by Mini) is the cigarette, the "candia" actually made from zamal. It is then called "ciga."

The terminological change that brought about, in Réunion, the naming as "candia" any cigarette offered to the gods or to the spirits and the subclassification as "ciga" any "candia" containing ramai reflects an important peculiarity about the anticipated effects of the plant. The priest smokes only when he is possessed by the spirit. His actions are then those of the spirit, who is often represented in the process of, smoking zamal (see Plates). But smoking ramai is as natural for the gods as smoking cigarettes is for man. The possessed priest, consequently, must feel nothing and in no case must reveal any effects of the drug: this indifference is the sign of possession. By demonstrating that he is not affected by a drug accessible only to the gods, the priest shows that he has entered their universe. He can thus act as they do, or can at least act as an intermediary between gods and men.

The ritual use of ramai as a test, analogous to the ordeal of walking on hot coal, or performing the knife dance, extremely limits its secular use. It does happen that some young men finish the "ciga" begun by the priest, but, in the Indian community, the sacred role of the plant and the awe accompanying it, constrain its widespread use. On the other hand, the sacred role of the plant in communication with the spirits, a role it shares with other plants, has given it an important place in home gardens and in the pharmacopoeia.

(b) Traditional secular uses. Planted in home gardens or in sugar cane fields, zamal served a therapeutic function, magical as well as pharmaceutical. It scared off certain evil spirits and was also used in infusions prepared by the healers. The rigorous laws made the healers cautious in their choice of herbs and zarnal has now been replaced by less dangerous plants in the preparation of medicinal infusions.

Boiled roots were used to reduce infants' vomiting, and an infusion of the leaves was used to rid one of fever, but these uses also have now practically disappeared. Several roots of ramai are still occasionally planted in a field, particularly where squash is grown to rid the area of parasitic insects.

In veterinary medicine, it is quite common to pulverize zamal leaves in the drinking water of chickens to prevent contagious and infectious diseases. Zamal is also used for the aggressive properties it is supposed to impart: the leaves are pounded and mixed into the food of dogs to make them vicious; fighting cocks are sometimes given tiny balls to eat, made of a mixture of minced onions and zamal leaves to make them combative.

Human consumption of the plant, outside of religious ceremonies, seems always to have been somewhat limited. Known by all, experimented with by many adolescents in the fields, it has never posed a major problem. Two sociocultural trends seem to have coexisted for a long time, which are the bases of present-day forms of consumption of the plant: consumption by agricultural workers as opposed to consumption by the elite, and these two trends scarcely ever coincide.

It is still recalled that some old Indians, from the region of Calcutta, who smoked for pleasure, placed zamal in a small coconut filled with water. But this usage has disappeared. The majority of the Indians, of Tamil extraction, regard the drug with some reticence, while insisting that it would not present the same dangers for them that it would for other ethnic groups: "When the creole or Malagasy people smoke zamal, they become wicked, but not the Malbars, they are more level-headed." Zamal seems to have been used for a long time especially in certain shanty-towns.

Some individuals in the countryside, white or creoles of color, prepared zamal cigars. Mature, almost yellow, leaves were gathered and mixed with tobacco leaves. The mixture was then washed in water in which citron had been boiled. A mixture of honey and alcohol was then poured copiously over the leaves, and they were placed in a press to dry out for a month. The dry mixture was then pounded and smoked in ordinary pipes. Cigarettes have tended to replace such preparations.

On the other hand, some Réunion writers were influenced by Baudelaire, Théophile Gautier, and Maurice Magre. Impressed by the Indian ceremonies in which the plant played a significant role in communication with the supernatural, they formed small groups which added the poetic exaltation of zamal to the use of the plant as a drug. Several literary works resulted (M. A. Leblond, Sortilèges [Charms]; J. Albany (1951, 1970] Zamal), glorifying zamal in the poetic-mystical manner of French poets. Zamal became both the symbol and the means of rejection of the most rigid forms of Western thought, mixed with an Indian point of view that valued its mystics. This current of thought seems to have lasted until around 1950, and to partly underly present ideological trends.

II. APPEARANCE OF NEW MODES OF CONSUMPTION

Réunion has seen considerable social changes in the period since the 1950s. Having become a French department, it has received an unprecedented influx of money that produced a new middle class, supported by public works and the tertiary sector.

At the same time, secondary education has broadly expanded, while the urban population has grown more rapidly than that of the country areas, giving rise to the peri-urban proliferation of shanty-towns. High wages created economic and social problems leading some employers to hire manual laborers from outside the island (from the Comores), thus creating a doubly marginal sub-proletariat. During this period also, continental French from all geographical and social levels have been coming to Réunion in increasing numbers, along with their families. And flights between the island and Mauritius have multiplied.

Zamal cannot be considered apart from these changes. In many respects the new society has created a milieu much more favorable to use of the plant than was the preceding one. Discreetly at first, and then more and more overtly, new modes of use have begun to appear. Here again, the two principal trends can be found, the sub-proletarian ana the elitist.

The former has mainly attracted the workers from the Comores, enclaved in densely populated communities in shanty-towns outside of Port and the capital, Saint-Denis. They have ties with the vendors from Mauritius and collaborate with them in the collection of cannabis from the countryside; part of the cannabis crop is clandestinely exported to Mauritius. The cigarette seems to be the principal mode of use in this group, and most of the users are male, but precise data on the extent of use are lacking.

The other trend is the indirect result of the extremely rapid social mobility by means of education, affecting a large portion of Réunion's youth. Following an ideology reminiscent of that of the late nineteenth-century poets, groups of continental youth, and students from the lycées, began to smoke on the beach or outside the schools. They have had no difficulty in procuring the drug which grows quite freely in many places. These young people have been joined by musicians from dance orchestras, prostitutes, and marginal individuals, both continental and creole. There is great variation in the methods of use. Many young people are only occasional users; others tend to form groups of habitual users.

The authorities have decided to deal quietly in regard to legal trials and sanctions. They feel, and rightly so, that the phenomenon does not present a social menace, and that any exaggeration of the conflict would lead to results quite opposed to those that might be desired.

Clinical observations of the phenomenon are also rare. The psychiatric hospital has received groups of youthful smokers on only two occasions. The first group, committed by the police in 1971, consisted of young people who met in a house to smoke zamal cigarettes. They had been initiated by members of a travelling Mauritian orchestra and were harvesting zamal themselves in fields on the eastern part of the island. The decision of the psychiatrists was to not admit them to the hospital and only to exercise some surveillance over them. The group quickly quit smoking.

In 1973, another group presented a more serious problem. Several boys and girls between seventeen and twenty years old had formed a community for two years, led by a woman from France, an artist with a strong personality. She was hospitalized for a psychotic episode, and the entire group joined her soon afterward. After an investigation by the police, they were all still smoking numerous cigarettes daily. Following brief hospitalization, they were all sent home under surveillance.

These two cases serve to illustrate the new pattern, which in its general aspects is similar to that which has been observed elsewhere in the world with regard to marihuana. It is clearly opposed to the traditional island pattern, as well as to that of the urban sub-proletariat. Moreover, it seems that the reactions of society are relatively moderate because of the weak lines of communications between the two groups of users. The separation which is elsewhere apparent between social classes, and which drug usage continues to bring into question, is emphasized in Réunion by a more radical separation, to the extent that the sub-proletarian class of Comores does not participate at all in the same activities as the other members of society. At the same time, ritual uses have regressed to the point of being purely symbolic.

Thus, the relationship between man and the plant has evolved in close correlation with relationships between different groups of men. In a society in which division into ethnic and cultural groups is less significant than class structure, the use of cannabis moves from forms profoundly marked by the cultural antecedents of particular ethnic groups to forms characteristic of social classes and age groups. This realignment is closely related to that in other countries under metropolitan influences. The specific aspects of Réunion society alter these generalizations in a relatively slight manner aside from the almost absolute barrier separating the Comores from the rest of the population.

It would be erroneous to consider cannabis as an isolated phenomenon In Réunion. Furthermore, interesting as it may be to observe as a cultural phenomenon, it must be emphasized that cannabis is completely overshadowed by the formidable problem of alcoholism.

The contrast between cannabis societies and alcohol societies, emphasized throughout this volume, shows up quite clearly here. In Réunion alcoholism is more widespread than in most countries of the world. The real cultural choice between alcohol and cannabis has yet to be explained, in a country where both are easily accessible and neither is costly. The relationship between this choice and the influence of legislation, which in Reunion favors alcohol, must be carefully studied.

REFERENCES

ALBANY, J.
1951 Zamal. Paris: Bellenand.
1970 "Vavangue." Unpublished manuscript, Paris.

CHAUDENSON, R.
1973 Le lexique du parler creole de la Réunion, two volumes. In press.

MEERLSMAN, R. P.
[18951 "Histoire de la Paroisse de St-Gilles-les-Hauts." Unpublished manuscript.