Red Kaolin

Malawi – MW001A
Composition: Clay
Colour: Red
Shape: Raw

Earthy, dusty, smooth, a bit sticky, with sand and tiny rocks. Melts in the mouth with a feeling of oasis in the desert.

This sample was shipped from the UK. It was purchased through Amazon and added to the collection of the Museum of Edible Earth in May 2022.

The earth is described as kaolin edible clay chunks on the webpage of the seller. According to the vendor, it has unique toxin absorbing properties and nutritional benefits and it helps with digestion. Along with other African edible clays of unknown origins the seller also offers a variety of African drinks, soap, sweets and coffee. The website of the seller has the motto, “from the warm heart of Africa”.

Various scientists talk about eating earth practices in Malawi. It is reported that it is surprising for a pregnant woman not to practice geophagy since it is believed that it is how a woman knows that she is pregnant. In scientific research published in Malawi Medical Journal in 2011a number of local edible earth materials have been examined. The research showed that those samples have nutritive potential, while there also might be harmful aspects.

According to the publication in Malawi Medical Journal, soils are eaten by both rural and urban pregnant women. The rural women get the soils from selected sites, usually within walking distance of the home. And traders make rural soils available for consumption in urban settings at local produce markets.

Sources:
● Malawi Kaolin Edible Clay Chunks, Africanos drinks, online shop, UK (English), accessed on 16/05/2022 x
● ‘Nutritive potential of some ‘edible’ soils in Blantyre city, Malawi’, Malawi Medical Journal; 23(2): 38-42, by D D Lakudzala and J J Khonje, June 2011 (English)