Shea comes from si, the tree's name in Bambara, a language of Mali; the Scottish explorer Mungo Park spelled it 'shea' in his 1799 travel book. The wild trees grow across Africa's savanna belt, from Senegal to South Sudan.
📍 Atlantic coast of Brazil
Tapir comes from tapi'ira in Old Tupi, once spoken along Brazil's coast. Three tapir species live in the Americas, but the fourth, the black-and-white Malayan tapir, lives in Southeast Asia. Their closest living relatives are horses and rhinos.
📍 Eastern China (Shanghai–Wuhan)
Gung ho is Chinese gōnghé, short for 'industrial cooperative', the name of a 1930s movement in China. US Marine officer Evans Carlson took it to mean 'work together' and made it his battalion's motto.
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📍 Malay Peninsula & Sumatra
Durian comes from Malay duri, 'thorn', after the fruit's spiky husk. Called the 'king of fruits' in some regions, it smells so strong that Singapore bans it on its metro trains.
📍 Kalahari, southern Africa (Botswana, Namibia & South Africa)
Meerkats live in the dry, open country of the Kalahari and Karoo in southern Africa. Some members of each group always stand sentry, and adults teach pups to eat scorpions by first removing the stinger.
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📍 Misserghin (near Oran), Algeria
The clementine is a happy accident: a cross of mandarin and sweet orange that sprang up in an orphanage garden at Misserghin, near Oran in Algeria. It was named in 1902 after the brother who tended it, Clément Rodier.
📍 Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco & Tunisia)
Couscous isn't a grain: it's tiny balls of semolina, rolled by hand and steamed. It began with the Berber peoples of North Africa, and in 2020 Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia put it on UNESCO's heritage list together.