This morning, my mum woke me up and asked me to go pick a particular leaf.
She called it “Ẹ̀fọ́ Yánrìn.”
I was like… “Which leaf is that?” 😭
She had to show me.
Then she started telling me about the nutrients, health benefits, and different ways the leaf is traditionally used.
And I was just there thinking:
“Wait… THIS leaf??” 😭😂
That moment honestly got me thinking.
There is SO much indigenous knowledge sitting inside our parents and grandparents that we are slowly losing.
They know the names of leaves and plants in our local languages. They know which ones are vegetables, what they contain, how they're traditionally used, and the cultural knowledge surrounding them.
Meanwhile, some of us don't even recognize the plants growing around us.
And Ẹ̀fọ́ Yánrìn is just ONE example.
There are so many other leaves and plants we haven't even heard of.
Some we've probably walked past hundreds of times without knowing their names, nutritional value, cultural significance, or what our ancestors knew about them.
And that's the scary part.
If the people carrying this knowledge don't pass it down or document it, what happens when they're no longer here?
THE KNOWLEDGE DISAPPEARS WITH THEM.
And with it, we could lose knowledge about natural resources that have been part of our food, culture, environment, and traditional practices for generations.
That's why me and one of my guys are starting to work on a project around this.
We're starting with the DATASET before the MODEL.
The long-term idea is to build an AI system where you can simply snap a picture of a leaf and get information such as:
🌿 Local/cultural names — Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, etc.
🔬 Botanical/scientific name
🧪 Known chemical compounds & nutritional composition
🍲 Food/culinary uses
🌍 Cultural significance & traditional uses
📚 Documented scientific research & evidence
⚠️ Safety information — including what is and isn't scientifically established
The goal isn't to replace traditional knowledge.
And we definitely don't want an AI model making random medical claims.
The goal is to DOCUMENT, ORGANIZE, PRESERVE, and make this knowledge accessible.
Because think about it…
We have plants growing all around us that our ancestors knew how to identify and use.
But we're becoming increasingly disconnected from them.
What happens 30, 50, or 100 years from now if nobody remembers these names anymore?
What if our children grow up surrounded by plants that their grandparents could identify instantly, but they have absolutely no idea what they are?
What if we lose knowledge about something potentially valuable simply because nobody documented it?
THIS IS WHY I THINK WE NEED TO START NOW. 🌿
We're starting in Nigeria, but the bigger vision is to eventually document indigenous plant knowledge across Africa.
And we're starting with the DATASET before the MODEL.
We're looking for:
🔬 Botanists
🌿 Ethnobotanists
🧑🏾🌾 Farmers
📚 Researchers
👵🏾 Traditional knowledge holders
💻 Developers
📊 Data scientists
📸 Photographers
🌍 Anyone passionate about preserving African indigenous knowledge
If you have knowledge about plants and leaves in your community, we'd love to hear from you.
If you're a researcher who can help us structure and validate the data, we'd love to collaborate.
If you're a developer, data scientist, botanist, photographer, or simply someone who believes this knowledge shouldn't disappear, let's work together.
This isn't just about building another AI model.
It's about preserving something we already have.
BEFORE WE FORGET IT.
Let's preserve what we still have. 🌍🌿
If you're interested in contributing or collaborating, reply to this post or DM me.