Pimenta Baniwa, or Baniwa Pepper, is the brand name for a blend of more than 70 local varieties of 5 species of Capsicum peppers known as jiquitaia. The name jiquitaia is named after a small ant, whose sting burns too. It is produced by the women of Baniwa communities of the Içana River and its tributaries and has been cultivated in their gardens using traditional, organic, and sustainable methods for centuries. Just in Brazil, there are 93 Baniwa communities, covering around 3 million hectares, participating in this network and now are organizing to share Baniwa peppers with other communities. The Baniwa, who also inhabit parts of Colombia and Venezuela, are organized in at least four internal divisions, phratries called (Dzawinai, Walipere-dakenai, Hohodene and Curipaco) and two dozen clans, which are anchored in their ancestors macro-territories.
