In NZ these “sweet potato” are called kumara. They have three colors: gold, white, and red. Much nicer than what you Yanks would call “yams”: you can prepare them exactly like you would a potato. Very, very nice: deep-fried they are a delicious change from Freedom Fries. (Serve with sour cream rather than ketchup, perfect for soaking up excess beer urrrp!). Very nice mashed, or roasted with other root vegetables around the Sunday roast.
Did they arrive here from the Andes? I doubt it. Maori have been cultivating kumara ever since they arrived here in NZ, it is a hi-value hi-energy carbohydrate that would be just perfect for hooning around the South Pacific in dugout canoes. Just as likely a roving band of Maori dropped some kumara off in the Andes during one of their South Pacific cannibalizing jaunts.
The longer I live in NZ, the more convinced I am that the Maori and the Pacific Islanders were alot more clever and mobile than history has given them credit for. The mere facts that they never discovered the wheel, or metals, or a written language is quite deceiving.
Nope: I’m going to put a stake in the ground and state confidently that the Maori brought Kumara to South America, and not the other way around.
What "primitive people" but the Maori were able to fight the Europeans to a standstill?