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Okra gumbo and rice
Most Americans are unaware of African cultural heritage as a component of the American way of life. We are far from fully recognizing the role that Africa played in the creation of the United States and continues to play in its people’s daily lives.
They may have Cuff, Cuffy, Coffey, or Coffee as a family name, or Ouida(h) or Weda as a female first name. Their children love Bambi. They say “Wow!” when impressed or surprised. Many eat okra gumbo with rice. They listen to jazz. They are American, and would deny African influence on their culture. Africa is just not seen as a possible component of the American Way of Life.
The name Koffi that the world knows thanks to United Nations Secretary General Koffi Annan comes from the Akan-speaking people of West Africa. Ouidah is a coastal town in Benin from which many Africans were deported to the Americas during the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans. Wow means “yes” in the Wolof language of Senegal and the Gambia. And Bambi is a Central African Bantu word for antelope.
The word okra comes from Akan and gombo is Bantu for the vegetable that is the key ingredient in the Louisiana stew called redundantly okra gumbo. And the rice that so enriched planters that it was called “Carolina Gold” came to the United States from the banks of the Niger River and the Atlantic shores of Senegambia.
Some scholars have claimed, and most people still believe, that although culture of African origin may have persisted in farther south regions they consider “exotic,” like the Caribbean and Latin America, little or no African culture came to the United States, and certainly none has remained. In 1919 sociologist Robert Park stated that, “It is very difficult to find in the South today anything that can be traced directly back to Africa.”
Such perspectives were challenged in Melville Herskovits’ 1941 The Myth of the Negro Past, which demonstrated “that African survivals can be discovered in almost all phases of Negro life in the United States.” Yet in 1963 sociologist E. Franklin Frazier maintained that, “. . . because of the manner in which the Negroes were captured in Africa and enslaved, they were practically stripped of their social heritage.”
Twenty years later, in an article about engineer Lewis Latimer, in the book Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern, the African American scholar John Henrik Clarke maintained that “The collective contributions of African Americans to science and inventions is so extensive that it is not possible to live a full day in any part of the United States, or the world in general, without sharing the benefits of their contributions.”
Why is there such ignorance and denial of this African presence in U.S. culture? Because in spite of all of the accurate information that has been available for decades, schools and the media portray Africa as a continent characterized by severe problems rather than tremendous wealth and resources, that has folklore rather than culture, and that certainly could not have contributed to the civilization of the United States.
This denial of Africa as part of the foundation of U.S. society is especially true concerning intellectual and technological matters., The “Carolina” rice served with the okra gumbo, which might be more appropriately termed Senegambian rice, is an excellent example.
The rice grown in South Carolina and other parts of the Americas is Oryza glaberrima, different from the Asian Oryza sativa. This West African rice and the complex system of knowledge involved in growing it and making it edible were brought by Africans, but they have not been given credit. As shown in Judith Carney’s recent book, Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas Portuguese mariners were credited with introducing rice culture to Africa—not explaining how sailors taught planters to plant, and ignoring Portuguese writings about their amazement at discovering complex rice production technology in the Senegambia.
Thus, Europeans assumed undue credit for African intellectual and technological achievements, despite evidence to the contrary. Europeans from temperate zones did not have the skills and knowledge required for such endeavors as rice cultivation, particularly in the sub-tropical climate of the southern United States. African origins can also be found for other elements of foundational technologies, such as the animal husbandry popularized in U.S. cowboy films.
The transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans needs to be reconceptualized as not just a source of unskilled labor, but more importantly, also as a massive brain drain and transfer of knowledge, technology, and culture from Africa to the Americas.
Photo © Michel Ravassard/UNESCO: Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus).
Itinerant plants
breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis)
A tree native to the Malay archipelago, its fruit can be cooked like a potato. The Polynesians carried it to the South Pacific islands. From Tahiti, Captain William Bligh took it to the West Indies in 1793 on the Bounty, intended as food for slaves who refused to eat it as it was totally unknown to them in West Africa. It was only after the end of slavery that breadfruit appeared on Caribbean tables.
cassava (manioc) (Manihot esculenta)
This Brazilian vegetable with tubers boiled and baked like potatoes travelled on Portuguese ships to Africa. Migrating Indians also transported them in their canoes to the Caribbean.
collards (Brassica oleracea var. ocephala)
One of the earliest varieties of the cabbage family, said to have originated in the Mediterranean region, spread to Asia and Africa, finally reaching the Americas via the slave trade. Today, it is an ingredient of “soul food,” its dark green leaves usually boiled with pork.
cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)
A bean going back as far as the prehistoric era either in India or China, with Africa suggested as a possible source. Reached the Americas via the slave trade and cultivated today in most tropical and subtropical regions. Its best-known variety is the black-eyed bean, a common feature of southern cuisine in the United States.
West Indian gherkin (Cucumis anguria)
A native of tropical Africa, crossed into the Americas in the early 16th century through the slave trade. From there, it crossed the Atlantic once again towards Europe. Mostly used for pickles.
maize (corn) (Zea mays)
Native to the Americas, Columbus carried it to Spain. In the 16th century, Portuguese traders carried it to East Africa and Asia, Arab traders to North Africa. It reached West Africa from the Caribbean, used on both sides of the Atlantic as an inexpensive means of provisioning slave ships across the Atlantic.
okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)
Also called “gumbo,” although the latter is also the name of a soup using okra as a main ingredient. Native to Africa, was grown by the Egyptians, then brought by Spanish Moors to Europe in the 12th century and introduced by slaves to the Americas in the 17th.
roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa)
Probably of West African origin, its young shoots and leaves are eaten raw or cooked as vegetables, its flowers used for sauces and jellies. Introduced in Brazil in the 17th century through the slave trade.
sesame (Sesamum indicum)
The plant may have originated in East Africa or India, grown for its oil some 5,000 years ago in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. Slave ships carried the seeds to the New World.
sorghum (Sorghum vulgare)
Cultivated in East Africa some 6,000 years ago, crossed the Indian Ocean to India and China. Used as grain and as a source of syrup, several varieties of sorghums reached the Americas through the slave trade.
taro (Colocasia esculenta)
Originated in South Asia, travelled to Egypt some 2,000 years ago, later introduced into Europe, from where the Spaniards took it to the New World. It made its way to West Africa from there. Its starchy tuber is cooked like potatoes.
watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)
A vine cultivated for its fruit, this native of Africa reached the Middle East, Egypt, India and Persia some 6,000 years ago. Later grown by the ancient Greeks and Romans, also by the Chinese in the 10th century AD. Arrived in Europe via the Spanish Moors, then the Americas via the slave trade.
winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)
A relative of the cowpea, this vegetable’s leaves, pods, seeds, shoots and tubers are all edible. Its origins are thought to be in India or China, even Africa where it grows wild. Reached the Caribbean and South America via the slave trade.
yellow malanga (Xanthosoma atrovirens)
Grown for its corm which is cooked like a yam. Most probably originated in South America, taken to the Caribbean by the Taino, later reached West Africa from where it was used to feed America-bound slaves. Also grown today in Asia and the Pacific.
José Banaag
Source: The Cambridge World History of Food |
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Author(s) |
Sheila S. Walker, Director of the African Diaspora and the World Program, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
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Periodical Name |
The new Courier
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