Part 2: Southern food, African-American traditions

Southern Food, African-American Traditions

Edna Lewis’s culinary background is deeply rooted in the culture of the South, where she grew up, and in particular in the traditions of the African-American communities that contributed immensely to the development of U.S. culinary arts, also when they received little or no recognition for it.

The history of those culinary traditions is rich and complex. The cuisines that developed in the southern English colonies from the 17^th and 18^th century grew out of the combination of the material culture of the natives with the legacy of successive waves of new immigrants. The various local tribes instructed the settlers in the use of raw materials and cooking techniques unknown to them. The colonists learnt from the local tribes how to grow pumpkins, beans, and other local vegetables including corn, which would later originate popular dishes like cornbread and grits, ground corn meal cooked in a liquid. Agriculture production was integrated with game, opossum, and various types of fish, and oysters.

Native American couple (source: http://historicjamestowne.org/history/ Links to an external site.)

For their part, settlers introduced European cooking techniques and domestic animals, especially pigs, which over time became the most important source of meat in the south. With the increasing presence of black slaves from Africa, who often continued growing the same set of crops that ensured their sustenance in Africa, new ingredients such as okra, black-eye peas, collard greens, and yams enriched southern cuisines.

"Feeding the Negro Children Under the Charge of the Military Authorities at Hilton Head, South Carolina." Engraving in Harper's Weekly, "The Steamer 'Planter' and Her Captor," June 14, 1862, p. 372. Beaufort District Collection (Source: http://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/htdocs-sirsi/smalls.html Links to an external site.)

Many of the enslaved blacks that were brought to the American colonies had spent long periods in the Caribbean, where they were likely to absorb some elements of the local cuisines, spicy and full of flavor.

A sugar plantation in 1823 (Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASsugar.html Links to an external site.)

Although its production in the South is not as relevant as it was in the past, rice is still the main ingredient in traditional dishes such as Hoppin’ John (with beans and salt pork), as well as Louisiana’s gumbo (a soup with okra and other ingredients such as shrimp and andouille sausage) and jambalaya (meat cooked with vegetables and often with tomatoes).

Due to its history and geographical range, it would not be correct to consider African-American culture as undifferentiated across places and communities. The very definition of Soul Food, the category that is often use to indicate any dish connected with African-Americans, is debated and changes from place to place. For instance, Micah Materre, reporter and anchor at GWN news, explores the specific traditions of Chicago soul food Links to an external site..

Other communities do not identify with soul food as the only expression of black culinary culture. From the late 1960s, the activist group Black Panthers considered soul food as the leftover of slavery. However, they realized how relevant food was for the community, so that they started the first free breakfast programs in the country. IN the same period, African-American Muslims asserted their own cultural and social identity as a form of resistance to structural racism. Look at two short videos on the Muslim Bean Pie, one of the dishes that many consider as the most characteristic of the African-American Muslim tradition.

Many within the African-American community are looking at soul food with a critical eye, trying to strike a balance between the necessity of maintaining their cultural identity and the acknowledgement of health problems caused by the excessive consumption of certain traditional foods.

Chef and cookbook author Bryant Terry, for instance, promotes a vegan lifestyle that is deeply rooted in spirituality and community life.

Bryant Terry On Buddhism and Food Justice Links to an external site. from Turning Wheel Media Links to an external site. on Vimeo Links to an external site..

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