Cooking the Diaspora: Kitchen Essentials
Foodways are a documentation of history, of culture. Black foodways tell the story of agricultural + medicinal wisdom, celebration + survival, resistance + re-membering. At Our Mothers’ Kitchens we (re)introduce participants to the depths + flavors of the African diaspora through our kitchen essentials: rice + beans - greens - herbs + spices - ground provisions - honoring ancestors. Through exploring the many iterations, recipes + traditions surrounding these foodways, we celebrate + honor the many facets of Blackness.
Mulatto Rice by Chef Dobson
Photograph by Khaliah D. Pitts
Rice + Beans
“Most people associate rice with Asia. But rice is also of African origin. [...] An oral tradition claims that an African woman introduced rice [to the Americas] by hiding grains in her hair. The precious seeds escaped detection and this, they explain, is how rice came to be planted.”
Judith A. Carney, ‘With Grains in Her Hair’: Rice in Colonial Brazil
Harvesting and Drying Greens
Photograph by Gabrielle Clark
Greens
“Note about cooking greens: Greens contrary to popular belief don’t have to be cooked all day. Always cook greens in enough water to cover. Some people add a little vinegar to the pot likker. Corn bread with pot likker is delicious.”
Vertamae Smart-Grosvernor, Vibration Cooking or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl
*Pot likker (or pot liquor) is the seasoned broth that remains after cooking greens (or other veggies).
Learning About Herbs and Spices
Photograph by Gabrielle Clark
Prepping Sweet Potato Boats and Summer Potato Salad
Photograph by Gabrielle Clark
Herbs + Spices
“Black cooks learned how to season food using oral tradition and a prolonged apprenticeship in which people tasted each other’s food and inquired what ingredients and cooking techniques they used. It was during these informal kitchen conversations that women exchanged family recipes.”
Fred Opie, Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food: Recipes, Remedies and Simple Pleasures
Ground Provisions
“In the tropical parts of Africa […] the vegetation is mostly tropical forest, and the food is made up of vegetables, fish and meat, eaten along with fibrous tubers such as cassava, yams, cocoyams (taro and its close relatives), and sweet potatoes.”
Apollos N. Bulos, Historic Soups and Stews from Nigeria, from Ann Arbor Culinary Historians, Volume 17 Number 4, Fall 1999
Setting the Altar
Photograph by Gabrielle Clark
Honoring Ancestors
“spirits/ black & brown/ find yr way
thru my tainted blood/ make me one of
yr own/ i am yr child in the new world/
i am yr fruit/ yet to be chosen for
a single battle in yr behalf/ come to
& thru me/ i am dazzled by yr beneficence
i shall create new altars/ new praises
& be ancient among you/”
Ntozake Shange, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo
