African traditions and knowledge permanently shaped practices of agriculture, cooking,
and eating across the American continent, from agricultural techniques like rice cultivation and animal herding, to cooking techniques like barbecuing meats, deep frying fish, and leaf-wrapped steaming. Hands preparing
foods, from pounding fufu to cutting okra to cooking stews, highlight food historian
Michael Twitty’s profound observation, “The food is an archive, a keeper of secrets.” Borne out of
the horrific history of colonization, imperialistic trade, and trans-atlantic slavery
is a tradition of resilience and adaptation that can be seen in the dishes of the
African diaspora today.
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