Soul Food

African American history is dark and in most cases, unsettling. The conditions to which they endured which involves displacement of generations and hostile living environments, is part of the foundation of the United States. In blog posts 1 and 2, I talked about specific foods that Africans ate such as yams, oil-palms, and plantains and how it didn't really change when they were being transported on slave ships. In blog post 3, I talked about how during the event of sharecropping, African Americans planted rice in terms of actual food. In this blog post, I am going to talk about foods that African Americans call soul food.

Soul food is a cuisine that is associated with Southern African American culture. The expression was coined in the mid-1960s, and it relates the unwavering and strong soul of the culture. That being said, soul food is usually food that gives more fat, salt, and feel-good energy. In the US, certain states in the south have their staple soul foods that are associated with them. Louisiana for example is known for Gumbo and Jambalaya. Texas is known for Black-eyed Peas. Georgia is known for Peach Cobbler.

These are just a few examples, but soul food is much more complex, after all the origins of soul food come from the influence of white settler's during slavery. Black-eyed peas originated in West Africa, but Gumbo was introduced as a West Indian dish (Zeide, 2023, p.63). Peaches were brought to the new world by the Spanish and Jambalaya as Spanish influence as well.

A food that does have African American soul food origin is collard greens. Collard greens, turnip greens, and cabbage was a found that enslaved Africans often ate on plantations. However, unlike today they were eating the greens themselves, they were often drinking the broth "that remained in the pot after greens were boiled long and slow" (Zeide, 2023, p.59).

In order to soak up the broth in full rather than just drink, enslaved Africans used cornbread to soak it up-- a practice that mimics fufu from the Igbo culture (Zeide, 2023, p.63). Zeide (2023) explains that "salt pork... ham hock, pigs' feet, [and] bacon grease" were the most common additions into the collard and turnip greens. This is the origin of the food that I am so used to eating (collard greens with ham hocks) and while I knew that it qualified as a soul food, I didn't know the exact culture behind it.

Both modern day collard greens and cornbread is thanks to the adaptions that West Africans took in the new world. The use of cornbread as a side dish to collard greens, is also something I am familiar with but in a different way. Cornbread dressing, also known as Kush, originated in West Africa. It is cornmeal hash which is exactly what cornbread dressing is, cooked turkey wings cut into small pieces with a cornmeal recipe mixed together and baked in a casserole dish.

Yams is a food that has been a primary crop and food since pre-colonial Africa, the only thing that's changed is the way it's consumed. In West Africa, yams were boiled and mashed to be consumed in stews and soups. In the Southern US, yams and their cousins, sweet potatoes, are cut and topped off with ingredients like butter, cumin, vanilla extract, ground nutmeg, etc. before being boiled. There is also the baking option where people have added marshmallows on top to add flavorful sweetness.

There is one more food that I think is mandatory to talk about when thinking of Southern soul food: baked macaroni and cheese. The concept of cheese and noodles was made in Europe, but like most foods, African Americans put a spin on them. One particular African American credited for baked macaroni and cheese was James Hemmings (Edgar, 2018). Hemmings was Thomas Jefferson's enslaved African chef who was the half-brother of his wife, Martha Jefferson. Hemmings traveled to Paris with Jefferson where he learned how to make several dishes and when he brought them home to Virginia, put his own personal spin on them-- macaroni and cheese was one of them.