DANIEL MCCLOUD

As we continue into the holiday season, focusing on faith, family, friends, and fellowship, let us recognize the ever-present food as an integral part of these celebrations. For some, the food is just a small part of the occasion, but for African Americans, the food and its preparation are reasons to celebrate. For African Americans, the food is more than sustenance; it represents our history and tells a story. Each bite reminds us of the journey from our past to the present. A reminder of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Of the Middle Passage journey from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil, the West Indies, and the Caribbean, where enslaved Africans were auctioned off and brought to America. This journey took approximately 90 days, and at its peak in the 1780s, about 78,000 enslaved people made the journey. It should be noted that this number does not include the 10 to 20 percent that did not survive.

With each bite, we celebrate our resilience and remember those we lost along the way. With each stir of the pot, each slice of vegetable, we are reminded that, as a people, we have always had the power to make something from nothing. Each bite reminds us of a deep bond that can only be forged through oppression and the realization that survival depends on each other. A bond and understanding that is felt deep within one’s soul. It is from these circumstances that the term soul food was created.

From a culinary perspective, soul food most commonly refers to the food most associated with African-American cooking from the southern states of Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. This food and the process of preparing it resulted from the lives of the enslaved Africans and the foods they were provided. To further demean the enslaved Africans, the plantation owners would give them the least desirable of everything, particularly as it relates to food. The pork was a primary staple on the plantation, and the enslaved were given the poorest cuts of meat from the hog, such as ham hocks, pig’s feet, and the entrails, now commonly referred to as chitterlings. However, as has been the case throughout American history, African Americans were able to make the best of what they had, in this case, through their food preparation and techniques, which they brought from Africa.

The African influence on American cuisine was enormous. From West Africa came jollof rice, fufu, and equsi soup. From Central and East Africa came grains such as millet and sorghum, as well as a cooking style in which meats were stewed and covered in sauces. In addition, Africans secretly brought over African food staples such as rice and okra, often hiding seeds in their hair. The African cooking techniques utilized a slow, simmering process in which meats were stewed and covered in sauces that were easily adapted to the foods provided to them in America.

Over time, dishes such as collard and turnip greens, okra, black-eyed peas, oxtails, cornbread, and sweet potatoes became central to the soul food diet. Wild game, such as squirrels and rabbits, also became food staples. And while many may frown upon this menu, it was a matter of survival. History has shown that even after slavery, with the coming of Jim Crow, things did not get easier for southern Blacks, eventually leading to the Great Migration. As with other aspects of Black culture, such as music, different cultures began to appropriate this cooking style. These foods and cooking are now considered fine cuisine at the most upscale of restaurants. But we should always remember the origin of these foods and the hands that prepared them. Food — and thought — for the soul, indeed.