In This ArticleView AllIn This ArticleBuilding a LegacyFinding My Black Food RootsRemembering Our Food Freedom FightersResisting a Black Food Monolithic NarrativeThe Role of the African Heritage Diet in WellnessAdvocating for Black Food as Wellness
In This ArticleView All
View All
In This Article
Building a Legacy
Finding My Black Food Roots
Remembering Our Food Freedom Fighters
Resisting a Black Food Monolithic Narrative
The Role of the African Heritage Diet in Wellness
Advocating for Black Food as Wellness
Building a Legacy of Generational Health in the Heartland
Growing up in Oklahoma, as I snapped fresh green beans with my maternal grandma, I would hear phrases, “Eat like your grandmother to reach a ripe old age,” or about “getting good genes in the family.” Well, a 2018 study published inGeneticsthat analyzed family trees of more than 400 million people suggested that genetics are not as influential on life span as I would have thought. The truth is, what you eat, the company you keep and how you live your life are more impactful.
Courtesy Photos. Design: Tambra Stevenson.
My grandmothers are not alone in the fight against diabetes. According to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 37 million Americans live with diabetes, of whom 90% to 95% of them have type 2 diabetes. TheCDChas also reported that people with diabetes are twice as likely to have heart disease or a stroke (which was the case for both my grandmothers)—and at a younger age—compared to someone who doesn’t have diabetes. The longer someone has diabetes, the chances of heart disease increase. And those stats increase sharply if you’re Black, due tosystemic racismthat affects social and economic conditions. That’s why I proclaimed when Nannie died that diabetes would not become a part of my heritage and generational health.
Finding My Black Food Roots in the Motherland
As the only Black undergraduate student in the nutrition program at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater at the time, I was being taught, unconsciously, that my food culture was part of the problem when it came to the health in our communities. This was without any acknowledgment of the inherent healthiness of many traditional Black foods. There was no historical context or willingness to see humanity in the struggle and survival of Black people consuming foods such as chitlins, hot links, stewed beans with neck bones, watermelon, collard greens cooked with smoked meats, and gumbo. Our food, like Black people, has risen like the phoenix, enduring, resisting and recovering from being weaponized to being liberated. From farm to fork, we see this liberation in the work of Leah Penniman’sFarming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Landand ChefBryant Terry’sBlack Food.That liberatory journey began for me after I lost my firefighting father, Calvin Coolidge Hill Jr., tragically in 2007. Honoring our shared love of food and family history kick-started my self-discovery journey to live life with no regrets and on my own terms. For me that meant returning to the Motherland.
Courtesy Photo. Design: Tambra Stevenson.
Remembering Our Food Freedom Fighters and Meal Healers—and Continuing Their Mission
In celebration of Black History Month and beyond, we are resurrecting the soul of Black food and paying homage to the culinary creators and meal healers who have poured their love into continuing the delectable and healing traditions of our families and communities. Black food is a shared story of resistance, resilience, restoration and liberation.
Tambra Stevenson
Read More:What is The African Heritage Diet?
Historically, Black people come from a culture of communalism: “ubuntu,” which is a Bantu term translated as “I am because we are,” with an understanding that “our liberty is bound together.” Furthering the point, the roots of her mantra extend an old African proverb that states, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” If we want to heal our communities, we begin with healing our meals together. So we honor the women who find purpose and joy in cooking for their community, which is also their medicine.
Black food is constantly evolving. It’s not monolithic or stuck in one place. Black food culture is as expansive as continental Africa. So a narrow lens is insufficient in telling the story of Black food.
Migration Meals: How African American Food Transformed the Taste of America
From the Caribbean, South America and the Southern states of the U.S., the diasporic journey of Black food has a dynamic story to tell. And within the U.S., you can find Black regional cuisines ranging from the Low Country, New England, the Southwest, West Coast and the Black cowboy culture of the Heartland that I call home. Yet, even within Black food culture and books, certain regional cuisines are overrepresented while others are not captured at all.
Brittany Conerly
View Recipe:Citrus Salad with Pomegranate & Mint
Traveling across America and the Caribbean has given me the privilege to taste the range and depth of Black food culture that’s emerged into contemporary fusion fare with a rich history. While in Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, I have enjoyedhorchata(originally made from tiger nut) andsorrel(made from hibiscus), beverages that both have West African roots, washing my palate after a curry dish with callaloo, rice and peas and plantains or a plate of mofongo.
In the Cajun country of Louisiana, I have enjoyed the late Leah Chase’s Gumbo Z’Herbes, jambalaya and gumbo at Dooky Chase’s. I snacked on boiled peanuts while in the Black Belt region of Georgia.
Read More:The 4 Best Leafy Greens from the African Heritage Diet, According to a Dietitian
Back home in Oklahoma, a bowl of pinto beans and cornbread with the holy trinity of greens (mustard, collard and turnip) topped with hot sauce and a baked sweet potato on the side brings me happiness.Texas caviar(also referred to as “cowboy caviar”) and purple hull pea dishes of the Lone Star State are my other home.
On a drive to the Carolinas' Low Country, Carolina Gold rice, Hoppin' John and stewed okra and tomatoes have brought me fond memories. Prior to that, I made a pit stop in the Appalachians, enjoying pawpaw fruit and sorghum dishes. By living in D.C., I eat my way through Africa, from injera with shiro andgomen, to pepper soup, jollof rice and Moroccan tagines with mint teas. But I can’t forget my graduate school days in New England, where I had my share of seafood dishes. Now Black Bostonian-ownedThe Pearlrestaurant is shaping Black food there. Collectively the regional scene is changing the narrative.
View Recipe:Collard & Rice Dumplings with Mamba 9 Sauce
And we can’t forget about soul food. The name “soul food” holds significance to the Black community and to me. Adopted during the Black Power movement, the term “soul food” represented strength, pride, beauty and returning to our African roots. Soul food is more than fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and biscuits, which are descendants of a colonized cuisine. For many of us, the “soul” of Black food is a blessing but also represents power and culture.
Soul food, like my DNA, is not 100% African but mixed with European and American Indigenous roots. Yet we have embraced it as a 100% signifier to Black culture, which has historically been “othered” or viewed as “poverty food” with a colonial gaze. So it’s no surprise to see the villainization and omission of soul food’s contributions to American cuisine. Yet, recently, it has gained a resurgence as more Black chefs, nutritionists, writers and cooks are embracing the original intent behind the term.
Black food traditions have sustained us, though some have been lost over generations due to migration, modern food systems, suppression, oppression and trauma. Historians and scholars likeJessica B. Harris, Ph.D.,Adrian Miller, Toni Tipton-Martin and Michael Twitty have solidly captured this sentiment in their groundbreaking works.
Read More:The Health Benefits of Plantains, According to a Dietitian
Restoring Our Health One Meal at a Time
“We have been conditioned that Black food is framed only from an unhealthful lens,” says Shaun Chavis, founder of Atlanta-based LVNGBook, which develops customized, cultural cookbooks for chronic diseases. That lens is shifting as I type. Just as Black chefs such as Alexander Smalls, Mashama Bailey, Pierre Thiam, Marcus Samuelsson, Kwame Onwuachi and Todd Richards have fought to elevate Black foods to their gourmet status, there is an emerging movement of Black nutrition advocates likeMaya Feller, M.S., RD, author ofEating From Our RootsandKera Nyemb-Diop, Ph.D., working to change the narrative and advocate for Black food as our medicine. They are not alone in this crusade. Black farmers like Bonnetta Adeeb, co-director of Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance in Accokeek, Maryland, have joined the movement of preserving and growing food for the culture one seed at a time.
For dietitianFranciel Ikeji, M.S., RD, owner of Better Nutrition, Better You in Maryland, “Wellness is more than nutrients that we’re putting into our body, but it’s part of our culture and history.”
View Recipe:Bammy with Basil-Tamarind Pistou
Ikeji’s memories were of fresh herbs, like cerasee, picked from her Jamaican grandparents' garden to prepare tea in Texas. They gave her this tea when she wasn’t feeling well. “Having the ability to eat your cultural foods and having access to those ingredients and being able to prepare and consume them is all part of that wellness. We should not negate our own and where we come from and the wonderfully healthy ingredients that are a part of our foodways,” says Ikeji.
From my discussion with Ikeji, she shared: “Foods are supposed to be making us feel better, helping us to function optimally, healing our bodies essentially.” When she had a cold, her father, like mine, would make chicken noodle soup. Except hers added a Jamaican twist with dumplings. Like Ikeji, Chavis shared the healing remedy of potlikker—the remaining broth after boiling the greens, like collards, which contains high amounts of essential vitamins and minerals, including iron, vitamin A and vitamin C—used in their families. Her grandfather made mushroom soup because he felt it improved his blood pressure, which has been proven scientifically, per a 2021 review published inThe American Journal of Medicine.
Read More:5 Best African Heritage Diet Foods to Combat Chronic Diseases, According to a Dietitian
While our ancestors built the U.S. food system, Black people are disproportionately dying from an unjust system due to preventable diet-related diseases. Unfortunately, the current research to better understand the nutritional benefits of African heritage foods to improve Black health is limited compared to the volume of research examining the impact of the Mediterranean diet. A 2015 study published inNature Communicationsreported how African Americans who swapped diets for two weeks with rural Africans, ate a low-fat (20% of energy), high-fiber diet and experienced positive changes in their metabolism and gut microbiome and had a lowered risk for colon cancer. In contrast, Africans eating a Standard American diet, low in fiber and high in fat, experienced increased colon cancer polyps and inflammation.
Photo: Getty Images. Design: Tambra Stevenson.
Read More:Why Cooking & Eating Together Are as Important for Your Health as the Foods You Eat
While waiting for the funding and system reform, nutritionists like Feller and Ikeji have limited sophisticated technology and tools to guide their patients on their cultural diets, resulting in non-compliance or incremental change. Food is identity, power and medicine. “We are doing a disservice when we don’t adequately invest research dollars into foods that a large percentage of the population are eating or are connected to culturally. Policymakers and industry can begin directing their [research and design] budgets towards a growing population and palates that seek and consume African heritage diets. Therefore the U.S. government needs to see the same level of research dollars invested in African heritage foods,” says Ikeji. Other food and nutrition activists, like Feller and Adeeb, agree.
With Food, Culture Matters: This App Matches People with Dietitians Based on Culture
Red RedBeet & Fonio Salad with Spicy Pickled CarrotsTurnip Green Pesto
Red Red
Beet & Fonio Salad with Spicy Pickled Carrots
Turnip Green Pesto
Additionally, nutrition researchers likeAngela Odoms-Young, Ph.D., an associate professor and director of the Food and Nutrition Education in Communities Program at Cornell University, argue that addressing structural determinants such as the racial wealth gap and mass incarceration is key to reducing nutrition insecurity and providing access to cultural foods like the African Heritage Diet. “Cultural foods can maximize the cultural wealth that can improve structural oppression,” says Odoms-Young. The African Heritage Diet is resilient and has contributed to the American diet, but has not been recognized widely in the field of nutrition, compared to the work of Black food historians and chefs in making this acknowledgment.
So, how can we advance Black food as medicine as part of reparations?
Here’s what can you do to advocate for Black food as medicine:
In memory and love of my Nannie and the countless ancestors who healed our meals and fought for our freedom, I am reclaiming our Black food as medicine to create generational health as the new form of wealth. I hope you do too.
Credits
Contributors:Adante Hart, Ashley Carter, Cordialis Msora-Kasago, Ederique Goudia, Franciel Ikeji, Jessica B. Harris, Matthew Raiford, Maya Feller, Pierre Thiam, Suzanne Barr and Zoe Adjonoh.
Visuals & Design:Tambra Stevenson, Brittany Conerly, Maria Emmighausen and Cassie Basford
Special Thanks:Dr. Mackenzie Price, Rebecca Newman, Sarah Anderson, Penelope Wall, Victoria Seaver, Sophie Johnson, Alysia Bebel, Addie Knight, Allison Little, Riley Steffen, Anne Treadwell, Jessica Ball, Alex Loh, Hilary Meyer, Dani DeAngelis, Eleanor Chalstrom, Nadine Bradley, Wendy Ruopp and the entire staff ofEatingWell.
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