Healthy lifestyle: Emancipation foods

Heather Little-White, Contributor

'On midnight of July 31, 1938, it was reported, with great pride, that many slaves journeyed to the hilltops to greet the sunrise of Friday, August 1, 1838 that symbolised a new beginning in their lives. When morning broke, large congregations joined in thanksgiving services held in several chapels and churches across the island." (emancipationpark.org.jm)

Today, Jamaicans continue to celebrate Emancipation Day on August 1 as a public holiday - this year it will be marked on August 2 because August 1 is a Sunday - with picnics, dancing and eating. The Slavery Abolition Act led to the emancipation of slaves of African origin and the observance of Emancipation Day on August 1 or the first Monday in August in former British Colonies in the Caribbean.

Associated with the emancipation proclamation was the abolition of servitude, giving slaves equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves. This freedom - which granted a graduated system of liberty under the Apprenticeship system - gave way to extravagant celebrations in which food and music played significant roles.

Juneteenth

In the United States, some states have their own 'emancipation days', depending on when President Abraham Lincoln's special order to abolish slavery was read in each state. In Texas, for example, Emancipation Day is celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the announcement of the abolition of slavery in 1865. The celebration has come to be known as Juneteenth.

The Juneteenth celebration is for many African Americans in the South a celebration comparable to the Fourth of July, America's Independence. In the South, there were parades, picnics, parades, music, baseball games and family reunions with elaborate and lavish food tables. A typical Juneteenth reunion menu could read:

Barbecue Pulled Pork

Carrot 'n' Raisin Salad

Blackberry Cobbler

Chillin' Out Pasta Salad

Fried Okra

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

John's Grilled Rice

Key Lime Pie

Mixed Greens

Hush Puppies

Chittlin's Gumbo

Oven-Fried Catfish

Soul Stew

Sweet Potato Custard

Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding with Apple-Raisin Sauce

Southern Spiced Tea

Fried Okra

A simple Southern classic! Okra is dredged in seasoned cornmeal, and then fried until golden.

Ingredients:

10 pods okra, sliced in 1/4 inch pieces

1 egg, beaten

1 cup cornmeal 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, soak okra in egg for 5-10 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, salt, and pepper.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Dredge okra in the cornmeal mixture, coating evenly. Carefully place okra in hot oil; stir continuously. Reduce heat to medium when okra first starts to brown, and cook until golden. Drain on paper towels.

- Source: Allrecipes.com

Soul food

It is these kinds of emancipation celebrations that have given rise to the 'down-home' pleasures of soul food. Soul food, a hearty cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South and, later, African Americans nationwide, makes creative use of inexpensive products procured through farming, subsistence hunting and fishing.

TYPICAL 'SOUL FOOD'

Pig intestines are boiled and sometimes battered and fried to make chitterlings, also known as 'chitlins'. In colonial times, hogs were slaughtered in December, and hog maws or ears, pig's feet and neck bones were given to the slaves. Until emancipation, food choices of the slaves were dictated by their owners, and slave owners often fed their slaves little more than the scraps of animal meat that the owners deemed unacceptable for themselves.

Ham hocks and neck bones provide seasoning to soups, beans and boiled greens (turnip greens, collard greens, and mustard greens).

Other common foods, such as fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, cornbread. Fried chicken was normally smothered with paprika, season salt, and pepper and floured in a large, brown paper bag. Fish is fried in the same fashion, using a combination of flour and cornmeal with added spices like garlic salt.

Hoppin' john, made from black-eyed peas and rice.

Rabbit, possum, squirrel and waterfowl were eaten by rural African-American population.

Health risks

A traditional soul food dinner consisted of fried chicken, candied yams, collard greens, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese. Traditionally, soul food consisted of heavy amounts of fat, sodium, and starch. This was well suited to strenuous work done by labourers, farmhands and rural folk. Today, soul food is a contributing factor to the scourge of obesity, heart disease and diabetes as people move to the urban centres and become more sedentary. (Soul-food-advisor.com)

While traditional culinary habits take long to die, the more health-conscious African American will use alternative methods of preparation, choosing natural vegetable oils over trans fats and substituting smoked turkey for fatback and other cured pork products. They have also limited the amount of refined sugar in desserts and are consuming more fruits and vegetables than animal protein.

African roots

Foods in Jamaica and the diaspora are rooted in the historical experience of the Middle Passage. According to Wikipedia, foods of freed slaves are rooted in Africa with a blend of chiefly sub-Saharan African and Sahelian cultures.

Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of slaves of African descent to practise their cultural traditions, many practices, values, and beliefs survived and over time have modified or blended with European-American culture. What has emerged is a unique and dynamic cuisine that has had and continues to have a profound impact on the culture of the broader world.

In modern America, the term 'soul food' means African-American cuisine, but soul food is better understood through the traditional foods of Africa as it is in other countries like Jamaica. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the United States, such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, grits, watermelon, indigo dyes, and cotton can be traced to African influences.

African-American foods reflect creative responses to racial and economic oppression and poverty. Under slavery, slaves were not allowed to eat better cuts of meat, and after emancipation many African Americans often were too poor to afford them.

Basic staples

Africa, the second-largest continent in the world, is rich in geographic and cultural diversity. As such, the culture of food and eating in the different regions of Africa is important to people throughout the world. The historic influences on the African diet began in ancient times and continue to the present day.

Great geographic differences across the African continent caused much of the variety in the African diet. In addition, many tribes and peoples migrated or traded, bringing spices and foods from each other's culture into their own. Although each region has a distinct cuisine, basic staples are integral to African cuisine and have passed to cuisines influenced by Africa.

Lunch

The main meal of the day throughout Africa is usually lunch, which usually consists of a mixture of vegetables, legumes, and sometimes meat. However, meat was not eaten regularly because of economic constraints, even though different meats were considered staples in many areas. Meats like beef, goat, and sheep (mutton) are quite expensive in parts of Africa and are only eaten on special days. Meat is rarely eaten, though it is well-liked among meat-eating Africans. However, fish is abundant in coastal regions and in many lakes.

Stews

When foods are combined, it is called stew, soup, or sauce, depending on the region. This mixture is then served over a thick porridge or mash made from a root vegetable such as cassava or a grain such as rice, corn, millet, or teff (a minuscule cereal grain). Regional differences are reflected in variations of this basic meal, primarily in the contents of the stew. In the Gambia, palm oil is the base of stews and in the Sahel area, groundnut paste (peanut butter) is the main ingredient for stew.

Other stews use okra, combining it with beans, sweet potato leaves, or cassava. Other vegetables are eggplant, cabbage, carrots, chillies, French beans, lettuce, okra, onions, and cherry tomatoes. In the traditional African diet, meat and fish are not the focus of a meal, but are instead used to enhance the stew that accompanies the mash or porridge.

Leaf wrappers

Traditional cooking methods are still with us today and include steaming food in leaf wrappers (banana or corn husks), boiling, frying in oil, grilling beside a fire, roasting in a fire, or baking in ashes. Africans normally cook outdoors or in a building separate from the living quarters. African kitchens commonly have a stew pot sitting on three stones arranged around a fire. In Africa, meals are normally eaten with the hands.

North African cuisine

The countries of North Africa that border the Mediterranean Sea are largely Muslim countries. As a result, their diet reflects Islamic traditions. Islam does not permit eating pork and North African cuisine reflects the region's religious traditions, such as in lamb stews and curries cooked in clay pots. The diet includes grain and it is common to cook with olive oil, onions, garlic and notable spices such as cumin, caraway, cloves, and cinnamon.

Porridge is made from millet or chickpea flour. Vegetables include okra, meloukhia (spinach-like greens) and radishes. Common fruits are oranges, lemons, pears, and mandrakes. Legumes such as broad beans (fava beans), lentils, yellow peas, and black-eyed peas are commonly used. Islam does not permit the drinking of alcohol so mint tea and coffee are very popular beverages in this region.

West African foods

The slaves who came to Jamaica via the Middle Passage were primarily from West Africa. Within West Africa, there is considerable variation in the staple food. Rice is predominant from Mauritania to Liberia and across to the Sahel and couscous is commonly eaten in the Sahara. Along the coast from Cte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to Nigeria and Cameroon, there is range in the root crops with a variety of yam and cassava. Cassava, originally imported from Brazil by the Portuguese, is boiled and then pounded into a nearly pure starch. The chief crop in West Africa is yam served in a variety of ways but is often pounded for eating. Millet is also used for making porridge or beer.

Plantain, a variety of banana, is abundant in the more tropical West Africa and common to Jamaica's cuisine. Sweet plantains are normally fried, while green plantains are boiled or pounded into fufu. Dates, bananas, guava, melons, passion fruit, figs, jackfruit, mangos, pineapples, cashew, and wild lemons and oranges are also found here.

East African influence

Extensive trade and migration ties with Arabic countries and South Asia have made East African culture unique, particularly on the coast. The main staples include potatoes, rice, matake (mashed plantains), and a maize meal that is cooked up into a thick porridge. Beans or a stew with meat, potatoes or vegetables often accompany the porridge. Beef, goat, chicken or sheep are the most common meats.

The Horn of Africa, which includes modern-day Somalia and Ethiopia, is characterised by its remarkably spicy food prepared with chillies and garlic. The staple grain, teff, has considerably higher iron and nutrient content than other grain staples found in Africa. A spongy flat bread called injera is eaten by tearing it, then using it to scoop up the meat or stew.

Cornmeal

The traditional meal in southern Africa consists of staple crop, usually rice or maize, served with a stew. Cornmeal figures prominently in a cornmeal dish called mealie meal, or pap. A stew known as nshima, or nsima, is usually eaten with stew poured over it. The stew may be made from boiled vegetables such as cabbage, spinach, or turnips, or on more special occasions proteins in the form of fish, beans, or chicken may be added.

Heather Little-White, PhD, is a nutrition and lifestyle consultant in the Corporate Area. Send comments to editor@gleanerjm.com or fax 922-6223.