The deep, winding history of rice across the African Atlantic diaspora.
If you’re throwing a dinner party and the guests are picky, it’s always a good idea to serve rice. It’s enjoyed around the world from North to South America, Asia to Africa. In fact, it’s so popular in some parts of West Africa that Peace Corps volunteers who worked on the continent in the 1970s jokingly suggested that the Christian Lord’s Prayer there be adapted to say “give us this day our daily rice.
Western awareness of African rice began when the first Portuguese reached the West African coast and witnessed its cultivation. Portuguese chronicler Gomes Eanes de Zurara wrote about large fields planted with rice as early as 1446, saying the region looked like a swamp. But in the 16th century, Portuguese colonizers introduced high-yield Asian rice to the African continent, replacing much of the production of native rice .
But the Low Country is only one of the New World spaces to which African mastery of rice cultivation was brought. Many a traveler in Haiti has dozed off on the road north from Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haïtien and awakened with surprise to see rice paddies that look like they were transported from the other side of the globe.
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