Michael Twitty: Culinary Historian with a focus on Enslaved Africans
Posted on 05. Aug, 2010 by Leshell Hatley in Scholarly Celebrations
Michael Twitty is a burgeoning culinary historian and my focus is on the foods and cooking traditions of my ancestors, especially those who were enslaved African Americans. His work and writings can be found on his website – http://www.afrofoodways.com.
Through his writing, teaching and cooking he invites you to join him on a journey of cultural discovery through what he calls our ancestral “foodscape.” Having completed Fighting Old Nep, a book about the food culture of enslaved African Americans in Maryland, he is now finishing a companion work about African Virginians entitled, Simmons, Cymlings, and Sweet Potato Pumpkins. The next stop is North Carolina, and then he’s on to cooking bigger pots of gumbo.
Michael Twitty’s website says:
Our plates are a place where we meld our past with our present and future. Food at its best is about our relationship with Spirit, time, space, our ancestors, the earth and each other. It bridges cultures and connects continents. It embodies our spirits, and tells us about ourselves. This site is about our unique gift to the world’s gastronomic heritage — our own edible jazz — some might call it soul food — some people just call it dinner. Where some people see mere sustenance, I see a delicious cultural text rich with its own culinary grammar, aesthetics, hidden meanings, and secrets.
Foodscape...
Michael uses research and experimentation to learn and teach about historic crops, open-hearth cooking, and the wild resources and heritage breed livestock our ancestors gathered and prepared as they set about creating new African American cultures through food. With these tools, he hopes to follow the food — from Senegal down to Angola to South Carolina and Alabama. The history of African American foodways holds the secrets of how its creators struggled to stay human in a dehumanizing world and prevailed. Now more than ever, we all need those lessons today. Read more about the goals of his work.
In the words of our ancestors:
“Come, sit at my table, eat and you will know me…”
To see more about how the food we eat reminds us of African American food tradition, look at our Memories AND see how the Foodscapes of Slavery were born.
To learn more about Michael Twitty and his culinary research, please visit http://www.afrofoodways.com.
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