Radicalizing African Diasporic Foodways When Academia is Not Enough

Summary

The process of globalization and migration of Africans and African descent communities has made soul food and other African diasporic foodways very popular in Britain. The mass consumption of music and movies, and even fast food that celebrate these culinary traditions is creating a false sense of historical and culture knowledge. Furthermore, archaeology that centers on the legacy of transatlantic slave trade is still a highly marginalized area of study in British academia. Thus, an interconnection of archaeology and Black foodways to engage a public audience whose connections to the transatlantic slave trade is yet to be fully recognized. This paper will discuss my evolving standpoint as one that shifts in and out of academia to use archaeology as a tool to ground the pleasure and curiosity of contemporary African diasporic foodways that can highlight connections of European empires and (post)colonial projects that still reverberate as racial politics throughout Britain.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• Many People, Many Plates: Archaeologies of Foodways

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

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PaperId(s): 369