Soul Food In African American Culture

In this paper I discuss the African-American culture in regards to values, norms and beliefs.

The traditions of soul food depend on ones family and where ones family is from. For instance, my family is originally from Chicago, Illinois and we eat soul food on holidays, during family reunions, and Sunday dinners. Sunday dinners are common in most families and became that way because it was a time for families to get together. They can be compared to the “good times” meals of the old days. For Sunday dinners it was common for relatives to travel some distance just for a good home cooked meal. Relatives such as aunts, uncles, and cousins (both pretend and real) would come together to the house with the best-cooked food. In my family, holidays are the main event for soul food. Sometimes we would have a potluck because it is easier to feed fifty or more people that way. The food that is cooked also depends on where one is from. An old traditional dish that is in my family is called “monkey bread.” “Monkey bread” is homemade bread made in the shape of rolls and is stacked on each other in a cake pan.

There is just something about Southern Cooking, something about the women who’ve mastered it, and something about what it represents. A Southern Feast represents time spent in careful preparation and an almost entire region of people that didn’t get the memo about cholesterol. Southern cooking brilliantly displays a community that still remains untouched by at least some of the craziness in the world around us. Things move a little slower in the South, and one of those things is the cooking. Preparing a Southern feast is a job. It is hard work, and it takes some time, but that is part of the charm. This cooking is the kind that allows for sitting around canning

The turn of the 19th century was a time in American history that brought with it major economic, cultural, and political changes. The Reconstruction era and Gilded Age had ended with rising influential Jim Crow laws, which made a clear division among the American population. The publishing of Booker T. Washington's, Up from Slavery and W. E. B. Du Bois's, The Souls of Black Folk both occurred in the early 1900's when oppression of the black race in America was known internationally. The two men's novels are both persuasive writings that questioned the land they lived on. The similarities and differences in Washington and Du Bois's novels can be evident through their individual writing style,

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

Agriculture and food is also a unique aspect of African American culture. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products, such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, grits, and cotton, can be traced to African and African American influences. African American foods reflect creative

Since it is the south fried foods are very popular. Anything you can think of, they can fry. People also like to have cookouts and huge barbecues with the whole family. However, there is a ton of fast food restaurants there that most people will go to multiple times a day which isn't that

A group called the benin artists created a masterpiece that symbolizes royal authority and power. It’s a sculpture of 2 leopards designed as water vessels, used for when the oba washes his hands before ceremonies.

Africans have, since the early settlement of America, has had a great influence in the nation’s growth. These contributions to the United States from enslaved Africans have been greatly portrayed in American culture. Varying from cuisine, to song and dance are not only portrayed today but it has a deep-rooted impact throughout the United States. During the middle passage, enslaved Africans were forced to abandon their everyday lives, their families and their homes and forced to adapt to a new lifestyle they knew nothing of. However, upon arrival into the New World, due to their prior knowledge and wisdom from back home, they were able to quickly adapt and custom themselves to this new lifestyle in order to survive with the hope of potentially one day returning back to Africa. Unfortunately, African contributions to the culture of the United States has received little to no recognition and it has been taken credit for by Europeans and Whites since the early establishment of the United States.

Pre-Columbian Arawaks, Caribs, Europeans, Africans, Chinese, Asian Indian, and others, all of these cultures combined and makeup Caribbean cuisine. The Arawaks are known for their barbecue style food. As for the Caribs they introduced chilies and other species to island cooking. Europeans include Dutch, English, French, and Spanish, they all brought cooking methods and ingredients like garlic, onion, orange, chicken, coconut, pig and rice to the table. Africans from the 17th to the mid 18th century come as slaves, mainly to work in the sugarcane fields. They also had something to offer from the cooking world like okra, pigeon peas, plantains, and taro root. When slavery was abolished and the need for workers continued to grow, the Chinese and Asian Indians arrived in large numbers. Their culinary styles and foods like wok cooking and curry migrated with them. Because of how close, the cooking techniques and foods from Mexico, Central America, and northern South America easily crossed the sea to the

Music is a creative art form that allows the artist to construct something that expresses a purpose. It evolves over time and changes as the world changes, taking on many different motivations behind the melody and lyrics. In today’s society, anger, oppression, racism, and negative opinions rule the media and popular culture. I believe that African Americans need to show their self worth and not let white people hold them back. With the music in white culture often mocking African American culture and portraying negative stereotypes, African Americans have to find ways to gain respect. In acknowledgement of the negative portrayal of their culture, African Americans respond by creating songs and videos that express their pride in their culture and heritage, react to white oppression, and communicate their independence.

I have traveled all over the world but I have never been down South. Being from New York has also given me a very narrow perspective of African American culture. The purpose of this research project is to gain some understanding of Black culture specifically in the South. College has exposed me to a lot of people who were born and raised in the South and some of my closest friends are southerners. By researching the history, culture, and demographic information of the South, I plan on becoming a more well-informed American.

Food from Africa to America” Opie discusses the term “Soul Food”, where it comes from, what it

In every culture, habits involving food such as, choosing, cooking, and eating, play a significant role. Eating is understood and communicated in various symbolic ways because it is never a purely biological activity. The consumption of food is always infused with meaning. People with adequate food resources use food not only as a means for survival but a means for communication. Food is symbolic throughout the world in modern human history. The Boston Tea Party was about taxes, not tea. The turkey on Thanksgivings symbolizes the celebration between the Pilgrims and Native Americans. The Great Depression is symbolized with pictures of bread lines and people selling apples.

More often than not, the ingredients used to prepare an African dish are fresh, very cheap and easily used to make a quick meal. Common vegetables include kale, spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, beans, potatoes, avocados and other leafy greens, while beef and goat meat are the common meats served in an African meal. Fish, chicken, and mutton are also available but are more expensive (AIG, 2011). Meat is often used merely as one of a number of flavorings, rather than as a main ingredient in cooking. Tropical fruits such as mangoes, oranges, pineapples, bananas, papaws, and pears are cheap, plentiful and popular among the people of Africa, because they are not available all year round and are dictated by seasons. Other ingredients used in typical dishes include rice, corn meal or maize, wheat and millet flour.