Rethinking Foodways and African American Ancestry
Milking a cow in Africa 1731, Courtesy of The New York Public Library
Were African American’s ancestors lactose intolerant? Where cattle, particularly dairy producing cows valuable in ancient West and Central African societies from which Tennessee Africans Americans like the Fultons descended? Yes, Africans bartered other highly prized items to obtain cows (as well as goats, chickens and other livestock). They valued livestock for producing meat, milk, eggs, and manure used as garden fertilizer. The Mandingo/Mandinka people of the River Gambia region kept an abundance of cows that produced an excellent tasting very thick milk that they drink plan, churned into butter, and cooked with grains such as millet to make a porridge. Sources on West and Central Africa provide evidence that African-Americans are practicing the agricultural techniques and practices of their ancestors on their farming property, butcher’s blocks, in their kitchens, and at their tables.
