Precolonial African Food History
Volumes of the famed Pinkerton Collection
In researching, writing, and teaching about precolonial African history and foodways I have leveraged John Pinkerton’s Volume 16 which is a collection of travel accounts to Africa. The collection is largely European and a few American writers who traveled to Africa between the late 1600s and the mid 1800s. White supremacy and capitalism influences their views of Africans who are a diverse people living in subsistence economies in which they farmed, fished, and hunted for cooking ingredients for their kitchens and tables and not for sale in local markets. Despite the ethnocentrism of the authors, the traveler accounts provide clues about how precolonial Africans preserved fish, meat, and poultry, seasoned them, and how they preferred to cook and eat them. One can then take the clues from the travel account and do additional research using the work of Jessica Harris, Michael Twitty and other authors, BBC Food Show episodes, Good Food episodes, content on YouTube, and blog post that educate people about African seasoning ingredients and cooking techniques.
