Fusion Foodways of Africa's Gold Coast in the Atlantic Era

J. D. La Fleur, Ph.D. (2003), is Assistant Professor of History at the College of William & Mary (USA). He is the translator-editor of Pieter van den Broecke's Journal of Voyages to Cape Verde, Guinea and Angola (Hakluyt, 2000).

• List of Maps, Illustrations, and Word ListsPreface and AcknowledgementsNotes on Linguistic Evidence and African Languages1. Finding Food in Early Afro-Atlantic HistoryAfricanist Historiography of Pre-Colonial AgricultureThemes and Structures2. Introducing the Land to Culture, 25,000 BCE to circa 1400 CEEarly Foraging to 25,000 BCESpecialized Foraging, 25,000 BCE to 10,000 BCEIntensified Foraging from 10,000 BCEIntegrating Crops and Critters into Hunting, Gathering, and ForagingInitial Farming from 500 BCEMature Farming, circa 1400 CE3. Seeds of Change: Early African Experimentation in the Atlantic EraThe Agro-Historical MilieuPlantainsMaizeAsian Rice4. Reap What You Sow: The Profits and Perils of the New Starchy CropsGoing for Gold with PlantainsAllada Communities and Culinary Cross-CurrentsBaked Bread and BiscuitsKenkeyOpportunities BrewingSowing and Savoring WealthInsecurity and Impoverishment amid Scarcity and ViolenceSuffering in Times of Plenty5. The Porcupine’s Shame: Bearing the Burden of Cassava CultureProblems in the Earliest Records of IntroductionIntroducing CassavaAfricanizing Cassava CultureOutsiders and Renewed Innovation with CassavaColonial Postscript6. Finding History in Early Afro-Atlantic Foodways Works CitedIndex

Winner of the 2013 Mary W. Klinger Award for Best Book from the Society for Economic Botany."[La Fleur's] human-centered as opposed to crop-centered focus makes an important contribution to our knowledge of African foodways during this crucial era and furthers historians’ efforts to retrieve the dynamic roles of Africans in Africa as actors in our histories of the Atlantic world." - Cynthia Bouton, in: Journal of Early Modern History (November, 2014)"... this is an excellent book." - Ray Kea, in: New West Indian Guide (November, 2014)"... This is a well written and nicely produced book with broad appeal given its focus on issues that have developed in the wake of Crosby's influential The Columbian Exchange. In addition to its value as a work of historical scholarship, it will also be appreciated by anyone interested in African ethnobotany whether in Africa or elsewhere..." - John Rashford, in: Economic Botany (June, 2013)"... La Fleur adds to our growing attempt to better include West Africa in Atlantic Studies, and thus make it less Eurocentric, while expanding our understanding of the role of women within the Gold Coast as they determined what new items would be adapted and which ones would not." - Ty Reese, in: Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction (April, 2013)".. move[s] the history of staple foodstuffs to a new level, greatly extending understanding of the history of agriculture and food ..." - Rachel Laudan, Institute for Historical Studies, University of Texas at Austin, in: Journal of World History (June 2017), pp. 302-306