Wow! eBook
Fusion Foodways of Africa's Gold Coast in the Atlantic Era: 26
Author(s): James D. La Fleur (Author)
- Publisher: Brill
- Publication Date: 3 Aug. 2012
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 232 pages
- ISBN-10: 9004224122
- ISBN-13: 9789004224124
Book Description
As most people in Atlantic-era West Africa―as in contemporary Europe and the Americas―were farmers, fields and gardens were the primary terrain where they engaged the opportunities and challenges of nascent globalization. Agricultural changes and culinary cross-currents from the Gold Coast indicate that Africans engaged the Atlantic world not with passivity but as full partners with others on continents whose histories have enjoyed longer, and greater, scholarly attention. The most important ‘seeds of change’ are not to be found in the DNA of crops and critters carried across the seas but instead in the creativity and innovation of the people who engaged the challenges and opportunities of the Atlantic World.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Winner of the 2013 Mary W. Klinger Award for Best Book from the Society for Economic Botany.
“… 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
“[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
About the Author
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).
