[Sca-cooks] West African Food in the Middle Ages

Terry Decker t.d.decker at att.net
Sun Apr 19 15:27:51 PDT 2009


> In the meantime can anyone tell me a bit about this theory that all of a
> sudden we could have had products in Spain previously claimed as American 
> but now seem to be African introduced by the so called Arabs before the 
> 16th century?
> Suey

After 1492, food stuffs from the Americas moved into West Africa via the 
Portuguese slave trade and became staples there.  Peanuts, for example, 
originate in the Andes, came to Europe via Spain, then went to Africa from 
Portugal.  It is very possible that the North American slave trade 
introduced peanuts into North America.  "West African Food in the Middle 
Ages" looks at the food stuffs that were in use before the influx of New 
World foods.  A similar work that studies the trade marginalization of food 
stuffs in Spain and the New World is:  Bermejo, J.E. Hernandez, and Leon, 
J., "Neglected crops 1492 from a different perspective," Food and 
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1994; which can be found 
webbed at:  http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0646e/t0646e00.HTM .

Bear 



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