Store

Bahamian Dishes, History and Junkanoo

Historical period

The dishes: PEAS AND RICE, the constant side, with pigeon peas, salt pork, thyme and tomato paste. SOUSE — pig’s feet, chicken or sheep tongue in a lime-and-pepper broth, eaten at BREAKFAST with johnnycake, which surprises visitors. BOIL FISH, grouper poached with lime and potato, also breakfast. BAKED CRAB and crab and dough. GUAVA DUFF, the steamed rolled pudding with hard sauce. BENNY CAKE, sesame and sugar. SWITCHA, the lime drink. The history: LUCAYAN Taíno, taken wholesale into slavery in Hispaniola within a generation of 1492 and the islands then left empty for over a century; English settlement from 1648 with the Eleutheran Adventurers; wrecking, piracy and the salt trade; the LOYALIST influx after 1783 with enslaved people, which multiplied the population and failed at cotton; emancipation in 1834; sponging, rum-running during US Prohibition, and tourism. ⚠ JUNKANOO on Boxing Day and New Year’s morning has its own street food and its roots in the enslaved population’s few free days.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Lucayans community documented

Languages: Bahamas Creole English

What is recorded

  • The Lucayan population was removed into slavery in Hispaniola within a generation of 1492 and the islands remained effectively unpopulated for over a century before English settlement from 1648. The Loyalist influx after 1783 brought enslaved people and multiplied the population; cotton cultivation failed on the thin limestone soil. Souse and boil fish are documented as breakfast foods. Junkanoo is documented on Boxing Day and New Year’s morning with roots in the few days of freedom permitted to enslaved people. documented
  • The Lucayan population of the Bahamas is removed into slavery in Hispaniola; the islands are left effectively unpopulated for over a century. documented
  • The Eleutheran Adventurers settle the Bahamas from Bermuda. documented
  • The Loyalist influx after the American Revolution brings enslaved people and multiplies the Bahamian population; cotton fails on thin limestone soil. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to Taíno Foodways documented

    ⚠ The Lucayans were taken wholesale into slavery in Hispaniola within a generation of 1492 and the islands were left effectively empty for over a century. Recorded as history, and as a rupture rather than a continuity.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.