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Afro-Cuban and Chinese-Cuban Foodways

Community

Cuba received enslaved Africans later and in greater numbers than most of the Caribbean — the trade continued illegally into the 1860s — which is why YORUBA (Lucumí), KONGO and CALABAR religious and culinary traditions survived with unusual specificity. ⚠ FOOD OFFERINGS IN SANTERÍA/REGLA DE OCHA AND PALO ARE RELIGIOUS PRACTICE AND ARE RECORDED ONLY AS TO THEIR EXISTENCE; nothing ceremonial, initiatory or orisha-specific appears in this system. Documented in the secular kitchen: quimbombó (okra), fufú de plátano, malanga, funche, and the ajiaco that Fernando Ortiz made the metaphor for Cuban identity itself. CHINESE indenture from 1847 brought over 100,000 people, built Havana’s Barrio Chino, and produced a Chinese-Cuban cuisine that later travelled to New York as its own thing.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Afro-Cubans community documented
  • Chinese Cubans community documented

Languages: Spanish, Cantonese, Yoruba

What is recorded

  • The transatlantic slave trade to Cuba continued illegally into the 1860s, later than in most of the Caribbean, which is documented as a reason for the unusual specificity with which Yoruba, Kongo and Calabar traditions survived. Over 100,000 indentured Chinese arrived from 1847. Religious food offerings in Regla de Ocha and Palo are recorded only as to their existence; no ceremonial or orisha-specific material appears in this system. documented
  • Chinese indenture to Cuba, over 100,000 people, and the founding of Havana’s Barrio Chino. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to African Diaspora Foodways documented

    Yoruba, Kongo and Calabar traditions survived with unusual specificity because the trade to Cuba continued into the 1860s.

  • related to Chinese documented

    Over 100,000 indentured Chinese from 1847; Havana’s Barrio Chino.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.