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Afro-Guyanese Foodways

Community

The descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the Dutch and then British sugar colonies, who after EMANCIPATION IN 1834-38 pooled wages to buy abandoned plantations outright and founded the VILLAGE MOVEMENT โ€” a collective land purchase without parallel in the region, and the origin of much of the coastal settlement pattern. The kitchen: COOK-UP RICE, rice and peas cooked down with coconut milk and whatever meat there is, the Saturday and end-of-month dish; METEMGEE, ground provisions and dumplings simmered in coconut milk with salt fish; souse; black pudding; pepperpot; FOO-FOO and coo-coo; salt fish and bakes; and the greens. โš  THE AFRICAN ORIGINS OF SPECIFIC DISHES ARE OFTEN NOT DOCUMENTABLE, and the file says so rather than asserting them.

Atlas โ€” where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Afro-Guyanese community documented

Languages: Guyanese Creole English

What is recorded

  • Following emancipation in 1834-38, formerly enslaved people in British Guiana pooled wages to purchase abandoned plantations outright, founding the Village Movement โ€” a collective land acquisition without regional parallel, which shaped the coastal settlement pattern. The African origins of specific Afro-Guyanese dishes are frequently not documentable, and that limit is stated rather than filled by supposition. documented
  • Emancipation, and the Village Movement that followed: formerly enslaved people pool wages to buy abandoned plantations outright, creating the coastal settlement pattern. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

Recorded as relating to this foodway

  • related to Creole Surinamese Foodways documented

    Moksi alesi and cook-up rice are relatives within the Caribbean rice-and-peas family, recorded separately.

Regional cuisines

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.