The Global African Diaspora

Interactive Experience

Food Journey

Every dish on a diaspora table has an origin story. Pick an ingredient and follow it from an African field to a Bahian terreiro, a Carolina kitchen, a Kingston yard.

Ingredient

Okra

Origin

Native to the highlands of Ethiopia and the West African Sahel

The crossing

Carried on slave ships as ballast food and seed; planted in kitchen gardens from Bahia to Charleston by the late 1600s.

"The Bantu word ki ngombo gave us 'gumbo.' Okra pods travelled in the provisions and pockets of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, anchoring a whole family of thickened stews."

Source · Smithsonian — Origins of Gumbo →
  1. 1
    Okra Soup

    West Africa

    Okra Soup

    Pounded pods with palm oil, fish or meat — the mother stew.

    Open recipe
  2. 2
    Caruru

    Brazil · Bahia

    Caruru

    Yoruba-rooted okra stew offered to Ibeji twins in Candomblé.

    Open recipe
  3. 3
    Callaloo

    Caribbean

    Callaloo

    Okra simmered with dasheen leaf, coconut milk, salted meat.

    Open recipe
  4. 4
    Creole Seafood Gumbo

    Louisiana · USA

    Creole Seafood Gumbo

    Creole one-pot whose name and thickener are both Bantu.

    Open recipe

More ingredients on the way — yassa, ackee, cassava, plantain.