Caribbean Beat — March/April 2018 (#150)

cookup
“That
right
there,
that’s
Africa”
When US chef Ben Dennis first
visited the Caribbean, it set him
thinking about food as a form
of African diaspora heritage.
Then he arrived in Tobago and
discovered traditional candies
identical to ones made by his
own Gullah ancestors in South
Carolina. He tells Franka Philip
why this culinary link matters
Isn’t it cool when you visit another country and see familiar How did you make a connection to Trinidad and Tobago?
ingredients being used in ways you’re used to? This was the
big thrill for US chef Ben Dennis, when he visited Trinidad One of the more renowned herbalists in your country,
and Tobago and discovered that local candies like toolum and Francis Morean, he was in Charleston and met an elder
nutcake were similar to those once made by his ancestors, who might have told him about me. But he knew the connection
with the Merikins. I never knew the story in my
the Gullah Geechees of South Carolina. The Gullah are
descendants of formerly enslaved people from various Central and life. They don’t teach us our history. But there’s something
West African ethnic groups settled in South Carolina and Georgia. here [in Trinidad] called hill rice, and it was grown in
They developed a distinct Creole culture that has preserved their the Low Country in South Carolina. I don’t know if the
African heritage.
Merikins brought the hill rice here or if it was already here,
Dennis has visited T&T twice, and explored possible links but the Merikins came from my area and the low country
between the Gullah people and Trinidad’s Merikins — descendants of Georgia, Virginia, and I think as far as Louisana. They
of African-American soldiers who were given land in south Trinidad settled in Moruga.
as a reward for fighting for the British in the War of 1812. Dennis Francis hit me on Facebook, he wanted to do this rice
is one of a group of contemporary culinarians shedding light on symposium. We connected, and he’s like family to me
historic foodways in the American South and across the African now. So we did the rice symposium and we were up in the
diaspora. When he was in Trinidad in November 2017, we spoke mountains with this rice. Before I came to Trinidad, Slow
about his blossoming relationship with the Caribbean.
Food [an international organisation devoted to food heritage]
had this top ten list of foods that were missing, and
number one was this rice. I get into the fields in Moruga
and I’m looking at this rice — African glaberrima, the scientific name — and I’m thinking,
this is it, still growing here.
I just came back from Haiti, where I connected with a farmer who I gave some seeds
from back home, and he told me he hadn’t seen it since he was a kid. So that means it
was in Haiti too! I also saw it in a Puerto Rican cookbook, so it might have been there
as well. What we know for sure is that it’s still growing in Trinidad.
I read that you found our bene (sesame seed) balls and that was a revelation for you.
That was a huge connection! I got off the plane in Tobago and saw what you all call
toolum, which is the coconut and molasses. A professor, Dr David Shields, he always
sends out stuff about old things that are missing. The Gullah street candy used to be
done by old Gullah ladies — they were the bene seed balls and the coconut molasses
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