School of Social and Political Science

Description

Abstract

Scholars of the Colombian Exchange tend to focus on staple crops and the breadfruit. However, for the descendants of the Africans forcibly transported to the Americas, many other “minor crops” and “forgotten foods” seem to have criss-crossed the oceans with them, playing a critical role in resistance both under slavery and in the post-Emancipation Era. We will employ storytelling and documents explore the subaltern histories of some medicinal and culinary plants, including those that may also have been used to strengthen the spirit.

Biographical notes 

Anthony Richards, BSc UWI Biologial Science, PhD Biotechnology, Kings College London

Dr Richards is a consultant in cultural landscape heritage for Wild Caribbean Ltd, based in Barbados. His current projects involve the development of ancestral school gardens for climate justice with Maroon & Taino, in collaboration with colleagues in Jamaica and the Edinburgh. 

He is particularly grateful to be the inheritor of a family tradition of storytelling and masquerade performance. It is no surprise that he has a special interest in the exploring spiritual connections across the African diaspora, through the stories told by elders about culinary and sacred plants.