
Additionally, the cooking techniques of West Africans were quite varied and encompassed frying, baking, stewing, smoking, salting, drying and pickling. He argues that African foodways, particularly those of the Igbo and Mende of West Africa, were influence first by Iberian traders and later by Arabs, making Africa an integral part of global dietary transformation during the Columbian Exchange. Taking a longue durée approach to his book, Opie sees the opening of the world during the Age of Exploration as a process that included Africa.

In this vein, Opie is running counter to Atlantic-World historians who claim African traditions as the basis for African-American foodways as well as Southern scholars who have neglected soul food’s African heritage. xi) Thus Opie is claiming that soul food is a distinctly African-America cuisine that has been influenced by, rather than derivative of, other cultures. … is the intellectual invention and property of African Americans” (p.

And soul is putting a premium on suffering, endurance, and surviving with dignity. Soul is black spirituality and experiential wisdom. Opie argues that “Soul is the style of rural folk culture. In Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America, Frederick Douglas Opie attempts to understand the formation and transformation of soul food in African-America culture.
