The University of Rhode Island’s Multicultural Student Services Center hosted a soul food workshop that bridged cultures through cuisine and history on Thursday, Feb. 19.
“Today, even though we’re talking about the history of soul food, we are not talking about mac and cheese, collard greens, cabbage and fried chicken,” Brandford Davis ’11, host of the event and owner of catering company Munchies PVD, said. “We’re getting to the essence of the origin.”
All four of the sample foods provided, such as fufu and pepper soup from Liberia and sancocho from the Dominican Republic, incorporated plantains, a fruit very similar to bananas.
“The food we sampled included plantains, whether in chip form, fried or boiled,” Olivia Andrade, a fourth-year student who attended the event said. “It was interesting to see the different ways it could be prepared.”
Davis had all attendees write on a sticky note what plantains were and then asked people to share with those around them what they wrote. Almost all participants had eaten plantains before in various different forms across different cultures.
The term soul food originated from African American slaves using food scraps to survive, according to Davis. However many cultures across the world have comforting traditional meals, their own soul foods.
For Davis, Black History Month is about understanding his roots in Africa. Davis read a poem he wrote in his sixth year at URI titled “Mother Africa.”
“America is a great land but not my land,” Davis said when reciting the poem. “A root is the place where something begins. Where it springs into being. I am an African; my ancestors, my heritage, my values and spirituality come from Africa. Because my geopolitical position is in America, I must return back to my roots, Mother Africa.”
Davis encouraged students to look back at their own cultural roots; to understand the future, a person must understand their past, he said.
“Food is a way of bringing us together, but what we do when we’re apart makes the difference,” Davis said.
Davis was an Africana Studies major at URI who spent his fifth year studying abroad in Cape Verde and returned to intern at the MSSC during his sixth year. These final two years of college helped Davis find his sense of identity.
“In all those years, I could only recall having three teachers of color,” Davis said. “So I distinctly, for two semesters [of my sixth year], seeked out all different teachers of color and took their courses.”
There have been many debates across cultures about the origin of plantains, according to Davis. Some people say they originated in Africa, and others say they’re from the Caribbean. Davis showed a Youtube video by Richardson Dackam that traced their origin to Malaysia.
There are multiple theories on how plantains arrived in Africa, including trade from Arab countries, Portuguese introduction and nomadic trade, according to Dackham. The Americas were introduced to the plant via the slave trade, where it became a staple in enslaved peoples diets.
Munchies PVD, Davis’ catering company, provides monthly pop-up food sales at 669 Elmwood Ave. in Providence as well as pre-scheduled catering events, according to his website.
