Likely, you have never heard of Misa Hylton before, but if I told you to think of the infamous purple jumpsuit Lil’ Kim wore, or Mary J. Blige in her Not Gon‘Cry music video, or even the brown MCM bodysuit Beyoncé wore in the Apes*** video you’d know what I was talking about. The incredibly talented Ms Hylton is the mastermind behind all of those looks and more. So who is Misa Hylton, and why don’t we know her name?
Misa Hylton attends the 2018 Tribeca Studios and MCM Sneak Preview Of Women’s Hip Hop in NYC.
Since the beginning of time, Black people have been the blueprint. We are the trendsetters, innovators, and trailblazers. However, often it seems we are not credited for our ideas and innovations. Our names are left out of mainstream history books; we are overlooked and eventually forgotten.
That seems to be the case for Misa Hylton. Born in New York in the 1970s, Misa always had a passion for fashion. She first pursued her love of clothing and style at the young age of 17. Her friend Sean Combs (aka Puff Daddy/P Diddy) asked for help on a music video for an R&B group he was in charge of at the time – Jodeci. At that time, R&B singers were known for their formal wear in music videos. Suppose you think back to the old 80s and early 90s music videos. In that case, you’ll notice that (male) artists were often in (incredibly baggy) suits and top hats. R&B had an air of sophistication and formality. Misa decided she was tired of that aesthetic. Inspired by her love of hip-hop, she had a vision for the Jodeci video that moved away from the status quo. Misa wanted to put the group in combat boots and hoodies. Now, this may not seem so outlandish to us sitting here in 2022, but in the 90s, this was unheard of. Music executive Andre Harrell initially rejected Misa and Sean’s plans; he thought the pair were out of pocket for even considering it! But they fought for their idea, and eventually, Andre agreed. You can see the fruits of their labour in the Gotta Love music video.
Lil’ Kim at the 1999 VMAs. This iconic look was styled by Misa Hylton who styled many of Lil’ Kim’s most iconic and stylish looks.
Misa’s work on that video created a new aesthetic in the world of R&B fashion. She gained many more clients in the industry. These musicians, producers, and other artists wanted a new, cooler look. But arguably, her most important work is what she achieved with women in the music industry. Being a woman in any industry can be a rough time, but being a Black woman often adds an extra layer of adversity. Misa regularly worked with Mary J. Blige and Lil’ Kim, helping them find their place in a challenging industry. Mary J. Blige had been known for her signature bandana, and baggy tee look. Growing up as a self-proclaimed tomboy, combined with the fact that she was breaking out into a male-dominated industry, these were the clothes she felt most comfortable in. After meeting Misa Hylton, Mary explored her look a little more and made it more feminine whilst still being comfortable. Lil’ Kim was a very talented artist in the heavily male-dominated world of rap. During the 90s, many female rappers opted to wear baggy clothing to try and fit in with their peers, but Lil’ Kim decided to go against the grain and instead use her femininity to her advantage. With the help of Misa, Kim was able to show that women are allowed to be sexy and talented, and that one didn’t hinder the other. Of course, her most iconic look was the purple pasty jumpsuit worn to the 1999 MTV VMAs, but another iconic look was the Crush On You music video, once again styled by Misa. In this video, every scene featured a monochromatic look, where Kim was in the same colour from head to toe, literally. This had never been done before, and I’m sure others on Kim’s team were sceptical at first, but the video ended up being a huge success, and the look has been recreated many times since then.
Lil’ Kim, Mary J. Blige, and Misa Hylton – long time friends in fashion, music, style, hip-hop, and Black womanhood.
These two stories are an essential part of Misa Hylton’s legacy. They show how imperative it is to have Black women in the creative industry, helping other Black women reach their full potential.
Misa Hylton is an integral part of Black cultural history. Her work deserves to be recognised – loudly!
For more information on Misa and her work, we’d recommend The Remix: Hip-Hop x Fashion on Netflix. The documentary shows just how talented this woman truly is and how much she had on both the music and fashion industries.
Fashion plays a central part within Black culture and identity. The clothes, outfits, and accessories that we wear tell stories about our heritages and histories, as well as the traditions and skills that are passed down within material construction creative processes. Many items of clothing or accessories have become indicative of a shared cultural experience with a long history behind them. Within these long histories, it is important to look to the Black designers and artistic pioneers who shaped the global fashion history, in order to understand the industry as we know it today. One such pioneer is Daniel Day, now known as Dapper Dan.
Daniel Day was born in 1974, in Harlem. He is a self-taught tailor with a unique style who made a name for himself through the legendary Harlem couturier he opened in 1982, “Dapper Dan’s Boutique”. His life opened to the backdrop of the Great Migration as his parents arrived in New York during a time when millions of African-Americans were fleeing from the South. Growing up very poor with a Garveyite mother, Dapper Dan experienced and heard many stories of the Pan-African movement, as well as the difficulties his parents and their families faced from being Black in America. His paternal grandfather had been born into enslavement and later freed, and his father, who worked three jobs to make ends meet, had come to Harlem alone at the age of 12 – just 35 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
With a strong determination to improve his situation, Dapper Dan’s teenage hustles moved from shoe-shining to betting games, where he used his book smarts to earn thousands of dollars a day, even outperforming his mentor, the original Dapper Dan who passed the name to him. By his early 20’s, however, Dapper Dan had been arrested for dealing drugs and used prison as an opportunity to get clean. While incarcerated, he began to write essays on Pan-Africanism, and upon his release, he took a tour of Africa as part of an educational programme sponsored by Columbia University and the civil rights organisation the National Urban League. Becoming aware of unique takes on western fashion during his time in Africa, Dapper Dan used this as inspiration in his “Africanisation” of high-end European fashion houses. In his words, “I had been to Africa and knew that I could make the same things that [luxury fashion houses] rejected me for – and to make it better.”
Dapper Dan struggled to source textiles or buy goods from designer stores due to his location and race, and for a while had to sell stolen designer goods from the boot of his car. Dapper Dan’s experiences growing up and working on his business led him to develop a consciousness about “the trials and tribulations associated with being Black”. As such, his custom pieces focused on reworked logo prints from designer fashion houses that had overlooked Black clientele. He understood what wearing a designer logo meant to his customers and how it made them feel.
Working on “bootlegged” fabrics he designed himself, Dapper Dan’s screen-printed monograms of Fendi, Louis Vuitton, MCM, and Gucci made him a pioneer in luxury streetwear that became the symbol of the styles and fashion of early 90s rap culture. He quickly gained a strong client base of hip-hop rap stars, athletes, and those who liked to play the books. Notable examples include retired Olympic runner, Diane Dixon, hip-hop rap trio, Salt-n-Pepa, and heavyweight boxing legend, Mike Tyson. Dapper Dan also went on to invent a new process for screen printing onto leather that would later be used for luxury automobile interiors.
Unpacking the interconnectedness of Black Atlantic languages whilst disrupting linguistic supremacy through a decolonial lens.
As words like Lit, Snitch, Tings, Gwarn, Gyal, Dem, Dey, Nyash and Bae have become words used by Black British English speakers and have effectively been creolised into Black British English. It is important we better understand the particular uniqueness of Language creation and continuity in Black Communities globally. The words mentioned above are from three languages African American Vernacular English AAVE, Pidgin and Patios. It is with this that we must recognise the importance and history of Black language practices so that we as speakers of this language see and speak about our cultural production from a decolonial and Black centred lens.
In this piece, I will be unpacking the histories of three Black languages through AAVE, Patios and Black British English and expanding on the ongoing need to look at and celebrate these languages from a decolonial lens. I use Paul Gilroy’s term Black Atlantic to expand on the interconnectedness of Africa, The Caribbean, African Americans and the UK. Gilroy created this term with his book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), it identifies a hybrid [Black] culture that spans the Atlantic, connecting Africa, North and South America, The Caribbean and Europe. For the purposes of discussions on Black languages in the Diaspora, it is key to start at the point that led to the creation of these languages- the forced kidnapping and enslavement of Africans to the new world.
The Black Atlantic and Language Creation
The creation of Black languages and their continued usage serves as a decolonial intervention into white linguistic supremacy. This is because English in and of itself is a colonial and imperial linguistic inheritance. Creole languages are formed in conditions where speakers from various distinct languages are forcefully brought together without a shared first language, often under the domination of speakers from one of the languages and in the context of this piece the transatlantic enslavement trade, white supremacy and European colonialism. A Creole language that demonstrates this is Skepi- a Guyanese Creole; Dahlia & Hubert Devonish explain that it has for an Atlantic Creole, an extraordinary number of lexical items and syntactic markers from a single West African language cluster, Eastern Ijo, and Kalabari in particular. (Smith et al 1987; Robertson 1991; Kouwenberg 1994).
This has led to a unique language creation legacy with Black communities that has allowed us to survive and to communicate in a way in which our oppressors would not understand us but also enabled enslaved Africans to preserve, code and creolise their African linguistic heritage within a new language. Eric Williams further typifies this by noting that Ebonics is the linguistic and para-linguistic consequence of the African slave trade. It developed in West Africa, as well as throughout the former European colonies of North and South America wherever slaves were sold into bondage.
The legacy of Africanised English structures and Black British English following that legacy
The creation of Black British English follows the globalised pattern of African descended communities creating and using language as a form of resistance and cultural retention. Black British English sits at the intersect of the Jamaican Language ( Patios), West African Creole ( Pidgin) and African American Vernacular English alongside new words and phrases created by Black British speakers like Doing up, Moving mad, Bare, Buff, Peak, Peng, Clocked, Pagan, Gassed and the lexicology goes on. Black British people by engaging and speaking in Black British English are preserving and furthering ancestral linguistic practices against the imperialist reach of white mainstreamed English. Black British English speakers are doing what Dr April Baker Bell describes as knowing the world through their cultural ways of being and knowing, their community and their blackness.
Black British speakers by also adapting and incorporating Black global linguistic trends and words are keeping the Black language tradition alive. This can actively be seen with Black British Language speakers using terms like ‘it’s Giving and Pushin P’. ‘Pushin P’ is an AAVE term developed in the Bay Area and popularised by Rapper Gunna B. ‘It’s Giving’ is a term created by Queer AAVE speakers that was further popularised by Black American Women.
Black languages like all languages have adapted and taken from each other. This process is known as Cognates- Cognates are words that are etymologically related or descended from the same language or form. Words like Magnificent taken from the French language and used within Standard English is a cognate. In Black British English, the greeting term ‘Wagwarn’ taken from The Jamaican Language (Patios) is an example of a Cognate.
False cognates are words whose similarity in form or sound may be coincidental or the result of mutual influence, but they are not etymologically related. In Black British English (BBE) an example of this is the use of the word Bare would form a false cognate as its usage in BBE is different from that of white standardised English. Bare in BBE means lots and in Mainstreamed English it means uncovered.
Examples of the creolised Black British English
Language Supremacy and Anti-Black Linguistic Racism
Rusty Barrett, a professor of linguistics states ‘there are a number of linguistic studies that demonstrate that ideas about “correctness” are based on social prejudice rather than linguistic facts.’ It is important that we have this in mind when looking at Black languages under white supremacy. white supremacy permeates all aspects of society and language is not exempt. We see an encoding of white supremacy through the perceived language supremacy of English. The means by which whiteness has globalised the supremacy of the English language is through imperial and colonial domination, all of which produced institutionalised values and hierarchies within societies that served/s white elites.
Linguists identify ‘‘standard’’ languages as political constructs, having little to do with the inherent linguistic structure of any given language, as all languages are in fact created by humans for the purpose of communication, there cannot be an inherent form of language supremacy.
A universal principle that sociolinguistics maintain is that speakers who hold positions of political influence and economic power in this case white elites are then the very individuals who set and maintain linguistic standards in society.
Like other forms of discrimination, the idea that Standardised English is inherently better than other Black languages places an unfair burden on Black Language speakers who must continually accommodate those who hold negative and anti-Black attitudes toward them and/or their languages.
These positions and attitudes also fall within a raciolinguistic ideology- which is the dominant practice of racialising language and framing racialised speakers ( in this case Black Language Speakers) in negative ways, the linguistic practices of racialised populations are systematically stigmatized regardless of the extent to which these practices might seem to correspond to standardized norms”. (Rosa & Flores, 2017, p. 3)
Rusty Barrett reminds us that ‘prejudice against speakers of undervalued varieties often comes with arguments that only the standard variety is able to express nuanced meanings, encode logical thought, or produce good writing. Yet again, none of these beliefs has a valid basis in linguistic facts. All varieties of all languages are capable of expressing nuanced or subtle distinctions in meaning.’ The practice of policing and shunning Black languages is known as Anti-Black Linguistic Racism. Dr April baker Bell coined this term and explains it as the following- Anti-black linguistic racism refers to the linguistic violence, persecution, dehumanization, and marginalization that Black Language (BL) speakers endure when using their language in schools and everyday life. It includes teachers’ silencing, correcting, and policing students when they communicate in BL. It is the belief that there is something inherently wrong with BL; therefore, it should be eradicated. It is denying Black students the right to use their native language as a linguistic resource during their language and literacy learning. It is requiring that Black students reject their language and culture to acquire White Mainstream English(WME), and it is also insisting that Black students code-switch to avoid discrimination.
It is important to understand that even Black language (BL) speakers can also internalise the mainstreamed negative narrative and attitude about Black languages. This is seen when ‘Black students’ language practices are suppressed in classrooms [ and mainstream society]or they begin to absorb messages that imply that BL is deficient, wrong, and unintelligent, this could cause them to internalize anti-blackness and develop negative attitudes about their linguistic, racial, cultural, and intellectual identities and about themselves. As with internalized racism, students who absorb negative ideologies about their native language may develop a sense of linguistic inferiority.’ This is why Black language scholars advocate for the cultivation of Black Linguistic Consciousness. A practice prioritises the reversing of anti-Black Linguistic Racism whilst providing Black people with the tools to make language political choices that call for the intentional employment of Black Language. This they describe as the exercising of liberation. They remind us that it is imperative that Black people learn Black Language through Black Language; that is, they learn the rich roots and rhetorical rules of Black Language.
How we can overcome and push back against Anti-Black Linguistic Racism
Firstly, we must begin to see the ways in which we speak across the Black Atlantic as part of a rich legacy and heritage of a unique language creation practice. It is through doing this we can start to truly appreciate and explore the Bilingualism of Black Language speakers. We need to recognise that Black Language speakers like other Bilingual speakers exhibit advantages in several areas of executive function, including working memory, inhibitory control. Research on Bilingualism also shows bilingual advantages in executive function are not limited to the brain’s language networks. Researchers have used brain imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate which brain regions are active when bilingual people perform tasks in which they are forced to alternate between their two languages. For instance, when bilingual people have to switch between naming pictures in Spanish and naming them in English, they show increased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a brain region associated with cognitive skills like attention and inhibition. We must ensure Black communities are equally entitled to be provided with bilingual education in both Black languages and the dominant language they manoeuvre within. There needs to be a push towards a linguistic education that does not penalise and disregard and interiorise Black creativity and language ways. We need an education practice and cultural acceptance of the brilliance of Black languages and the unique skills akin to Black language speakers due to their bilingualism.
This blog was originally written and published on Medium.com, it is available here to read.
In this blog post, I look at famous Black cowboys and the influence they had on ‘cowboy culture’ in the US. I also explore the vital relevance Black cowboys have in our community today: including the sense of self-worth cultivated and developed by contemporary Black cowboy programmes.
Let’s get into it!
History of the Term ‘Cowboy’
Nat Love – Kansas Historical Society
So, who were Black cowboys? Black cowboys were typically formerly enslaved people in the American south and west. David Goldstein-Shirley’s 1997 paper “Black Cowboys in the American West: An Historiographical Review” unearths the origin of the term “cowboy” as being the derogatory appellation of the Black men working in ranches, whereas their white counterparts were called “cowhands”. According to LeRoi Jones and Philip Durham’s seminal book from 1965 “The Negro Cowboys”, roughly 1 in every 4 cowboys (more than 5000 people) were Black during the height of the West. Yet, we seldom see them represented in cultural depictions of the “Wild West”. The presence and cultural contributions of African-Americans to the West has been downplayed, and until recently – erased.
Nat Love – Most Famous Black Cowboy
Film still from Concrete Cowboy
The most famous of all Black cowboys was Nat Love. He was also known as ‘Deadwood Dick’. Nat Love was born into enslavement in 1854 in Davidson County Tennessee. Nat Love became a cowboy when he was approached during breakfast by a trail boss who offered him a job. The trail boss gave young Nat Love the responsibility of breaking the wildest horse in the outfit named Good Eye. Nat would later go on to say it was the toughest ride he had ever done. He successfully trained the horse and got a job that paid $30 a month at the Duval Ranch. Today that would be equivalent to $995.72 US dollars per month (roughly £730). Did you also know that Nat Love’s memoir the “Life and Adventures of Nat Love” is one of the only firsthand accounts of an African-American cowhand in the western United States from this period.
Film & Cowboys: History Rewritten
Cowboys in popular old western films in which all-white casts and representations of cowboy culture that centers whiteness, is a gross misrepresentation of the true history of cowboy culture in the US. Unfortunately, this has occurred for a few reasons. The first is that generally in cinema and media there is a visual scarcity of Black faces due to the long and exclusionary history of the media industry. Secondly, American historians for a long time have neglected, omitted, and written out the history of Black cowboys. Lastly, history regularly is re-written to exclude and push forward narratives that uplift whiteness and erase accountability of historical and ongoing white villainy.
Nevertheless, recent films such as Django Unchained, Concrete Cowboy, The Magnificent Seven, and the recently released The Harder They Fall. These films uniquely and creatively capture and show that Black cowboys existed and that cowboy culture was influenced by Black and Indigenous communities. Some of these films also offer a notable cross-over between Afrofuturism and the restoration of representation of Black cowboys in science-fiction films such as Cowboy Bebop which features a Black lead in a dystopian future. Another notable film is the 1999 Wild Wild West featuring Will Smith, which also has a great rap song associated with the film! We of course cannot forget the recent banger and ultimate #YeehawAgenda song Old Town Road by Lil Nas X.
Contemporary Cowboy Community Groups
This is the story of The Compton Cowboys and Keiara Wade, the group’s solo cowgirl. Together on June 7th, 2020, they led a peace ride through their hometown in the name of Black lives. It was a community defining moment and America took notice; the Compton Cowboys were searched on Google more than ever before. To read more about Keiara’s story visit https://g.co/comptoncowboys.
The Broken Arrow Horseback Riding Club and The Compton Cowboys are a few of the last remaining private equestrian clubs trying to reconnect the hidden Black history of horsemanship. These groups aim to redefine contemporary understandings and representations of cowboy culture. The Compton Cowboys aim to develop a new generation of cowboys in America’s ‘urban heartland’. They believe that horseback riding and working with livestock offers an opportunity for strong bonds to be made between young Black people who diligently care for horses. The Compton Cowboys were the inspiration and influence for the movie ‘Concrete Cowboys’. “Concrete Cowboys” is a coming-of-age journey of a young Black teen who endeavors to find positive influences through bonding with and training horses as he is faced with the difficult challenges of his reality.
The relevance this has on today’s community cannot be overstated. Events like the Kentucky Derby or the Royal Ascots which feature prominent white equestrians and attendees are arguably the exception and not the rule when you look at the history of cowboys and horseback riding. For example, in the 1870s Silver Walker was one of the most talented horse racers of his time. In fact, the winning jockey of the first Kentucky Derby was Black. Until the early 1900s, there were many Black jockey winners, such as Ike Murphy, who won the Kentucky Derby three times. Revisiting the history of Black cowboys improves the racial esteem of Black communities and works to subvert the idea that farming, horse training, and other related activities are somehow exclusively white-only activities.
Hopefully, you walk away understanding the key role that Black cowboys have played in shaping that history and challenging white narratives of the Wild West! If you want to learn more about Black cowboys check out our podcast episode about Black cowboys!
Food is a big deal in the US and Black food is an even bigger deal. We have all seen pictures of the elaborate and hearty cookouts, barbecues, seafood boils, Juneteenth celebrations, and the festive holiday meals that Black Americans make. So, what makes their meals different? The answer is Soul.
“Soul food is one of the many ways enslaved Africans were able to keep a link to their original homes and traditions.”
Soul food is one of the many ways enslaved Africans were able to keep a link to their original homes and traditions. It was a way for them to create an identity for themselves in this foreign land of America. The term ‘Soul Food’ itself became popular in the 1960s/70s during the Black Power Movement.
You can see the cultural retention of West and Central Africa food ways on Black American foods, from the ingredients put in dishes. Ingredients like hot peppers, okra, rice, and black-eyed peas to name a few. The methods used to cook food, methods like roasting meat over open fire, frying in palm oil and more were also retained in African-American cooking styles. During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, enslaved Africans in an effort to replenish and retain their cultures took the food provisions that were available to them and impressed their traditional cooking styles and flavours to develop a cuisine and delicacy that was unique to their history and experiences both during and after enslavement. The recipes and meals found in Soul Food tell a rich history of the origins of enslaved Africans, the journey of the Middle Passage, the fight for emancipation, and the resilience and strength that defines the Black American community.
Crab cleaning in South Georgia.
Now for our favourite foods and their history…
Gumbo – Louisiana
If you’ve watched The Princess and the Frog then you’ll be familiar with this dish. Originating from the Louisiana Creole tradition in New Orleans, Gumbo is the official state cuisine of Louisiana, and rightly so. It’s a stew usually made with shrimp, chicken and sausage served with rice.
It combines culinary practices from Africa, France, Spain, and Indigenous Americans. It is a real melting pot of cultures. It also includes the African top three ingredients, which I hope you haven’t forgotten – onions, tomatoes, and hot peppers. Cooked for at least three hours, gumbo is definitely a dish that has a lot of heart and soul in it.
Pepper Pot – Philadelphia
This dish is interesting because when I think of pepper pot, Philadelphia doesn’t come to mind. I automatically think of countries in the Caribbean such as Guyana, Grenada, or Trinidad and Tobago. Philly’s pepper pot can be traced as far back as the 1600s and is said to have been imported by West Indians who ‘moved’ to the area, but became popular in the 19th century when Black women started selling it on the street. It was so popular, that Campbell’s Soup Company started selling it in tins in 1899 and didn’t stop producing it until 2010. The canned soup kept the legacy of pepper pot soup alive for a little longer as the dish had started to become less popular in Philadelphia restaurants in the 1990s.
Newspaper archive clipping of advertisement of Campbell’s ‘pepper pot soup’.
It is impossible to talk about Black food in America without mentioning hot sauce. It’s a staple in their cuisine, the perfect accompaniment to any savoury dish. Not too different from the use of shitto in West African cuisine. Usually made from tabasco or cayenne peppers, hot sauce adds a little heat to any dish.
Collard greens are another Black American staple food. Collards are vegetables that have large green leaves and tough stems. Collard greens are usually cooked with pork (bacon or ham hock). The dish is so popular that in 2011 it became the official dish of South Carolina.
The Food of Juneteenth
Juneteenth was a lesser known holiday to those outside of the US, but to Black Americans it is an extremely important day of celebrating and remembering. On 19th June, Black Americans commemorate the day that the last of the enslaved Africans were notified of their freedom in 1865.
Image courtesy of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.
The main feature of the Juneteenth feasts are the ‘red foods’, used as a remembrance of the bloodshed of the enslaved. Some of the featured red food dishes are watermelon, tomato salad, red velvet cake, and strawberry pie. The seemingly most important part of a Juneteenth celebration is the famous red drink. Made from the hibiscus flower, it is usually served in Kool-Aid or as a Jamaican Sorrel. The drink comes with a long history that acknowledges the culinary traditions and goods, brought over to America by enslaved Africans.
Black foods are a staple of American culture. Taking influence from other Black countries around the world, Black people living in America were able to establish their own culinary identity, one that is recognised globally.
We’re back for another installment of ‘Black Foods In…’ and today we are looking at foods eaten in South America and the Caribbean.
So how did Black foods (and people) end up in South America and the Caribbean?
I think the answer is simple, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade — the forced kidnapping of Africans who were brought to the Americas during the 15th century and on. These Africans brought with them their culinary skills and knowledge and adapted it to the foods native to their new homes. They also brought with them their cooking methods such as; frying, boiling/simmering, roasting, and steaming (usually wrapping foods in large leaves from different fruit trees). These methods are still used throughout South America and the Caribbean (Alexa, play Chi Ching Ching – Roast or Fry).
Our favourite foods in focus
Rice and Peas – Jamaica
In Ghana there’s a dish called Waakye, it is the ancestor of Rice and Peas. The cooking method and ingredients may differ but the similarities are impossible to ignore. Think of it as a long-lost great-uncle.
Cast your mind back to the post about foods in Africa, we spoke about how grains like rice were a staple due to the ease of being able to grow it cheaply. This same principle followed Africans to Jamaica and so the dish of Rice and Peas was born. For bonus points, I hope you also remember the three base ingredients of African cooking. Two parts of the three feature in almost all Caribbean dishes – onions and peppers/spices. No dish worth its salt (see what I did there) can exist without these two ingredients; and though it is a fairly simple dish, Rice and Peas is no exception to this rule.
“Why use beans but call them peas?”
There’s always confusion when non-Black people make this dish and so you often end up seeing white rice with green garden peas, rather than flavoured rice with kidney beans. Why use beans but call them peas? Maybe it’s because you can also use gungo peas (formally known as pigeon peas) and red cow peas to make the dish. In all honesty, it just seems to be a tradition that has been passed down through generations without much explanation.
Ackee – The Caribbean
Often visually mistaken for scrambled eggs, ackee is a soft fluffy fruit found in the Caribbean. As the national fruit of Jamaica it plays a big part in the island’s cuisine, with it most famously being paired with saltfish to make an amazing breakfast dish or side dish to go with your dinner (here’s an easy recipe to try out). However the fruit has a deadly side. If it isn’t picked, deseeded and cleaned properly it can cause serious health issues, which is why many countries including the UK & US, only allow it to be imported already canned.
Mofongo – Puerto Rico
Here’s a picture for this one because I know you said “who??” after reading that word. A dish made from mashed plantain; it hails from the West African Fufu. Although it has a different consistency and flavour, you can see the similarities in the way it is eaten. The Dominican Republic have their own version which is called Mangú and is made from cassava.
Delicious mofongo 😍
Feijoada – Brazil
This is Brazil’s national dish. I know, a Black food is a South American national dish, crazy right?
The stew’s main ingredient is soaked black beans, with seasonings and various meats added along the way. When money and resources were scarce for enslaved Africans, they would have to make the best of whatever they could find. In this dish you’re likely to find a variety of cuts of meat. The dish has links back to several African countries such as Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde
Acarajé – Brazil
Also known as; Akara (Yoruba), Kosai (Hausa) and Kose (Ghana), these little balls of peeled beans deep fried in oil are the perfect snack. It travelled to the streets of Brazil with the enslaved West Africans and has become a staple in Brazilian cuisine. But the little balls of joy are more than just a tasty snack, they have important cultural and historical significance. The bean cake is reported to have made its way to Bahia in the 19th century and was sold as street food. Earnings from its sale was used to sometimes buy the freedom of enslaved family members until the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888 while serving as a source of family income.
Acarajé is also used as a religious offering in the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé. It is a food of many talents!
The most inspiring part of this is how heavily influenced South American food is by Black African cuisine. Really showing that they are a part of the rich historical tapestry that makes up many South American communities. Black foods in South America and The Caribbean have become staple foods and we love that for us.
The emergence of jungle music in the early 1990s deserves a special spot on the timeline of Black British music. The unique blend of reggae, reggaeton, dancehall, hip-hop, soul and funk sounds was built on a foundation of Black British artists, yet enjoyed commercially by the masses. Jungle music and the surrounding community marked a safe space for young Black people to partake in their own ‘rave-style’ events.
“If jungle was for the [B]lack, working-class youths, then acid house was for white, working-class youths.”
The roots of jungle music are widely acknowledged as stemming from Black creators, inspired by the generational sounds of the Windrush generation. Black Jungle artists were viewed as pioneering creators: Goldie, Rebel MC (noted for popularising the label ‘jungle’), Shy Fx, LTJ Bukem, and DJ Ron were household names for anyone in the Jungle music sphere. Writing in the late 1990s, David Hesmondhalgh noted this public appreciation for the Black origins of Jungle music, stating:
“Just as house music gained credibility from its origins in a [B]lack, underground scene, jungle gained much of its significance for white audiences from its roots in ‘hidden’ [B]lack British institutions: pirate radio stations, and dance clubs attended by predominantly [B]lack crowds.”
The rapid rise and fall in jungle music’s popularity might seem, on the surface, to represent the fast-paced nature of modern trends. Unfortunately, the truth lies uncomfortably on a bed of anti-Black racism. Jungle music as a Black art form naturally drew audiences of young, Black people, looking to, for a moment, escape the pressures that accompanied being a young Black person in a post-Thatcherite society. And those who simply wanted to enjoy a party space created with their creolised history and identity in mind. Gatherings that attract significant numbers of Black people have always been police targets. Marc Mac, interviewed by Kwame Safo for Mixmag, spoke on this:
“I do think it’s got to do with a lot of the outside institutional pressures, from policing, from government and putting pressure on the clubs because they could see jungle being a very Black entity, so then you’re going to get this backlash.”
The solution? Jungle was rebranded and colonised into the much more palatable drum and bass: a genre that can be seen as the whitewashing and gentrification of jungle. Drum and bass was a repackaged version of jungle music, headed by white DJs and musicians such as Sub Focus, Netsky, and Chase and Status. The erasure of Black creators and listeners was noticeable and unsavoury, but unfortunately not unfamiliar.
“So I think those people making the policies were putting pressure on the clubs at the time, and the promoters could see that “ok if we call this a different night and we eliminate the jungle side of it, which is becoming very associated with the Black side of it, then we can get through and not have the hassle from the police and get out late licences and so on”. It’s almost like the hand was forced a bit to eliminate the Black side of it.”
The erasure of Black jungle artists paralleled the invisibility of Black women in the arena. Julia Toppin, a jungle historian, noted “[t]here were loads of women in the scene, but those contributions have not been appropriately documented. The women that were working in the background, the agents, the managers – all those things have been missing,”. It is important to acknowledge that even if the efforts of Black, male, jungle artists were re-written to conform to the white gaze, the efforts of the Black women involved were never even recognised.
Whilst jungle has attempted some mainstream re-emergence, its peak in popularity remains firmly grounded in the past. It is clear to see how racism and anti-Blackness played a vital role in its demise.
We all love food, right? Eating it, cooking it, even watching other people cook it. But have you ever thought about the history of the food you love to eat?
Today we are going to look at Black foods in Africa, mainly focusing on West Africa but we will take a quick trip around the rest of the continent too. When you think of (West) African food, what comes to mind? Jollof rice? Stew? Plantain? Pounded yam?Moi Moi? Egusi soup? Waakye? Cassava? Or Cassava Leaf stew? Let’s think about where these foods came from and why they are so important to the continent.
“African cooking is a part of
the universal human experience.”
James C. McCann
As James C. McCann notes, ‘African cooking is a part of the universal human experience. Sauces, oils, herbs, and spices add flavour and texture to primary ingredients and remove food “from the state of nature and smother it in art.”A cuisine is thus a collection of dishes and meals that mark a distinct culture much in the way that styles of dress, music, or dance do. Cuisines behave like language families in that they are bodies of knowledge and practice “mutually intelligible” between several societies, locations, and ethnic identities.’
To fully explore African foods and cuisines, we first have to establish our geographical context. The first thing we know is that Africa has a warm and tropical hot climate. This of course has an effect on what can be grown and produced. Farmers have to base their harvests on the rainfall patterns and so they have to work smart and hard. Root vegetables and grains such as rice, yams, and cassava are staples in African dishes as they are easy and low-cost to grow. Peanuts are also a big part of West African cooking, often used to make soups and stews. Peanut oil is also used often as an alternative to palm and coconut oils. The grasslands found in these countries allow farmers to rear animals – cattle, goats and chicken, which is why these proteins are often in your favourite soups and stews.
The basis of almost all dishes are tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers. If you have not started your cooking prep with these three things, you are almost definitely not doing it right! We don’t make the rules, we are just here to enforce them. 😉
OUR FAVOURITE FOODS IN FOCUS
Jollof Rice
Photo courtesy of @simshomekitchen
The great debate, who’s jollof rice is better? Ghana or Nigeria? It’s a debate as old as time but did you know the dish does not even originate from either of these countries? Jollof rice can be traced back to the 14th century Wolof Empire, which was made of what is now Senegal & Gambia. It is believed that the dish then spread to other countries thanks to the far reaching Mali Empire.
Remember I told you about the three most important base ingredients of African cooking? No matter what country you’re from, your jollof must start with those three ingredients. Recipes start to differ after this; different countries use different rice grains (long grain versus basmati), and some countries add extra vegetables such as carrots and green peas. Regardless of how the dish is prepared, everyone can agree it tastes amazing!
Feel like trying out Senegambian jollof? Here’s a recipe you can use, make sure to let us know how it goes!
“West Africans have always had to be resourceful with their cuisine. Innovative and easy is the main theme throughout West African dishes but that does not mean that flavour has to be limited.”
These are some of the various names for fried plantain across Africa. Served as a snack, starter, or side dish; plantain is a staple in African food. There’s an art to plantain, different cuts for different dish types, Ghanaians add spices to make Kelewele, Nigerians pair it with gizzard to create Gizdodo.
It’s a simple but tasty food which is easy to prepare and is the first stove top dish that many West African children learn to cook alone.
Puff-puff
Photo courtesy of @puffpuffministry
Also known as Bofroat (Ghana), Mikate (Congo), Akara (Sierra Leone), and Mandazi (Uganda).
It is made of flour, yeast, sugar, butter, salt, and water. These little balls of dough bring joy with every bite. They can be eaten as a breakfast food or as a snack or sometimes even as a side dish. However you choose to eat them just know that one certainly will not be enough.
Yam
Photo courtesy of Specialty Produce
Fondly known as the ‘King of Crops’, yams are known for their large size, distinctive taste and ability to feature in everyday dishes. The food is so revered that the Igbo people and other West Africans hold annual celebrations called The Yam Festival. During the festivities, which take place between August and September, farmers give thanks for a bountiful harvest and discard old crops, making space for new ones to be grown. Many rely on farming as their sole source of income and so this ritual is an integral part of life. In some cultures yam is also seen as a sign of fertility and is used as part of wedding ceremonies.
I could go on forever about Black foods in Africa but the main point is this. West Africans have always had to be resourceful with their cuisine. Innovative and easy is the main theme throughout West African dishes but that does not mean that flavour has to be limited. It’s also interesting to realise that many dishes are the same around the continent with just the slightest of alterations. And finally, if you take nothing else from this blog post, always remember – onions, tomatoes, and peppers are a must!!
Upon learning about the ‘language ban’ of Black British English (BBE) at Ark All Saints Academy, BLAM UK wrote an open letter detailing the harm caused by such practices and demanding the removal of it. In response, we received a short letter that ignored and misidentified language discrimination against Black British English (BBE) speakers.
The Middle English creole hypothesis, as it is known among linguists, provides evidence that English itself is a creole language. English is a mix of French, Latin, Celtic English and Western Germanic dialects. English borrowed many words from Old Norse following the Viking invasion and French was the official language of England after the Norman Conquest of 1066 by William the Conqueror of France until 1362. Prolonged contact between the two languages and the grammatical simplification of Middle English in comparison to Old English reinforce English’s position as a creole.
The “proper” English which forms the standardised English imposed in our classrooms today was designed by a BBC committee in the 1920s. The non-regional accent reflected a small aristocratic minority in Southern England, it was a further 20 years before the broadcasters would allow a regional (Yorkshire) accent on the air. Hundreds of years prior, the English tried to stamp out Welsh and Gaelic knowing that gaining control over a group of people who kept a strong sense of self would be challenging. This implicitly recognised the relationship between language and identity and became a tool used across the English colonies. It is an example of English linguistic imperialism – enforcing the dominance of English by continuously upholding structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages.
Language control and the cultural bomb
Ngũgĩ̃ wa Thiongʼo, the renowned Kenyan author, maintains in his book Decolonising the mind that the English language is an instrument of “spiritual subjugation” and native language should be embraced instead. He also believes that children learning through the colonial language will be forced to adopt the Eurocentric view of history that is told through the colonists’ viewpoint and presents images of what is civilised or barbaric. These negative images become internalised and association with their native language and culture becomes a source of embarrassment. (1986) He believes the enforcement of English acts as the wielding of a cultural bomb to:
‘…annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves. It makes them see their past as one wasteland of nonachievement and it makes them want to distance themselves from that wasteland. It makes them want to identify with that which is furthest removed from themselves; for instance, with other peoples’ languages rather than their own’ (p.3)
The new canon
Through Black British English, young Black Brits are taking back control of their language, and instead of encouraging them, schools are following historical patterns of linguistic injustice. April Baker-Bell (2020) dispels the myth that standard English is “the way educated people talk” and explores how Anti-Black Linguistic Racism persecutes Black-language speakers. She promotes linguistic justice as a way to centre the linguistic, cultural, racial, intellectual, and self-confidence needs of Black students.
Black British English has been showcased by renowned poets Linton Kwesi Johnson and Benjamin Zephaniah whose uncompromising use of the collectively created language reflects the themes of resistance in their work, would the language ban apply to them? In 2018 Stormzy and Penguin Random House UK launched #MerkyBooks (award-winning imprint) with a clear aim – to publish books that will own and change the mainstream. Merky books are an inclusive and intersectional home to voices from untraditional spaces. It exists to break down barriers in the publishing industry. Merky Books are bringing the viral story Keisha the Sket to print, a book that’s language disrupts what is usually considered worthy of being in book form – ‘For so many of us Black Brits, the anonymous writer of Keisha The Sket – Jade LB – is as fundamental to the canon as Shakespeare or Dickens.’ (Gal-dem)
Don’t say innit!
The policing of language is not exclusive to bans, but through tests and punishments pupils also are taught to reject the legitimacy of their bilingualism. The Ark All Saints Academy indirect language ban highlights the multiple ways in which linguistic discrimination takes place. From the research of Dr Ian Cushing he found teachers would often use statements like ‘[speak] properly’ when nonstandard English was used in lessons.
Together with this, tests are weaponised to reinforce the primacy of Standard English and conformity. An example Mr Cushing uses is a question from an English paper in 2017 where pupils were asked to identify which statement was in the correct form. “One option, ‘we was waiting in the playground’” was classed as wrong even though it would be accepted in multiple nonstandard forms (Cheshire & Fox 2009; Levey 2012). Naturally, these lower grades can then become evidence to justify the use of bans and further policing.
Are you bilingual?
It is widely understood that BBE is slang, rather than another legitimate language in its own right. The lack of awareness means many children are misinformed at school as to their bilingualism. Instead, they are chastised and belittled when communicating in their most authentic way. In the working environment this manifests as ‘code-switching’ this has impacted even the likes of Michelle Obama through her career as detailed in her book ‘Becoming’. Moreover, Mrs Obama’s ancestry can be traced back to a people in South Carolinian, who were Transatlantic slaves with a rich cultural heritage.
In the 1700’s, Georgian slave traders desired to monopolise the rice economy in America. Subsequently, they strategized to enslave and relocate those from West African coastal countries to the Southeast coast. Their plan was to profit from familiarity and expertises growing rice back home.The specific placement to the South Carolinian coastline resulted in the birth of the Gullah language. Gullah is unique in that it has a heavy African influence, with small aspects of Sierra Leonean languages wholly preserved. Gullahs are descendants of enslaved people captured from Senegal, Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia, and other places along the western coast of Africa that resembled the marshland regions of coastal Carolina.
Their geographical placement provided a level of isolation from other cultural influences and allowed for the unique preservation of the Gullah heritage.
Similar to BBE, Gullah is a creolised language that is crucial to the culture and identity of its people. This language was previously forbidden from educational spaces. However, four years ago Harvard University recognised a deficit in the knowledge available on this dying language and hired a Gullah Geechee instructor (Geechee being the Georgian specific creole) to teach this language. Black Learning and Mental Health UK (BLAM UK) is an organisation committed to ensuring Black heritage and culture is taught within its entirety within UK schools. Therefore, it is our aim that one day all educational institutions will take these same steps to teach, empower and celebrate Black British English!
Over to you
The fact that English is spoken so widely across the world speaks only to the lasting effects of British cultural imperialism and the empire’s attempts at control by eradicating culture. The classroom ban referenced is an attempt to maintain the sovereignty of Standardised English over Black British English in academic and professional spaces. This article provides an insight into the ways the languages of colonised peoples have been suppressed. We sought to expose the double standards of privileging Standard English and demonstrate how the classroom ban on BBE perpetuates a colonial tradition of linguistic discrimination. We as a society can begin to disrupt this tool of oppression in three simple ways listed below.
Self-educate using the resources list below.
Start a conversation – ask one of your contacts what they believe ‘proper English’ is and tag us on any of our social media to tell us how it goes (@blamcharity)
Share an insight – post what have you learnt from this piece on social media and tag us on any of our social media to tell us how it goes (@blamcharity)
Dr April Baker-Bell, Assistant Professor of Language, Literacy, and English Education at Michigan State University speaks about her book: Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy
On Monday 11th October we received a short letter from Principal Lucy Frame at Ark All Saints Academy in response to our open letter sent on 7th October. We were disappointed that the letter was generic and that it failed to respond to any of the points we raised in our detailed letter.
The Academy’s letter stated that in response to the media attention, the term “banned words” has been changed to “Different forms of communication”. It is our understanding that with the new title the Academy will continue to police the use of Black British English (BBE) through an indirect ban. The Academy’s response continues to make reference to BBE as informal language and claim that it undermines students’ ability to be heard or understood. Not only has there been a lack of acknowledgement from the academy to the harm it caused `Black British English speakers, the Academy’s decision to continue the policing of Black British English shows a failure to recognise the real issues and real-life implications caused by their institutionalised linguistic practices.
We believe the ongoing denial of the legitimacy of BBE as its own language will ostracise Black pupils, and in turn have a negative impact on their racial and self-esteem alongside a sense of belonging which will, in turn, impact their educational experience.
If you are a student or teacher at the Academy and are affected by this policy, we would love to hear from you and provide further support and information. Please contact oyin@blamuk.org.
BLAM UK CIC 