ABSTRACT
This chapter asks both why and how African continuities might have occurred and even persisted in the shadow of slavery, and it then examines their interplay with the dynamic economic, social, and political changes that characterize modernity. Archaeological excavations and historical research in the past three decades have presented increasingly persuasive evidence for the complex story of survival, transformation, and destruction of African cultural traditions, simultaneously revealing that on both sides of the Atlantic, cuisine was at the heart of commerce and culture, difference and integration. In the Caribbean, African foodways also became vehicles for the uniquely hybridized or creolized identities that were forged from cultural encounters originating on four continents. A dizzying array of distinct cultures met and mingled. Yet the local island demographics had one thing in common: Africans from many distinct cultures dominated the integration of multiple populations.
