A bird that’s quickly becoming popular in American dishes with a taste similar to chicken and turkey, guineafowl are native to Africa, most specifically sub-Saharan Africa.
Yams have been a main crop in African agriculture for more than 2,000 years. In fact, more than 95 percent of the planet’s yams are grown in Africa. Yams used to be important in Jamaican ceremonies as well as many West African ceremonies.
Southern and Central Africa were the first regions of the world to domesticate the growing of watermelon. Historians guess the fruit first appeared in Egypt in the 1500s. It was a popular fruit in dry lands because it served as a makeshift canteen.
Many coffee experts believe the dark, delicious coffee bean originated in East Africa, where it was first grown in the 14th century. Coffee didn’t make its way to Northern Africa until the 1600s. Legend has it a goat-herder noticed his flock becoming hyper after nibbling a plant, so he nibbled it himself—that was the coffee plant.
Where would our baking blogs be without this? Sugar first came to American land from New Guinea via the Middle East more than 12,000 years ago. During their attempts to conquer Southern Africa, Arabs spread sugar throughout the region. It eventually made its way to Spain and became popular in Europe and the rest of the western world.
The Kola nut, an important ingredient in the original Coca-Cola recipe, is a fruit that comes from trees in the African tropical rain forests.
Even though these are often marketed as the California blackeye, the first domestication of this legume most likely took place in West Africa. Today, it’s a staple of soul food recipes.
Africa did get its first peanut seeds from South America, but that was more than 500 years ago. After that, nearly any other part of the world that received peanuts got them from Africa. There is a plant similar to the peanut that is native to Africa, but Africans found peanut crops more fruitful and easier to tend.
While it’s possible rice was growing on American soil long before Africans arrived, it was African slaves who taught Americans how to properly irrigate a rice field.
You know it as a staple in Southern cooking, but it became so through the African slave trade in Southern states. Okra most likely originated in Sudan.
