african rice

8/12/2019 African Rice

1/22

The Role of African Rice and Slaves in the History of Rice Cultivation in the AmericasAuthor(s): Judith A. CarneyReviewed work(s):Source: Human Ecology, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Dec., 1998), pp. 525-545Published by: SpringerStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4603297.

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2/22

Human

Ecology,

Vol.26,

No. 4, 1998

The Role of

African

Rice and

Slaves in

the

Historyof Rice

Cultivation

in

the Americas

Judith A. Carneyl

Thispaper presents

the botanical

and historical evidence or

the role of

African

rice

(O.

glaberrima)

and

slaves in the crop's

introduction

to the Americas

during

the sixteenth

and seventeenth

centuries.

By focusing

on culture,

technology,

and

the environment

the

research

challenges

the perspective

of the

Columbian Exchange

that

emphasizes

the

diffusion

of crops to,

rather than

from

Africa, by

Europeans.

The evidence presented

in

this

paper suggests

a

crucial rolefor glaberrima

rice and slaves

in the introduction

of African

crops

to the

Americas.

KEY

WORDS:

ice;slaves;

echnology ransfer;

Columbian xchange.

If Africa appears

o

have

provided

ittle for other

continents,

t is because

Africa

is

only just beginning

o be known.

Porteres,

1970,p. 43)

INTRODUCTION

A

recent

National

Research

Council

(NRC) book,

Lost

Crops of

Africa,

drawsattentionto the potentialof the continent's ittle-knownndigenous

crops

for

improvingregional

and

global

food

supplies.

Featured

promi-

nently

among

the

2000

native

grains,

roots,

and fruits

utilized as food

sta-

ples

is

African

rice

(Oryza

glaberima),

the

great

red rice

of the hook

of

the

Niger (1996,

p. 17).

One of

just

two domesticated

pecies

of the

Oryza

genus,

glaberima

is

scarcely

known outside

Africa,

and even there has

wit-

nessed steady replacement

this

century by higher-yielding

Asian sativa

va-

rieties. Compared

to

the Asian

species,

glaberima

is characterized

by

its

red

hulls,

small

size,

smooth

glumes

and

tendency

o break

in mechanized

milling.

Because

glaberima

does not

readily

cross with

sativa,

the African

'Department

of

Geography,

255 Bunche

Hall,

UCLA,

Los

Angeles,

California 0095-1524;

e-mail:

[email protected]

525

0300-7839/98/1200-0525$15.00/0

?

1998

Plenum

Publishing Corporation

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/22

526

Carney

rice's greater

tolerance to

salinity,

drought,

and flooding is receiving in-

creasingplant

breeding attention

(Sano, 1989;Harlan, 1995;

NRC, 1996).

Yet despite its plant breeding

potential, there are other

compelling

reasons for a research ocus

on

glabenima.

A review of the

botanical,his-

torical,

and geographical iterature

on the

history

of rice cultivation

n the

Americasmayhold

the clue to issues meriting

additional esearchattention,

namely that: (i) glabemima

may have served as the initial

rice grown in

many regionslocated along

the western rimof the Atlantic

basin; and (ii)

West African slaves, familiar

with the techniques

of its cultivation,played

a crucial role in adapting he crop to diverseNew Worldenvironments.

This overviewof rice history

n

the Americasraises several

ssues that

bear

on

prevailingconceptions

of

the ColumbianExchange, he period

of

unparalleled

ropexchanges

rom

the

sixteenth hrougheighteenth cen-

turies. Scholarship

on the Columbian

Exchange

has

long emphasized the

economically

valuable

crops

of

American,Asian,

and

European

origin;

the

role of Europeans

n

their

global

dispersal;

and

thus,

the diffusionof

crops

to,

rather

than

from,

Africa

(Jones, 1959;

Ribeiro, 1962;

Miracle, 1966;

Crosby,

1972; Kloppenburg,1990).

The

slight

attention accorded African

crops

in

this

scholarship

s related to two factors: he minor role of African

domesticates

ike

okra,cowpeas,yams, pearl

millet,

and

sorghum

n

food

and

plantation

economies,

and

the

longstanding

belief that rice was

solely

of Asian origin.

Recent

historical

researchon the

beginnings

of rice cultivation n the

U.S.

South,however,

challenges

he view that Africacontributed ittle more

than

labor to

the

agricultural

istory

of the Americas

(Wood,

1974a;

Lit-

tlefield, 1981; Hall, 1992;

Rosengarten,

1997).

In

extending

the

emphasis

on

rice

history

to

Latin

America,through

a

preliminaryntegration

of

bo-

tanical

and

historical

materials,

his

paperprovides

additional

support

for

the argument hat

glaberima

and slavesplayeda crucialrole in the expan-

sion

of rice

cultivation

n the

Americas

during

the

early period

of

the At-

lantic

slave

trade.

In

so

doing,

this article

directlyengages

broader

issues

of

technology

transfer, ndigenous

knowledge,

and the

agency

of slaves

in

adapting

a

preferreddietary

staple

to

diverseNew World

environments.

The

paper

is

divided

into

four

parts.

The first section

addresses

bo-

tanical

scholarship

on

rice

origins,

with

emphasis

on the

discoveryduring

the

twentieth

century

that

rice domesticationoccurred n West

Africa

in-

dependently

of

Asia, long

viewed as

the sole center of the

plant's

domes-

tication.

The

next section

shifts

to the U.S. where historical

and

historical-geographicalesearch rom the 1970sfirstclaimedAfricanagency

in

adjusting

rice cultivation

o the South Carolina

swamps,

the

crop

that

sustained

he

South'smost

lucrative

plantation

economy.

The third

section

focuses on

the role of the

Cape

Verde Islands

as a

pioneeringagricultural



4/22

Rice

Cultivation in the Americas

527

M A

U

R I

TA

N

I A

MALI

SECONDARY

PRIMARY

CENTER

I

H A

X

* .S

~~~~N I

G E

R

THEGAA

GUINE

IN

K

FASO'.'

BISSAU G

AEN

S

~lERA

Atatc

Ocea

Fig.

1. Indigenous African rice

domestication

area.

experiment station for African crops and as an entrepot for the diffusion

of rice

to

Brazil. The last section

presents

the botanical

and historical evi-

dence

for an

early presence

of

glabemima

rice

in

the

Americas.

BOTANICAL SCHOLARSHIP

ON AFRICAN RICE

Domestication

of African

rice occurred more than

3000

years ago

in

the

region

from

Senegal

to the

Ivory

Coast, long

before

any navigator

from

Java or

Arabia

could

have introduced

rice to

Madagascar

or the East

Af-

rican

coast (Fig. 1) (Porteres

1976;

NRC, 1996,

p. 23).

From

the

eighth

to

the sixteenth

centuries

Arab and

European

commentaries

mention

rice cul-

tivation

along

the

inland delta of

the

Niger

River

and the

West African

coast

as

well as

the

frequent purchases

of

surpluses by

Portuguese

mariners

(Ribeiro,

1962; Lewicki, 1974;

Littlefield, 1981; Brooks,

1993). During

the

Atlantic

slave

trade

rice

surpluses

contributed

to

provisioning

slave

ships

bound

for

the Americas

(Carney,

1996a,b).

Yet, despite

numerous com-

mentaries

on West

African rice from

the earliest

period

of

contact,

well

into the

twentieth century

scholars routinely

assigned rice an Asian

origin,

and attributed

its

diffusion to Africa to Arab and

Portuguese

traders

(Rochevicz, 1932; Ribeiro, 1962; Grime, 1976). As a result of the bias in

scholarship,

researchers

failed to consider the

indigenous

knowledge base

of African

rice

production

systems

and its

potential

linkage to the

cereal's

appearance

in the Americas.



5/22

528

Carney

Linnaeus 1707-78) registered

only the Asiansativarice in his botanical

classification f the Otyza pecies,a

positionuncriticallyollowed n 1866 by

de Candolle 1964) n his compendium

n the originof cultivatedplants.The

Asian origin of rice remained

unquestioned ven with the earliestbotanical

collectionsof ricein WestAfrica

during he nineteenth entury.Frenchbota-

nist Leprieur attributed he rice

collections he made in Senegal between

1824-29to the sativaspecies as did

EdelstanJardin,who collectedrice from

islands

off

the coast

of

GuineaBissau n

1845-48 (Chevalier, 937a;

Porteres,

1955a).

But an

examination

of the

Jardin

collection by Moravianbotanist

Steudel ed himto conclude n 1855that the samplesrepresenteda rice spe-

cies

distinct from Asian

sativa,

which

he

named

Oryza laberima for its

smooth

hulls.His

research,however,

topped

short

of

arguing hatglaberima

was of African

origin.Only

at

the turn of

the

centurydid botanistsworking

in the FrenchWestAfricancolonies

suspectan Africanoriginfor the wide-

spread

cultivationof

a

red-hulledrice with

distinctive

haracteristics. his

suspicion

ed to the

discovery

f Steudel's

research onducted

half a century

earlier,

and

a

reexamination

f

the

Leprieur

herbarium

ollection,whichalso

showed

the

presence

of

glaberima (Porteres,1955a).

As

the French

began advancing

he

hypothesis

or

an

indigenous

West

African rice from

1914,

research nterest in

glaberima lagged

within the

international

cientific

community Chevalier

and

Roehrich, 1914;

Cheva-

lier, 1932; Rochevicz, 1932;

Chevalier,1936, 1937a,b;Viguier, 1939).

The

noted Russian

geneticist

Vavilov

1951),

for

instance,

whose

pathbreaking

research

on

indigenous

centers of

plant

domestication

eceived

widespread

attention

n

the

1920s,

made no mention of

glaberima,

assigning

ice

solely

an Asian

origin.

But over

the

following

decadesFrenchbotanists

ncreased he research

momentumon

glaberrima.They

showed that Asian rice had not

yet

reached

the Nile andEgyptduringgeographerStrabo's ime(ca. firstcenturyA.D.),

therebymaking

t

highlyunlikely

hat diffusion

acrossthe Saharacould

ex-

plain

the

widespreadpresence

of rice

in diverseenvironments f the French

Sudan

from the

eighthcentury,

when

it

receives

commentary y

Arab schol-

ars

(Lewicki,1974,p. 34). Strengthening

he

hypothesis

or an African

origin,

botanical

collectionsrevealed everalwild relativesof

glaberima

in West

Af-

rica

without

ocatingany

wild sativas

Rochevicz,1932,p. 950).

While

Frenchscholars

noted a

Portuguese

ole

in

introducing

ativava-

rieties

from

Asia

to

West Africa

during

he

sixteenth

century, hey empha-

sized the

continued

dominance of

glaberima

in the first decades of

colonialism(Chevalier, 1937a,b;Viguier, 1939; Pelissier, 1966; Porteres,

1976).

Their botanical

researchon rice

gained

momentumas

metropolitan

concern

grew

over the

food

shortages

and faminesthat were

accompanying

the

colonial

emphasis

on

exportcrops.

Rice,

cultivatedon

swamp

and

un-



6/22

Rice

Cultivation n the Americas

529

suitable or peanutsandcotton,received ncreasing ttentionas a means to

alleviate

ood crises

(Carney,1986).

Duringthe 1930s the

potential of rice

as an

exportcrop proved

increasingly ignificant

with the establishment f

rice researchstations

throughout he West

African rice zone (Chevalier,

1936;

Baldwin, 1957; Cowen,

1984). The research stations

emphasized

shorter duration

ativa

varietiesmore amenable

o irrigation,

double-crop-

ping and mechanized

milling.Sativa

varietiesproduced

higher yields with

transplanting,

roke less

than

glaberrima

ith

mechanized

milling,and were

whiter

in

color.

Thus,

they

suited

the commercial

bjectivesand consumer

preferencesof potentialEuropeanexportmarkets Chevalier,1936, 1937b;

Grist,

1968).

In

the 1950s, as

sativacultivationwas

steadily displacingglaberrima,

French

botanist

Porteres (1976) identified the

African center

of rice do-

mestication.

Following

methods

pioneeredby

Vavilov,

he

located the

inland

delta of the

Niger

River as the

primary

enter

of

glaberima domestication

with

secondary enters

of the

crop'sspeciation

developing

along floodplains

in

Senegambia

and

under

rainfall

n

the

mountainsof Guinea

Conakry.

By the 1970s he

pioneering

Frenchbotanical esearchwas known

widely

within he international cientific

ommunity,

which

accepted

he

conclusion

that 0.

glaberima

was indeed an

independent

ice

species

of

African

origin.

The

legacy

was

the

publication

n 1974 of

two

pathbreaking

ooks

by

histo-

rians.

Working

n

previously

untranslatedArab references o

West

African

food

systems

during

he Middle

Ages,

Polishhistorian

Lewicki

1974)

docu-

mented the

antiquity

f

indigenous

West

Africanrice cultivation.

During

he

same

year

U.S. historianPeter Wood

(1974a)argued

hat

the

history

of rice

cultivation n

plantations

n South Carolinawas

likely

of African

origin.

AFRICAN AGENCY

IN ESTABLISHING RICE

CULTIVATION

N

SOUTH CAROLINA

Until historian

Wood's

(1974a)

research

on

the evolution of

the rice

plantation

ystem

n colonialSouth

Carolina,

herewas no hint

that rice cul-

tivation

n the U.S.

might

owe

its

genesis

to African

slaves.

Noting

the

ap-

pearance

of rice cultivation

in

tandem with

slavery

from the

earliest

settlement

period(1670-1730),

he

unfamiliarity

f the

colony's

English

and

French

Huguenotplanters

withcultivation

echniques,

nd

glaberrima

omes-

tication

in

West

Africa,

Wood

attributed

he

crucial

skills involved

n

the

plantation icesystem o WestAfricanslavesalready amiliarwith its plant-

ing.2

Rice formedthe

dietary taple

of

millions

swept

nto the

Atlanticslave

2Archival

ommentson rice

cultivation

n

South

Carolinaare evident by

the

1690s (Wood,

1974a).Nothing

suggestsany planter

knowledgeof Asian rice

systems.



7/22

530

Carney

trade,

and the African

rice

regioncontributed

more

than 40%of

the

slaves

delivered

o colonial

South

Carolina

Wood,

1974a;

Richardson,

1991).

Littlefield

(1981)

advanced

Wood's

hypothesis

by drawing

attention

to

the antiquity

of rice

production

n West Africa,

to

European

interest

in

the techniques

of its cultivation

during

the

Atlantic

slave

trade,

and

to

planter

preference

for

slaves

with

rice-growing

xperience.

He

identified

as of African

origin

the

floodplain

rice

cultivation

ystemfound

along

the

Upper

Guineacoast,

where

groups

ike

the Baga

perfected

methods

to

de-

salinate

fertile

mangrove

soils for

rice cultivation.

By enclosing

plots

with

earthenpalisadesor embankments ndconstructingmallcanals,the Baga

could retain

water

on the fields or remove

it through

gravity

low

at low

tides (Littlefield

1981,

pp.

80-98).

As

analagous

echniques

developed

on

Carolina

floodplains,

Littlefieldshowed

that a rice

system

long

attributed

to

planter

ngenuity

was

in

fact

an

important

part

of the

agronomic

heritage

of

slaves

fromthe West African

rice region.

But subsequent

elaboration

of

the

Wood-Littlefield

hypothesis

suffered

from

the

meager

documentation

on

rice history

during

the

early

colonial

period

and the fact

that

accounts

were

written

by

those

who enslaved.Thus,planters

claimed

that they

were

experimentingwith growingrice in multiple environments,a task that

would

in fact

have

been

performed

by

their slaves.

Using

a

perspective

focused on environment

and material

culture,

Carney(1993,

1996a,b)

shifted

researchattention

from

rice as

a cereal to

rice

as a

crop,

a

perspective

which

requires

thinking

about

rice

as a suite

of

distinct

production

systems

with

specific

techniques

of

landscape

ma-

nipulation.

Rice

more

than

any

other

cereal

requires

human

beings

to

act

as

geomorphological

gents

in nature through

the process

of

transforming

swamps

to

productive

paddy

fields. The historical

record

in West

Africa

affirmsat the beginningof the Atlanticslave tradethe existenceof three

major

rice

cultivation

systems

which can

be

distinguished

by

micro-envi-

ronment,

agronomic

practices,

and

techniques

of

soil and

water

manage-

ment

(Carney,

1993,

1996a).

The

existence

of these

three rice

systems-

rainfed,

inland

swamps

and tidal

floodplains-is

documented

in

South

Carolina

by

the

1730s,

withindecades

of the

crop's

ntroduction

o the

col-

ony (Carney

1993, 1996a).3

Typical

of

rice

cultivation

n

Africa

but

not

Asia,

was the absence

of

transplanting

on Carolina

floodplains.

Also evident

were

parallel

tech-

niques

of

production

ike water

control

by

sluices

constructed

rom

hol-

lowed

tree trunks,

a

comprehensive

understanding f tidal ebb and flow

to

prevent

ieldoverflooding

while

enabling

cultivation

n areas

occasionally

3The introduction

f

rice

to South

Carolina

occurred

during

he

1690s

(Salley,

1919).



8/22

Rice Cultivation n

the Americas

531

menaced by saltwater

ntrusion,

and

the

widespreaduse of long-handled

hoes for

weeding (still

used

in

African

rice

farming).4

But rice

could become a

valuedexportcroponlywhen it was

processed

to

remove

the

indigestible

hulls.5Until the advent

of

water-drivenmills dur-

ing

the

second

half of the

eighteenth

century,

ice

millingwas

performedby

hand

in the

Africanmanner

with

a

woodenmortar

and pestle

(Wood,1974b;

Carney,1996b).

The

hulls were

removedthrough

winnowing he cereal in

fanner

baskets,woven in the same

way as those

for analagouspurposes n

the Senegambian ice areaof

West Africa(Rosengarten, 997).6

A focuson theenvironmentalspectsof ricecultivation nd thematerial

cultureof infrastructure

nd

milling

hus

brings

new

insights

o the

recovery

of

perhaps

a

significant

narrative

f the

African

diaspora.

The next section

explores

he crucial ole of the

Cape

Verde slandsas

transfer

oints

of

slaves

and

cropping ystems

betweenWestAfrica and

the

Americas.

THE CAPEVERDEISLANDSAND

AFRICANRICE

There are

several

reasons that

suggest

African

rice

played

an

impor-

tant role

in

establishing

he

crop

in

the Americas.

The first involves a re-

view of the

history

of rice in

the

Cape

Verde Islands while

the

second,

addressed

n the

following

section,

examines he

documented

presence

of

glabenima

n

regions

of Africansettlement

n

the Americas

where cuisines

based

on rice retain

enduring ignificance.

From the mid-fifteenth

entury,

ettlement

of

the

Cape

Verde Islands

and

especially

Santiago,

unfolded amid

an

active trade with West

African

coastal

peoples

for

waxes,hides,indigo,

foodstuffs, alt,

and slaves

(Brooks,

1993, pp. 130,279).

Since

the ninth

century

he littoraland off-shore

slands

4The task laborsystem,

another eature

of

plantation

ice cultivation

n

South Carolina,may

also provide ndirectevidence

or Africanagency

n the crop'sestablishment. his labor

sys-

tem, found

only

on rice

plantations, ssigned

a

daily

ieldtask for completion,

whichfor

the

robust and healthy

could

mean a shortened

abor

day.

In

the more

pervasivegang

labor

system

of

plantation

lavery,

bondsmenworked

daily

from dawn to dusk. The unusual

ap-

pearance

of the

distinctive ask

labor

system

on rice

plantations erhaps

represents

he resi-

due

of a

complexpattern

of

negotiation

n

establishing

Carolinarice

plantations

n which

slaves provided

he

know-how o

grow

rice in exchange

or

circumscribed

emandson their

daily labor (Carney,1993).

5Rice consumption

ependsupon removing

he hull

that

encloses he

grain

withoutbreakage

in the process.

Burkhill

1935ii,

p. 1601)

summarizeshe

problemposed by rice milling

by

comparing

ts

processing

with that

of other cereals:

Europeanmilling machinery

or rice

could not be adaptedsimplyfromthat used for other cereals, for in the millingof wheat

the object

is to

get

the

finest of

powders;

but in

the

millingof rice,

the object is to keep

the

grain

whole as much as

possible.

6Rosengarten

1997, pp. 273-311) argues

hat the

baskets

of native Americans

were plaited

and twilled,

not the

coiled type

subsequently sed for rice winnowing,

whichwas and remains

identical o that

found in the Senegambian ice region.



9/22

532

Carney

14'

8~~~~~

NE

GA

L

M

A L l

GINEA

0

6)

~ ~ ~

G

l

~ ~~~

E

e

l

/ A

16~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'

I'a,

4' PmtL . 4

'e

Fig. 2. Locationof initial European radingnetworkswith West Africanrice societies,

ca.

sixteenthand seventeenth enturies.

of the Upper GuineaCoastfrom GuineaBissau o SierraLeone had served

as an importantrossroadsor the long-distancerade n

salt (Fig.2) (Brooks,

1993,p. 80). Wet rice cultivation upported

hisvast tradingnetwork, ut the

crop only emerged mportant s a tradegood with the arrival f the Portu-

guese. By 1479,the principal thnic groupsof the region-the

Baga, Diola,

Balanta,

Bullorn/Sherbro,

nd Temni-were

alreadymarketing heir dietary

staple to the Portuguese Rodney, 1970, p. 21; Carreira,

1984, pp.

27-28;

Brooks, 1993,pp.

276-296).7

Theirprominence n initialAfrican-Portuguese

tradingnetworks,

however,was not to endure;by the end of the eighteenth

7Thecommercial ingua rancaof this Biafada-Sapiradingnetwork ormed rom related an-

guages of the West Atlantic inguistic roup.The groupsmentioned n the text are charac-

terized by wet rice cultivation, oosely-groupedacephalous societies with weak social

stratification, nimism,

and matrilineal escent

patterns.Early

references o

them appear n

accountsby

Eustachede la Fosse

(ca. 1479),

ValentimFernandes

ca. 1506-10), Andre

Al-

vares de Almada (ca. 1594) and Andre Donelha (ca. 1625) (Rodney, 1970, pp. 6-45, 112;

Brooks, 1993, p. 80, 275-279).



10/22

Rice Cultivation in the

Americas

533

century,hundredsof thousands

of wet rice farmers

had becomecaptivesof

the Atlantic

slave trade (Brooks,

1993, pp. 174,

292-296).

At the

beginningof the sixteenth

entury,Valentim

Fernandes,drawing

upon earlier

mariners'

ccounts,ascribed he

introduction f both rice and

cotton cultivation in

Santiago to the wet rice

area of the Guinea coast

(Ribeiro,1962, p. 147).The

emergenceof a sugar

cane and

grazingecon-

omy on the island

during

this

period

proceeded

in

tandemwith

the culti-

vation of

African domesticates like

yams,

sorghum, millet, rainfed and

swamp

rice

(Brooks,

1993, pp. 139-147; Ribeiro,

1961, pp.

143-145; Dun-

can, 1972,p. 168;Blake, 1977, pp. 91-92).

Thus, by the

sixteenth

century, the initial

period of the

Columbian

Exchange, the

Cape

Verde Islands were

already serving as an

ex-officio

ag-

ricultural

esearch

tationfor

plant

experimentation. uropeans

hips regu-

larlyprovisioned

here for

voyages o the

Americas Ribeiro,1962;

Duncan,

1972;

Brooks,1993).

The

return

voyagesservedto

introduceAmericancul-

tivars, ike maize and

manioc,

to West

Africa,but

these were

preceded by

an active rice

trade,

well

in

place by

1514

(Blake,

1977, pp. 91-92).

Rice

appearson

cargo

lists of

shipsdepartingCape

Verde

in

1513-15

(Ribeiro,

1961, pp.

146-147).

In

1530, just

30

years

after

Cabral

claimed Brazil for

Portugal,a

ship

left

Santiago,

for

Brazil, carrying

rice seed in

its

cargo

(Brooks,1993, p. 149).

In

subsequent

decades other vessels delivered

seed rice to the state

of

Bahia,

an

important

ocus for the

sugar plantationsystem

in

Brazil's

Northeast

(Ribeiro,

1962, pp. 143-144;Duncan,

1972,p. 167).

In

1587,

Ba-

hian

planter,

Gabriel Soares de

Sousa,

noted the

important

role of the

Cape

Verde

Islands or animaland

crop

introductions o Brazil.He attrib-

uted the

widespread

cultivation

of

rainfed

and

swamp

rice to seed rice

brought

rom

Cape

Verde,

while

noting

slave

preference

or

yams

and

foods

of Africanorigin,the use of mortarand pestle for food processing,and

the

triumph

of

African

dietary preferences

among

the slave

population

(Ribeiro,1962, pp.

152-156).

Thus,

several

facts

dating

from the fifteenth

century

raise

questions

about

the

longstanding

iewthat rice

origins

n the Americasderived

solely

from

Asianvarieties.

These

include he

antiquity

f

rice

cultivation

long

the

Upper

Guinea

Coast,

Portuguese

ettlementson African islands and

the

coast that were

dependentupon

African

ood

surpluses,

he

widespread

x-

change

of rice between

West

Africa

and the

Cape

Verdean

archipelago,

nd

its early

cultivationon

Santiago Rodney, 1970, pp.

74-88; Carreira,1984,

pp. 47-62;Brooks,1993,pp. 147, 260).Thisactive rade n riceresulteddur-

ing the sixteenth

century

n

repeateddeliveriesof

rice seed to the

Brazilian

plantation

ector. While

trading

ontactwith

Asia

was

developing

over

this

same

period,

he more

frequent oyages

between he

African

coast and

Cape



11/22

534

Carney

Verde,as well

as their geographical

roximity

o the Americas

uggesta key

role for

African

rice in the crop's

diffusionacrossthe

Atlantic.8

Yet Portuguese

cholarship

mirrored

he generalizedview

that

Africa

provided

ittleof value to

the globalfood

larder Figueiredo,

1926;Ribeiro,

1962).

One leading

Portuguesescholar

assigned

the early cultivation

in

Cape

Verdeof the inferior nd miserable

ood staples,

orghumand

findo

(Digitaria

exilis),

a West African

origin;

however,the more

significantcul-

tivation

of rice

in the

archipelago

and along the

West Africancoast

he

attributed

to

Portuguese

mariners introducing

rice culture from

India

(Ribeiro, 1962, pp. 27, 49). Apparentlyunawareof the French botanical

scholarship

hat was documenting

he existence

of an independent

African

rice species,

Ribeiro's

researchnonetheless

echoed the more generalized

view that

Asian

rice

spearheaded

he

crop's

diffusion

throughout

he At-

lantic

basin.9

But as

the historical

esearch

on South Carolina eveals,

rice

cultivation

depends

upon

knowing

how to mill

the

grain

without

breakage.

n

failing

to

assign

rice

an

African

origin,

Ribeiro

missedan

important

inkage.

Puzzled

by

the early

diffusion

of the

Africanmortarand

pestle

rather han the

Por-

tuguese

hand

mill

for cereal

processing

n both

Santiago

and

Brazil,

Ribeiro

emphasized he suitability f the mortarandpestle for millingsorghum,an

Africancrop (1962,p.

23).

But the

Portuguese

devicewould

permit

sorghum

milling,

although

not

rice. The diffusion

of rice culture

throughout

he

At-

lantic

basin depended

crucially

herefore

upon

an

appropriate

evicefor

its

processing.

Until

the

second

half

of the

eighteenth

century

his was

the

mor-

tar

andpestle,

a

device

that

requires

kill n

striking

he rice without

breaking

the

grain

nto

fragmentsCarney,

1996b).

In not

considering

he African

ori-

gin

of

rice,

Ribeiro

missed

the

significance

f slaves n

diffusing

mortar

and

pestle

processing

echniques

o the Arnericas.10

8Curtin 1984,p. 143), for instance,arguesthat during he periodfrom 1500-1634,only 470

Portuguese

hips

returned

rom

voyages

o the

Indian

Ocean,

less than

four

per

year.

Despite

acknowledgment

f

an

African

ice

species,

he

assumption

hat

Asian

rices displaced

African

varieties

along the

West

African

coast

during

he mid-fifteenth

entury

s

still

widely

held.

However,

Richards

1996,

pp.

211-212)

argues

that

documentation

or

significant

e-

placement

of glabemima

y

sativa rices

is evident only

from

the colonial

period

in the

late

nineteenth

century.

1?During

his

period,

Asian

rice-growing

ocieties

used

several

ypes

of devices

for processing

rice. These

included

the

mortar

and

pestle

as well

as

a

foot-operated

ulcrum

o which

a

pestle

was attached

o one end. Raising

he fulcrum

with the

foot allowed

the

pestle

to

fall

into

a mortar

(namely,

a

hole

in

the

ground

or floor), thereby

removing

he grain's

hulls.

This

device

was widespread

n

Asia

(Grist,

1968,

p. 216a)

and is described

as

being

used

in

Japan

in The Tale

of

the

Genji,

written

about

1000 years

ago.

But the

Asian device

would

not have workedfor processing

laberima

rice which,as the NRC (1996) studydiscusses,

breaks

more

readily

with mechanical

milling.The

potential

for

examining

he

relationship

betweenmigration,

ice

cultivation,

nd the

technology

or

the

crop'smilling

becomes

evident

by contrasting

pecific

ethnic

migrations

f rice farmers

o the

Americas.For example,

n a

rice-growing

egion

of

Belize

where descendants

of

Indian indentured

aborersgrow

rice



12/22

Rice Cultivation

n

the Americas

535

THE

DIFFUSION

OF RICECULTIVATIONO

THE AMERICAS

Botanists

spearheaded

nterest n the historyof rice

cultivation n Bra-

zil. The crop'spresence

so early n the country's ettlement

n fact led

one

Brazilianbotanist,

Hoehne (1937), to claim that rice

cultivationpreceded

the arrival

of Europeans

n

1500. Interpreting

eportsfrom the sixteenth

century

on Amerindianofferings

of rice to the

Portuguese

as evidencefor

its domestication,

ubsequent

esearch howedthat thiswas a wild rice

spe-

cies,

not the

sativahe claimed

(Oliveira,

1993).11While Hoehne's views

on

pre-Columbian ice cultivationprovedincorrect,his work did providein-

dependent

confirmation

or rice cultivation

n

Brazilduring the sixteenth

century,

about a 100

years

earlierthan its sustained

cultivation

n the

U.S.

South.12

Historical

documentspertaining

o Brazil

prior

to the mid-eighteenth

century

make

frequent

reference

to

rice, especially

a red-hulledspecies,

over

a broad

area from the

Northeast to

the Amazon (Primeiro,1818;

Marques,1870;

Chermont,1885;

Alden, 1959;

Nunes

Dias, 1970;

Viveiros,

1895;

Barata, 1973;Hemming, 1987;

Oliveira,1993;

Acevedo, 1997). Red

rice

again

surfaces

in commentaries

during

the second

half

of the eight-

eenthcentury,when a riceplantation ystemdeveloped n the easternAma-

zon

with

backing

rom

metropolitan

apital.

The

objective

was

to

develop

Amazonian

export

markets

o

Portugal

and

thereby

reduce

dependency

on

Carolina

rice

imports

as the American

colonies

headed into

the

Revolu-

tionary

War

(Nunes

Dias, 1970;Acevedo, 1997).

This led to the creation

from

the 1760s

of

tidal-irrigated

ice

plantations

n

the

Amazonianstates

of

Amapa,Para,

and

Maranhao,

he introduction

f

high-yielding

Carolina

white

rice seed

(a

sativa

variety),

water

millsfor rice

processing,

he

import

of

more

than

25,000

slaves

(many

from the

rice-growingegion

of Guinea

Bissau),and,in 1767,the firstexportsof milled rice to Portugal Primeiro,

1818, p. 192; Gaioso,

1970; Klein, 1982).

But the

continued

cultivation

of red rice aroused official

concern. In

a

1772

decree,

the

Portuguese

administration

mandated

a

year's jail

sen-

tence

and

fine for whites

planting

he red

rice and 2

years

of

imprisonment

for

slaves

and

Indians

who did

(Marques,1870, pp.

435-436; Barata,1973;

Acevedo, 1997).

While

the reasons

for this

legal

action

remain

unclear,

t

may suggest

that

the red

variety

was a

glabenima,

whichbreaksmore

easily

in

milling(NRC, 1996)

and when mixed with

the

improvedvariety,

would

alongside

heirAfro-Belizean eighbors,

trikingdifferences

re evident n milling.

The

mor-

tar and pestle

is used

by

the latter,while the former elyupon

the fulcrum

processing

method

knownto

their nineteenth-century

orebears Carney, ieldwork).

This was

likely 0. glumaepatula (Oliveira,

1993).

Rice

was planted n Virginia

n the period

from 1622 to 1647 but

failed to develop nto a

plantation

rop (Gray, 1958, pp. i, 26).



13/22

536

Carney

have resultedin a higher

percentageof broken rice

and thus lower

prices

in European

markets.

Africanrice may also

figure in discussionsof

early varietiesplanted

in the U.S.

South. Guinearice is listed

among the initial varieties

grown

by slaves

n theirgardens

n

South Carolina,

he toponym uggesting

a West

Africanorigin (Drayton,1802;

Allston, 1846). A cultivatedred rice

is re-

corded by

Lawson

in

1709 (1967, p.

729) and in

1731 (Salley, 1919, pp.

10-11). In

anotherareaof plantation

lavery,Surinam,

he Dutchgovernor

noted

in

1750 the advantages

of rice varieties cultivated

there compared

to one type found in South Carolina: the rice in Essequibo has not the

red husk which gives

so much trouble

in

Carolina o

get off (Oka, 1961,

p. 21). This

maywell indicate the advantages

of sativaover glaberrima

a-

rieties

in

milling.

Certainlyby

the

mid-eighteenth

entury,rice exportmar-

kets were

based on

Asian varieties.The

high-yielding

Carolina white and

gold that

made the colony's production

world-famousand which were

introduced

o the Amazon,

were

sativa

varieties(Salley,1919).

0.

glaberrima

was

certainly

ntroduced

o

Georgia

in 1790

by

Thomas

Jefferson,

whose

request

for rainfed rice

varieties from slave

merchants

resulted

in a shipment

of seed rice

from

Guinea

Conakry.Jefferson asked

for

rainfed

varieties,

hoping

to stimulate

upland

rice

planting,

which

would reduce

the

death toll

of

slaves

exposed

to malarialfloodplaincul-

tivation

(Betts, 1944;

Peterson, 1984).13

The merchants'

descriptions

of

the

African

upland

rice

systems

echo those

of Dutch

geographer,

Olfert

Dapper,

who

noted

150

years

earlier

similar features

and the short-du-

ration

characteristics

hat

distinguish

glaberrima

ice

(Richards,

1996, pp.

214-222).

Archival

vidence

rom

South

Carolina

onfirms

he cultivationof mul-

tiple

varietiesof rice from

the

1690s,

some

definitely

of Asian

provenance,

otherspossibly romAfrica(Salley,1919).The dominanceof the high-yield-

ing sativa

varieties

in

plantation

production

rom

the

mid-eighteenth

en-

tury, undoubtedly

contributed

to

the

disappearance

of earlier

varieties

which

may

have

included

glaberrima.

Since

upland

rice was no

longer

cul-

tivated

by

the

time of

the

American

Revolution,

Jeffersonhad

to

reintro-

duce

varieties

rom

WestAfrica.Buthis

emphasis

on rainfedvarieties

ailed

to alter

the

course

of

floodplain

rice

expansion

and

they, too, disap-

13In

fact,

Jefferson's

amousquote,

The

greatest

servicewhich

can

be renderedany country

is to add

an useful

plant

to its culture,

was

made in partial

reference

o rice.

He regarded

the

olive tree and the

introduction

f

dry (rainfed)

rice cultivation

nto South

Carolina

of

equal importance swriting he Declaration f Independence ndfreedomof religion Betts,

1944,

p. vii).

Jefferson

attributed

he lack

of success

n

diffusing

his

Africanrainfed

variety

to

the fact

that

there were not

.

. .

the

conveniences

or husking t, perhaps

an

indirect

reference o

the

mechanized

milling ystems

hat had

replaced

he earlier

mortar

and pestle,

more suitable

orglabemima

milling

(Betts, 1944,

p.

381).



14/22

Rice Cultivation n the Americas 537

peared.14Displacementof glabemima rom initial cultivationsites in the

Americas, gnorance

until

well into this centuryof the existence of a sepa-

rate rice species

in

Africa, and the subsequent

ocus of scholarshipon ex-

port crops and sativa varieties, all contributedto the broader research

failure to

consider the linkage of rice

introduction o Africa and slaves.

That glabermimarossed the Atlantic duringthe period of the slave trade

is not in doubt since French botanistsrecoveredglaberimavarieties (the

hulls smooth and of a red-black olor) in

Cayenne FrenchGuiana)during

the 1930s

and

from

a

formersugarand indigo plantationarea of El Sal-

vador duringthe 1950s (Vaillant,1948; Porteres,1955b,c, 1960; Richards,

1996, p. 218).But few scholarsoutside botany ook notice of their findings.

The glaberima reported

in

Cayenne

was collected from descendants

of

escaped

slaves

(maroons)

who from the

1660s fled coastal sugar plan-

tations for

freedom

in

the rainforest

(Price,

1983).

The rainfed

varieties

from Cayenne found by Vaillant (1948) were examined by Porteres

(1955b,c,1960)

and determined

dentical o

others collected

by

the French

in

Guinea Conakry,Liberia,

and the

Ivory Coast,

where

they

are

known

as

gbaga, aga,

or

bagaye

after the

Baga

with whom

they

remain

ndelibly

associated.

Even

though

the

Baga subsequentlydisappeared

rom

many

West

Africanareas

planted

to these

varieties,

heir role as

expert

rice farm-

ers survived

n

the

varietalname.Their

farmingpractices

also endure

in

a

detailed

description

and sketch of the

Baga

rice cultivation

system

re-

corded,

ca.

1793, by

a slave

ship captain

who observed

them in

Guinea

Conakry Fig. 3).

The

discovery

f

Baga

varietiesof

glaberima

rice in

Cay-

enne bears

witness

to

their

role

duringslavery

n

pioneering

the

crop

in

the

Guianas.15

The

significance

of rice as a

foodstaple among

maroon

communities

of

the Guianas

was

already

evident

during

the

eighteenth century

when

Europeanmercenarieswere sent to recapture hem;maroonsfrequently

cultivated

ice

in forest

clearings

and inland

swamps Price

and

Price, 1992).

The

cereal's

importance

n maroon

history

s

captured

n

the

legends

of

their descendants

(Hurault, 1965;

Price, 1983).

In the area of

Cayenne

where

Vaillant

found

the

Baga

varieties,

the maroons claimed that

rice

14EarlyU.S.

collections rom the twentieth entury

do not indicate he

presence

of glabemima

varieties Richards,

1996).

15Fromthe sixteenth

century, he Dutch began establishing rading

posts in Baga areas

for-

mally dominated

by Portuguese

mariners

Carreira,

984, pp. 27-28; Brooks, 1993, p.

276).

Dutch merchant leets increasingly

ominated

rading

networks

o Brazil

and took over direct

tradeto Brazil rom 1584.By 1621,one-half

o two-thirds f the trade rom Europe o

Brazil

was transportedn Dutch ships (Boxer,1965,p. 23). The Dutchplantation conomyof Suri-

nam, which dates to about 1630,

was

the outcome of the failure of a similar attempt to

establisha foothold

in

Brazil

(Boxer,

1965). On the exportof slavesfrom the rice-growing

region

of GuineaBissauto Brazil,especially he Amazonduring he

eighteenthcentury, ee

Boxer (1969, pp. 192-3) and Vergolinoand

Figueiredo 1990, pp. 49-51).



15/22

538

Carney


16/22

Rice

Cultivation n

the

Americas

539

1ORJH

-

/A IQ

R'I

il

A FRICA A

B d -

2et4r

Srina

L

E G

E N D

r6ayepn,

0.

glaberrina

found

K'

.

in botanical

collections

|J

}

0

glaberrima

suspected

A

from

historicalvidence

AME

RI~1

70

Judith

Ca(ey,

1997

Fig.

4. Areas

of documented nd

suspected

presence

of 0.

glabemima.

to the arrival of the Javanese and

Indian

indentured laborers

who estab-

lished it as a cash

crop

between the

1870s and 1930s

(Panday,

1959;

Lunig,

1969)

but little else is said.

A

great

deal more archival

research is

needed

on the food

systems

of

plantation

economies.

Botanical

collections of

glabenima

document its

presence

in

two

loca-

tions of the Americas, while archival materials

suggest

it was

grown

else-

where.

These documented and

suspected

locales of

glaberima

introduction

are

presented

in

Fig.

4. Whether

glaberima

proved

the initial rice

variety

brought

across the

Atlantic

may

never

be known.

However,

the evidence

from this review of archival and botanical

sources indicates that

glaberima

was

in

fact introduced to

the

Americas

during

the

period

of the Atlantic

slave trade.

CONCLUSIONS

In

1637,

the Dutch

launched an

expedition

to

northeast Brazil

to de-

velop

its

colony

at

Pernambuco.

Among

the

savants

accompanying

the

gov-

ernor-designate,

Count

Maurits of

Nassau,

was

the Dutch

physician,

Willem



17/22

540

Camey

Piso,whose 7-yearstay

resulted n

the

first

truly

scientific

studyof

the ge-

ography

and

botany

of

Brazil.

While

rice

interested

Piso

for its

presumed

medical

properties,

his

account

indicates

that

the

crop

was

already

culti-

vated

in

Brazil

by the

time

of

Dutch

settlement.

Piso's

compendiumalso

mentions the

planting

of

several

other

crops,

like okra

and

ginger,

which

he

claimed

came to

Brazil

from

Angola

(Piso,

1957).

As

plantation

slavery

consolidated

over

the next

centuries, he

role of

slaves in

adapting

African

crops

to

diverse

environments

f the

Americas

faded

from

commentaries.

Trying

o

recapture

lementsof

that

historycen-

turies laterdemandsa multidisciplinaryerspective,particularly dditional

research n

botany,historical

archaeology, nd

the

archives

of

countriesof

the

Americas

where

rice

cultivation

developed.

A

crucial

research

need is

to

examine

existing

germplasm

collections

in

key

rice-growing

ountries

(e.g.

Brazil,

Surinam,and

Cuba) to

detect

the

presence of

glaberima. Given the

historical

ignificanceof

maroons

in

these

areas and

the

enduring

significanceof rice

cultivation

among their

descendants,

collections

may

well

include

African

rice.

A

series of

proce-

dureswould

facilitate

pecies dentification:

laberrima

can

be

differentiated

from sativa,after 3-4 weeks' growth,by the shape of its ligules (Duncan

Vaughan,

personal

communication);

lternatively,

he

two

species

can

be

identified

throughgenetic

analysis.16

A

second research

need

addresses the

field

of

historical

archaeology.

While

glaberrima

has been

found

and dated in

archaeological

xcavations

in

Niger,

West Africa

(McIntosh

and

McIntosh,

1993),

no

archaeological

research o date has

sought

to

locate

Africanrice in

the

Americas

(Leland

Ferguson,

personal

communication).

Earlyspecies

planted

n

the

Americas,

however,

should be well

preserved

n

the

perpetually

wet

soils of

rice re-

gions.

A

well-designed

archaeological

esearch

program

hould

uncover

rice

samples that in turn can be subjectedto phytolithanalysis,a technique

that enables identification f rice

species

and

varieties.17

Historical

archae-

ological

research combined

with

paleo-ethnobotanical

phytolith

analysis

16Arecommended

rocedure

s

to make a

preliminary

orting

of

germplasm

materialon the

basis of

color,

since

glabemima

s of red or

red/purple-black

ue.

Promising

ice

varietiescan

then be

outgrown

n

the

field with

suspectedglaberima

samples

subsequently ubjected

o

the more

expensivegenetic

analysis.

Note

that more than 2000

rice

varietieswere

collected

in Brazil

during

he 1970sand 1980s.Of

these,

about

5%

possess

the

phenotypic laberrima

color

(Fonseca,personal

communication).However,

his color

can also

indicate

degeneracy

in the

seed of certainsativas

Vaughan,personal

communication).

17Phytolithnalysis xamines he

silica signature hat

distinguishes ll

grasses Pearsall,

1989;

Pearsallet al., 1995;Zhao, et al., 1998).A pioneer in refining he techniques,Pearsallhas

been

workingwith phytolith

analysis

of

wild

and

domesticatedAsian rice

species and has

identifiedspecies as well as

varieties.She

believes that such

techniquesare

also capableof

distinguishingAsian from African

rice, although

he basic research

has not

yet been done

(Deborah

Pearsall,personal

communication).



18/22

Rice Cultivation n the Americas 541

consequentlyoffers considerablepromise for uncovering he early history

of

rice in the

Americas.

Research

n

the archivesof other important ice-growing reas of the

African

diaspora

should

be

conductedwith the

objectiveof identifyingmi-

cro-environmentslanted

and the

specificsoil and watermanagementprin-

ciples

that characterized

each

system.

Such

an approach facilitates

cross-cultural

omparison.

A related

concern is

to situate rice cultivation

within the particular

emandsof its

milling, hus linking he crop'sunusual

processingrequirements

o the

transfer rom Africa of an indigenousgen-

dered technology.The value of such an approach s to illuminateorigins

and diffusionof

specific farmingcomplexesas well as the transferof gen-

dered knowledgesystems

n

food

processingand preparation.

Finally, here s the

need

for a betterhistorical nderstandingf the trans-

Atlantic

networks hat

facilitated he

delivery

of African

ood staples to the

Americas.

Eighteenth-century

bservers f

plantation

conomies

attribute ul-

tivation

nd

subsequent

iffusion f

sorghum Sorghum icolor)

ndAfrican

oil

palm(Elaeis uineensis)

n the Americas o

introduction

y

slave

ships(Grime,

1976),therebydrawing

ttention o the

importance

f

the role

of

commerce

and scientific

ocieties or

the

delivery

f

economically

seful

plants.However,

less

explored

are

the number f accounts hat claimAfrican laves

directly

n-

troduced

rops

ike okra

Abelmoschussculentus),ams Dioscoreaayenensis),

and

cowpeas

or

black-eyed eas (Jigna unguiculata)

o the Americas

Grine,

1976).

Like

rice,

these

cropsmay

also

have

provisioned

lave

ships

boundfor

the

Americas.

And like

rice,they

became

irmly

stablished

n slave

provision

gardens,

which

provided

he locus or the

survival

f

many

African

ropsamong

Black

populations

f the

Americas.18 historical ocus on the food

crops

of

slave

societiesas

well as the

dispersal

f African

dietary taples

across he At-

lantic

might

lluminate

he

networks

hatenabled laves o

obtain eeds of their

favoreddietary taples.A shiftin the research ocus on slave societiesfrom

cash to

food

crops

would

undoubtedlymprove

ur

understanding

f the

role

of

Africans

n

establishing

heircultivarsn the Americas.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author

hankfully cknowledges

he

financial

upport

of the Wen-

ner-Gren

Foundation or

Anthropological

Researchas well

as the Interna-

181n1753,

for instance,

Sloane

(Vol. I, p.

333)

records

attempts

o

maintainrice

cultivation

in provisiongardensby Jamaican laveson sugarplantations: Thisgrain s

sowed by some

of the

Negros

in their

gardens,

and small

plantations

n

Jamaica,

and

thrives

very

well in

those that are

wet,

but because of the

difficulty

here is

in

separating

he

grain from the

husk, 'tis

very much neglected,seeing the

use of it may be

suppliedby other grains,

more

easily

cultivated

and

made

use

of with

less labour

quoted

n

Grim6,1976, p. 154).



19/22

542

Carney

tional Studies

and

Overseas

Programs nd

Latin

AmericanStudies

Center

of UCLA for

funding

this

research.

She is

also

grateful or

the

comments

and

insightsof Paul

Richards,

Duncan

Vaughan,

Leland

Ferguson,Deborah

Pearsall,as

well

as the

anonymous

reviewers

of

the

manuscript.

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