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9 African Contributions That Significantly Shaped American Culture You May Not Know About

Posted byBy Olivia | Published on: | Updated on January 17, 2016 CommentsComments (1)

Wolof Map

Linguistic Contributions

Africans also famously contributed many words to the English language. According to Holloway’s article, many “Americanisms” can be traced back to the Wolof language. Words like okay, bogus, boogie-woogie, bug, phony, guy, jam, jamboree, jitter, jive, juke, hippie, mumbo-jumbo and rap are all examples of such terms.

Soul Food

Contributions in American Cuisine

Crops such as rice, okra, black-eyed peas, kidney beans and lima beans traveled with enslaved Africans by way of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Holloway states that “slavers collected local cultivated crops such as rice and yams, and included dried beans, peas, wheat, shelled barley and biscuits to feed the cargo.” In fact, the mentioned crops appeared in the first cookbooks of the South. Holloway’s article additionally confirms that “long before the day of refrigeration, Africans understood how deep-fat frying of chicken or beef could preserve these foods for some time;” this technique, and many others, were introduced by enslaved Africans in the “Big House.”

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