Peanuts in West Africa and America

Cookbook reference: Gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies; Peanut butter cups; Peanut butter fudge

The peanuts we enjoy today are actually beans that originated in Bolivia’s Gran Chaco, just east of the Andes mountain chain. Thousands of years ago, Inca communities used artificial selection to domesticate this legume. Over the generations, peanut plants steadily became bushier and more productive, their seeds swelling in size. Peanuts were farmed on the land that is known today as Peru and appear to have been associated with elite and ceremonial practices. Local jewellery and pottery sometimes featured peanut designs, and peanuts were often carefully placed as offerings in the burial chambers of high-status individuals in Pacatnamú society.

When Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors invaded South America in the 16th century, they encountered peanuts and saw their potential as a nutritious tropical food crop that was also easy to store on board ships. Traders took peanuts back to Spain with them, and from there peanuts were introduced to Africa, Asia and islands in the Pasifika moana. They became a particularly significant crop in West Africa, where they were incorporated in local cuisine, often as a base for savoury sauces.

Initially African communities cultivated peanuts on a small scale, alongside millet, tomatoes, okra, and cow peas. However, as the European demand for peanuts grew, plantations expanded, and slavery became closely enmeshed with the peanut industry in West Africa. In her thought-provoking book, Slaves for Peanuts, environmental journalist Jori Lewis explores how a growing Western demand for peanut oil (used for food, lighting and soap) drove the expansion of the peanut industry in 19th century Senegal. Labourers on peanut farms worked in harsh conditions and were often enslaved or indentured. Even after Europeans had officially abolished the trade in enslaved persons, the authorities ignored the suffering of enslaved workers on African peanut farms, and even captured and returned escaped slaves to the slaveholders. African slavery associated with growing peanuts continued well into the 20th century.

In the United States, peanuts were also associated with slavery - enslaved Africans who had been captured and transported brought the nutritious seeds with them. Peanuts thrived in the climate of the Southern United States, and were grown as a cheap and convenient food for the poor, the enslaved, and as fodder for farmed animals. Paradoxically, peanuts sometimes helped enslaved persons gain their freedom, as some managed to grow and sell peanuts on their own account, and occasionally purchase their liberty. After slavery was abolished, peanut cultivation sometimes continued to be a source of income for communities of people who were once enslaved.

​Peanuts remain a staple of African American soul food today, and are often incorporated into stews and soups, or as a high-protein substitute for butter or flour.

Image credit: https://itoldya420.getarchive.net/amp/media/arachis-hypogaea-kohlers-medizinal-pflanzen-163-072e0e

Links and references
‘Slaves for Peanuts’ Tells the Tragic Story Behind America’s Favorite Snack | Civil Eats
Southern Peanut Soup - Savor and Sage
Peanuts and Power in the Andes: The Social Archaeology of Plant Remains from the Virú Valley, Peru
The Food Historian Blog - THE FOOD HISTORIAN
Peanut Butter's History Goes Back to the Incas | Office for Science and Society - McGill University
The Incredible History of the Peanut | Southern Exposure Seed Exchange