EatingWell
Collard & Rice Dumplings with Mamba 9 Sauce
To the African Diaspora, Collards Mean Prosperity & Good Health. I am always taken aback when people use judgment-laden terms such as greasy, unhealthy, fatty or "eat with caution" when talking about traditional African American foods or our diet (relating to the cuisine that has evolved from enslaved Africans in pre-emancipation America). Phrases such as "slave food" absolutely make my skin crawl, because although many of the foods that are consumed by African Americans were sustenance for enslaved people, those foods were—and still are—a source of nutrition for all races throughout the entire world. When movies like Soul Food, based upon an African American family in Chicago, are seen by non-African Americans, many of them note how many dishes were deep-fried or looked as if they were drowning in gravy. Yet this movie is only a single small peek into the African American diet and the way food is truly consumed in its communities. African American cuisine is not monolithic, after all.