Four Aunties: Rice

The passing of seeds from one generation to the next.

photo by LeeAnna Tatum

The Four Aunties: RICE

by Matthew Raiford, a chef and sixth generation farmer

They came in the braids of Africans who were stripped, shackled, and placed head to foot in the belly of ships named White Lion, Monrovia, Clotilda, and Wanderer. Their voyages to the hinterlands from the west coast of Africa helped to create food ways that have evolved from survival food to delicacies that are coveted by even the richest of palates.

The P.O.W.R Aunts (peas, okra, watermelon, and rice) have been a source of sustenance since its arrival upon the coastal shores of what is now known as the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor. In this series we will see the aunts as individuals and collectively.

Oftentimes the main economic staple crops of slavery are synonymous to cotton, which was planted and picked in the Lower Piedmont region of middle Georgia. Although rice is mentioned last in the acronym, she is the most powerful and complimentary of the aunts. Rice can be paired with any protein or vegetable and is the centerpiece of soups, perloos, and various entrees.

This grain was used as a survival food to sustain the sons and daughters of Sierra Leone who were shipped as livestock to be forcefully used for free labor. There are two strains of rice, Oryza Galderma (African) and Oryza sativa (Asian), the former is a sub-Saharan grain that was transported from the Rice Coast of West Africa to recreate the Rice Coast on the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia.

Rice is not indigenous to North America and when it was first introduced to explorers and slave traders became an instant economic staple in the “New World”. However, the planting, cultivating, and gleaning of rice involved machinery and technology that the south did not possess at the time of its presentation. Additionally, the land and environment needed to be conducive to the production of rice that mirrored the West African coast.

The Mende women of Sierra Leone had been the cultivators of rice for four millennia in their native land of Sierra Leone and present-day Liberia and brought the seeds in their cornrows to be introduced to the fertile soil of South Carolina and Georgia coasts.

Tidewater or the low country of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida has an abundance of swampy marshlands that were needed to be converted into rice fields. From north to south, the Tidewater land masses of the coast of Georgia is 126 miles. The land is encamped by the St. Marys, Savannah, Satilla, Ogeechee, and Altamaha rivers.

Because these areas are reminiscent of the coast of Africa, it only made sense to bring skilled laborers from the original Rice Coast to create a doppelganger of the sister coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. Although cotton was known as “king”, the everreigning Queen was rice and by 1850, 71 rice planters produced 100,00 pounds per unit.

Rice quickly generated wealth in both South Carolina and Georgia creating the Rice Aristocracy which distinguished the cotton planter (plantation owner) and rice planter (plantation owner). By 1860, Georgia reigned in rice production, primarily because of the hydraulic system produced by the Altamaha River that ensured the maturation and development of rice which had become the source of 90% of rice eaten in North America and the world abroad.

Our waterways are one of the best descriptions of our foodways. It expands far beyond pouring rice into a pot of hot water-stirring while pouring and allowing it to boil. It reaches further than ensuring that every grain is defined and pronounced unless otherwise used for fritters. Rice is a time traveler that stowed away in the hair follicles of an Ancestor with the prayer that the three-month (plus) journey in darkness would end with them both alive on arrival. She was then placed in the ground with the hope and belief that although she was no longer in the womb of Mother Africa, she would not only grow, and survive-she would thrive.

She was once turned into mush to serve as nutriment for her captive transporter and became an economic staple in the building of the Old South. We now behold her as the centerpiece of meals for all people despite religion, race, creed, or belief system and any Gullah Geechee would look puzzled if there is none on the table in any form when dining.

She is our ever reigning and versatile Queen - she is Rice!

The Story Behind the Photo

Living and farming on land that has been owned by their family since the mid 1800s, these hands belong to Dorothy Byrd, her son Michael and his daughter Mya. They represent the fourth, fifth and sixth generations living out the legacy of hard work, perseverance, integrity, self-reliance and the entrepreneurial spirit of those who came before.

HK Farm in Cobbtown was incorporated by the 12 siblings of the fourth generation and is currently owned and operated by the fourth and fifth generation farmers who are training the sixth generation to care for the soil and animals, plant seeds, and to continue the legacy.

Learn more about the author, Matthew Raiford, click here.