Palm oil, known as dendê in Portuguese, is virtually synonymous with Bahian cuisine and Afro-Bahian culture, but despite its centrality it has received no serious study by historians or geographers. Case Watkins's new book remedies that problem. An engaging longue durée study of the introduction and development of Bahia's palm oil agricultural sector and its relationship to the African diaspora, Palm Oil Diaspora is also the work of a scholar intimately familiar with the Brazilian landscapes that he studies. Having researched the history of Bahia's southern coast and visited the small towns and some of the dendê farms that he examines, Watkins explains how the dendê palm arrived in Brazil, how and why it took hold economically and culturally, while also evoking the geography and culture of the Bahian towns where it primarily grows today. Watkins asks two overarching questions: How did Africa and Africans contribute to the Columbian Exchange?...
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Book Review|
November 01 2022
Palm Oil Diaspora: Afro-Brazilian Landscapes and Economies on Bahia's Dendê Coast
Palm Oil Diaspora: Afro-Brazilian Landscapes and Economies on Bahia's Dendê Coast
. By Case Watkins. Afro-Latin America
. Cambridge
: Cambridge University Press
, 2021
. Photographs. Maps. Figures. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index
. xix, 347
pp. Cloth, $99.99.Hispanic American Historical Review (2022) 102 (4): 721–723.
Citation
Mary Ann Mahony; Palm Oil Diaspora: Afro-Brazilian Landscapes and Economies on Bahia's Dendê Coast. Hispanic American Historical Review 1 November 2022; 102 (4): 721–723. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-10025565
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