~ , 1 ' 'THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED THURSDAY, DE;;CEMBER30,2010

Prosperity Starts With a Peaj

+~~~--------------~----------By Jessica B. Harris

b

A'T year's end, people around the.i . world indulge in food rituals

to ensure good luck in thedays ahead. In Spain, grapes

" eaten as the clock turns mid-night - one for each chime - foretell~hether the year will be sweet or sour.IIIAustria, the New Year's table is deco-rated with marzipan pigs to celebratewealth, progress and prosperity. Ger-mans savor carp and place a few fishscales in their wallets for luck. And for1\frican-Americans and in the Southern .United States, Ws all about black-eyedpeas.Not surprisingly" this American tradi-

tsm originated elsewhere, in this case intile forests and savannahs of West Af-rica. After being domesticated there5\000 years ago, black-eyed peas madetheir way into the diets of people in vir-tually all parts of that continent. Theythen traveled to the Americas in theholds of slave ships as food for the en-slaved. "Everywhere African slaves ar-rived in substantial numbers, cowpeasfollowed," wrote one historian, usingone of several names the legume ac-c/uil-ed.Today the peas are also eaten in'ihrazil,Central America and the Carib-bean.In the United States, few foods are

more connected with African-Ameri-cans and with the South. Before the ear-ly 1700s,black-eyed peas were observedgrowing in the Carolina colonies. As inAfrica, they were often planted at theborders of the fields to help keep down'feeds and enrich the. soil; cattle grazed

jssica B. Harris is an English professordot Queens College arid the quthor of theff,rthcoming "High on the Hog: A Culi-rru'ryJourney From Africa to America."

on the stems and vines. These practicesare at the origin of two of the peas' al-ternative names: cowpeas and fieldpeas. The peas, which were eaten by en-slaved Africans and poorer whites, be-came one of the Carolinas' cash crops,exported to the Caribbean colonies be-fore the Revolutionary War.Like many other dishes of African in-

spiration, black-eyed peas made their

,An African legume that,stars in an American

New Year's disH.

way from the slave cabin to the mas-ter's table; the 1824edition of "The Vir-ginia Housewife" by Mary Randolph in-cludes a recipe for field peas. Randolphsuggests shelling, boiling and drainingthe "young and newly gathered" peas,then mashing them into a cake and fry-ing until lightly browned. The black-eyed pea cakes are served with a gar-nish of "thin bits of fried bacon."Of course, black-eyed peas find their

most prominent expression aroundNew Year's in the holiday'S signature

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dish: Hoppin John, a Carolina specialtymade with black-eyed peas and rice andseasoned with smoked pork. Again,though, the peas and rice combinationreaches back beyond the Lowcountry toWest Africa, where variants are eatento this day. Senegal alone has three vari-ations: thiebou kethiah, a black-eyedpea and rice stew with eggplant, pump-kin, okra d smoked fish; sinan kus-sak, a stew ith smoked fish and pre- .pared with ,.red palm oil; and thiebouniebe, a stew seasoned with fish saucethat is closest to America's Hoppin'John.Just as nobody is sure of the origin of

the name Hoppin' John, no one seemsquite certain why the dish has becomeassociated with luck, or New, Year's.Some white Southerners daim thatblack-eyed peas saved families fromstarvation during the Union Army'ssiege of Vicksburg in the Civil War."The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food"suggests that it may come from Sephar-die Jews,who included the peas in theirRosh Hashana menu as a symbol of fer-,

tility and pl.0sperity.For African-Americans, the connec-

tion between beans and fortune is sure-ly complex. Perhaps, because driedblack-eyed peas can be germinated,having some extra on hand at the NewYear guaranteed sustenance providedby a new crop of the fast-growing vines.The black-eyed pea and rice combina-tion also forms a complete protein, of-fering all of the essential amino acids.During slavery, one ensured of suchnourishment was lucky indeed.Whatever the exact reason, black-

eyed peas with rice form one corner ofthe African-American New Year's culi-nary trinity: greens, beans and pig. THegreens symbolize greenbacks (or "fold-ing money") and may be collards, mus-tards or even cabbage. The pork is a re-membrance of our enslaved forebears,who were given the less noble parts ofthe pig as food. But without the black-eyed pea, which journeyed from Africato the New World, it just isn't NewYear's - at least not a lucky one. 0