A feast of words on the cannibal and the edible

Q&A with Valerie Loichot, author of The Tropics Bite Back.

Loichot_tropics coverHow would you summarize this book in one sentence?

This book focuses on the surprising role eating and cooking play in slavery and post-slavery Caribbean contexts – not only to preserve but also to rebuild humanity and culture, cultures that were affected by slavery and colonialism.

What sparked your interest in this topic?

What I first noticed when I was reading Caribbean folktales was this obsession with food, the omnipresence of food – cooking, eating – that really sparked my attention. I've been trying to answer this question: Why is there such an obsession with food? And there's an easy answer: rampant hunger on slave plantations. But I wanted to go further than that – and show that food and expressions of food were about much more than an expression of hunger.

Read the full article.

Published in: Emory University News Center
By: Dana Goldman