Illustration by Sarah Wiseby
Did you know that the word “okra” comes from several West African languages to describe the tall, hearty plant? In Nigeria’s Igbo language, it’s called “ k r ” and in Ghanaian languages, it’s “nkruma.” To this day, okra is still used as a thickening agent for African soups and stews (that’s why it’s used in modern-day gumbo), but the history of its existence in the United States is the direct result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The lore goes that enslaved Africans carried okra seeds with them in their hair across the Atlantic, where the plant thrived in the humid southern climate, but there’s simply no way to prove the veracity of this claim.
“I don’t always do my due diligence in telling the truth of the story because I think it’s such a romantic story,” says Cassandra L. Jones, associate professor of Africana Studies at the University of Cincinnati, who co-created the school’s African Diaspora Foodways & Health course. “This is not, in fact, true, but it’s a story that we love to tell because it gives us some agency, right? It’s a way for us to remember a piece of the place that we were ripped away from.” The act of frying okra is also tied to the West African and Congolese traditions of deep-frying vegetables in palm oil, another inherited way of preparing foods with a deep history that has lasted centuries. Want a good version locally? You’ll find it at Southern Grace Eats and Mama Jo’s Soul Eatery.
- Southern Grace Eats, 3751 Montgomery Rd., Norwood, (513) 818-8182
- Mama Jo’s Soul Eatery, 2132 Losantiville Ave., Silverton, (513) 376-6109
