THE INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY ON BRAZILIAN CUISINE

Abstract

The book *Influence of Slavery on Brazilian Cuisine* stems from the desire to understand and value a fundamental part of our cultural formation: the African presence that profoundly and permanently shaped the flavors, practices, and meanings of food in Brazil.

Throughout our history, peoples of different origins—Indigenous, African, European, and various migrant groups—have contributed to the social, political, and gastronomic construction of the country. However, among all these encounters and exchanges, the strength of the African diaspora stands out, whose marks transcended the violence of slavery and became pillars of Brazilian identity.

This book proposes to revisit this trajectory, understanding that cuisine is much more than a set of dishes: it is memory, belonging, resistance, and ancestry. For enslaved Black populations, food meant not only sustenance but also the possibility of preserving traditions, reinventing ways of life, and affirming their humanity in the face of a dehumanizing system.

In the following chapters, the reader will find reflections on:

The origin of the African diaspora in Brazil, understanding the paths, cultures, and knowledge brought by different African peoples who arrived here by force, but who left a legacy that remains alive.

Typical African-based foods, revealing the depth of this knowledge, its emblematic ingredients, its culinary techniques, and how they were incorporated into the Brazilian palate.

Flavors of resistance, showing how cuisine also became a strategy for cultural survival, a link to ancestry, and an instrument of identity affirmation in the context of slavery and after it.

Thus, this work invites the reader to see Brazilian gastronomy from a historical and affective perspective. Each dish that makes up the richness of our table results from encounters, dialogues, and disputes, but mainly from the creative force of a people who, even subjected to the worst injustices, kept their culture alive and helped define what we now call Brazil.

May this reading serve not only to inform, but also to value, recognize, and honor the African heritage that pulsates daily in the aroma, flavor, and history of our cuisine.