[upbeat music playing]
[man] I think a lot about food.
How it connects us through time,
across geography…
It's so good.
…from generation to generation.
It tells stories about where we've been,
where we are,
and where we're going.
Are you familiar with the phrase "high on the hog"?
Yes, I am.
-It already smells like mac 'n' cheese. -[Stephen] Absolutely.
The truth is, a lot of American food has its roots in African American food,
traditions and ingenuity.
I'm Stephen Satterfield.
I'm a food writer who studied as a chef
and worked as a sommelier for over a decade.
And I'm on a journey to uncover the stories of African American food
and meet the new generation preserving our history.
[man] This one's of the Carolina gold rice.
We've broken the rice down and made rice grits.
[Stephen] From the earliest days,
through the darkest decades of struggle,
we persevered.
[man 2] Despite the fact that we were in hell, we were suffering,
somehow in all of that nonsense,
we created a cuisine.
[Stephen] These are our stories.
[theme song playing]
[motor droning]
[man singing in Fon]
[rhythmic drumming]
[congregation shouting excitedly]
[man continues singing]
[congregation singing]
[drumming continues]
[singing in Fon]
[singing and drumming continues]
[Stephen] Benin, West Africa.
[brooding music playing]
It was strange to come home to a place I had never been.
Fragments of a lost memory were everywhere.
In the sounds and smells and tastes.
Deciding to trace the origins of the food
that had come to define America was one thing,
but being on the continent and feeling it?
That was completely another.
And the depth of my understanding began on a stroll through the Dantokpa Market
with Dr. Jessica B. Harris.
Or as I like to call her, Dr. J.
[gentle music playing]
[speaking French]
So, we are here in Tokpa?
-Dantokpa? -Dantokpa. We are in the Tokpa.
One of the largest open-air markets in Western Africa.
And my feet are on the ground here, and it feels incredible.
There you go. A whole new meaning to "boots on the ground", right?
[Stephen] Now, you gotta understand, Dr. J is just a straight-up legend to me.
She's penned over a dozen books
examining the foods of the African diaspora,
and it's hard to overstate the influence her book,
High on the Hog, has had on me.
-[Dr. Harris] I'm a market junkie. -[Stephen] Yeah.
[Dr. Harris] This is where you come to be in the center
-of the throbbing life of the place. -[Stephen] Mm-hmm.
So, this is where we are.
We're in the heart. It doesn't get more in the heart than this.
[Stephen] Yeah. We have basically walking retail outlets?
[Dr. Harris] Right? Oh, yeah!
Oh, yeah, you can get a little bit of anything.
-[Stephen] And it's jumpin' here, too. -[Dr. Harris] It's Saturday in the market!
[loud crowd noise]
-Here we are. -Okay.
This is us.
-Something familiar. -Right?
You know I have okra on my business card?
-I did not know that. -Okay. And on my stationery.
-It was your e-mail address at one time. -It is. It still is. Yeah.
-It still is. -So this really is us.
[Dr. Harris] This is us. This is mine.
[Stephen] So, in talking about okra
and how quintessentially African it is,
it's African because it made the voyage with us.
It did. But it's African also because it originated here.
[Stephen] Right.
[Dr. Harris] And then we brought it to the New World.
It's the connector.
[Stephen] Mm-hmm. What would be some applications for okra, uh,
in a West African dish?
[Dr. Harris] Okra will turn up in all sorts of soupy stews.
-It's-It's used as a thickener. -[Stephen] Mm-hmm.
[Dr. Harris] Here's another funny thing. If you wanna ask for okra in French,
you're learning a French word that's also an English word.
-[Stephen] Go ahead. -It's called gombo.
-[Stephen] Gombo? -Gombo.
[Stephen] Which makes a lot of sense, right?
[Dr. Harris] Which makes absolute sense.
[Stephen] All right, there's a lot more to cover than okra.
Oh, there's so much to see in the market.
[rhythmic music playing]
I just feel like, you know, the experience of seeing my own likeness…
-Isn't it? -…reflected, in the hair.
I see our style and the garments and how we wear stuff.
-[Dr. Harris] And in our swagger? -Our swagger.
Our ingenuity. Our resourcefulness.
[grinder whirring]
I mean, obviously, it's enormous,
but there does seem to be some kind of order, and--
-Oh, no, there's absolutely order. -[Stephen] Yeah.
[Dr. Harris] The thing that's interesting is just seeing
how many different things are actually sold.
[Stephen] Right.
[soft music playing]
[in French] Give me another one!
[in English] Ohh! Two at a time.
[in French] Give me another. You want to see?
-Ahh! -Okay.
[Stephen, in English] I'm so excited to be here with you,
because of all people, you have done the most work
-in trying to dispel this myth… -[laughs]
…of yam versus sweet potato.
This is the place we can put that to rest.
Yes. These are yams.
These are yams.
I always said that they look like
a hairy elephant foot.
Look at this thing.
That's a four-toed hairy elephant foot.
It's unbelievable.
-Okay? It is not a sweet potato. -No, it's not.
If we're not looking at this in a supermarket,
we're not looking at yams.
Right. Exactly.
So, why is it after all these years,
that people have continued to confuse the yam and the sweet potato?
[Dr. Harris] Well, because yams are so important.
You can see that they got more of these here
than anything else in the market.
-[Stephen] Yeah. -[Dr. Harris] But
they don't grow in North America, or they didn't.
Now they're growing them a bit in Florida, some other places. Because temperature.
Right.
-So, we've always been creative people. -Right.
What do we do?
-Come up with the next best thing. -There you go. Which is?
-The sweet potato. -And what do we call it?
-A yam. -So, what are you having at Thanksgiving?
You're having a sweet potato pie…
-[Dr. Harris] Uh-huh. -…and not a yam pie.
And the candied…
-Sweet potato. -There you go.
So, as long as we're here myth-busting,
do you have any other foods that come to mind
that are of African origin that,
uh, people assume to be from America?
So we've got black-eyed peas, we've got okra,
we've got watermelon, we've got the yam confusion.
Okay.
What else have we got? Rice.
-And rice. -And rice.
[rhythmic music playing gently]
[Stephen] There is…
One of the other cruxes or nexuses of African foodways is rice.
-Absolutely. -The beginning of us.
The thing with Benin is,
it may not be the rice coast, but it was the slave coast.
-This red rice is Nigerian rice. -Oh, okay.
[in French] The rice is organized by quality.
There is even superior quality. We call this one Jollof.
[Dr. Harris] Jollof. So this rice is the Jollof rice?
-Yes, Jollof. Which has been broken once. -[Dr. Harris] Uh-huh.
Some are broken twice. Some are totally broken.
[in English] So, there's broken once, and they call it Jollof.
-Oui, Jollof. -[Dr. Harris] Jollof, like Jollof rice.
[Stephen] Every time I see rice,
I can't not think about how this is the thing
that built the wealth of our nation…
Our now nation, before it even was a nation.
Made Charleston.
Made Charleston happen.
And the Sea Islands and South Carolina.
-You know. -[Stephen] Yeah.
[Dr. Harris] It was rice.
Rice, rice, and more rice.
-It was the foundation. -Yeah.
It was absolutely the foundation.
-Okay. -[Stephen] Merci.
Merci, madame. Au revoir.
-Where are we off to next? -[Stephen] On to the next.
[Dr. Harris] I'm gonna show you some more stuff.
[upbeat music playing]
[Stephen] Dr. J and I lunched at a low-key local spot
called Saveurs du Benin, or "Tastes of Benin."
[in French] The dish that is most appreciated
by the people of Ouidah…
[Stephen, in English] The place is owned by chef Valérie Vinakpon.
A fixture on Cotonou's food scene,
she's written six cookbooks featuring her country's traditional dishes.
-[in French] There it is. -[Stephen, in English] Great.
[in French] This looks good. What are you serving us?
Grilled chicken.
Is this moyo?
-[woman] This is tomato juice. -It's tomato juice?
[in English] This is amiwo, and then this is your chicken.
And the amiwo is wonderful because it's got such great taste.
-It's the corn flour, with the tomato. -Mm-hmm.
-Delicious. -And it's lovely.
[Stephen] So good.
[Dr. Harris] So, this is the pepper.
-This is a tomato-y based one. -[Stephen] Okay.
She said that's the hot one. You do you.
Everyone is different, so make sure that this is the you that is not--
[Stephen] It's true.
You know, 'cause you could do you and have the top of your head fly off.
[Stephen] That is very real.
-Yeah? -Oh, yeah.
Oh, now you got it.
I got it. Ohh, I love it.
Yeah, it makes a difference--
-It makes it taste like home. -Yeah.
I always say, if you go into an African American restaurant,
and there is not a long, thin bottle of hot sauce on the table,
leave. You're in the wrong place.
-Wrong spot. -Wrong spot.
It's, like, hard to imagine eating our food without hot sauce.
Fried catfish. No hot sauce?
-No fried catfish. -No, thank you.
You know? "No, thank you." Even better, yeah.
[gentle music playing]
So, the tome High on the Hog,
what made you want to write the book?
I mean, I was the travel editor for Essence in the '70s.
And so I finally discovered
that I was beginning to make connections
with the food of the African diaspora.
As in, these things are in relationship to each other?
-As in, "I've had this before!" -Yeah.
As in, "I know this!"
As in, "Ohh, that tastes like Grandma's." You know?
So, these are beans.
-[in French] Red beans? -[woman] Yes. Red beans.
-[Stephen, in English] Okay. Red beans. -[Dr. Harris] Red beans.
-With red palm oil. -Okay.
So it's red palm oil, red… And more corn flour.
[Dr. Harris, in French] And this?
Mutton.
-[in English] Lamb. -There it goes.
-[Dr. Harris, in French] Thank you, miss. -[woman] You're welcome.
[Stephen] Nice combo.
[Dr. Harris] Yeah. Well, the red palm oil is always interesting.
[Stephen] Oh, yeah? Why is that?
[Dr. Harris] For me, it's connecting with all kinds of places.
-That reddish-orange-ish color. -[Stephen] Mm-hmm.
You know, we can see it a little bit in the Charleston red rice.
[Stephen] Yeah.
[Dr. Harris] We can see it in jambalaya.
[Stephen] Wow. I never thought about that linkage.
Well, that's how my crazy mind works.
But the red beans?
-Think New Orleans on Monday. -Mmm.
[Stephen] Mmm. It's delicious.
It is. It's wonderful. But it'd be better with some more of this.
True that.
[rhythmic music playing]
[Stephen] What is it about Benin
that makes it of such culinary importance?
[Dr. Harris] Because it was one of the hubs
-of the transatlantic slave trade. -Mm-hmm.
And for that reason, a lot of people from here and a lot of people through here
ended up on the other side of the Atlantic.
-Mm-hmm. -You know, it's not a big place,
but it has had an extraordinary impact on the New World.
-[Stephen] Right. -On the hemisphere.
[Stephen] Yeah.
And a lot of that impact is through our stomachs.
[music continues]
So, this hand-washing ritual happens before specific dishes or--
-Well, you're gonna eat with your hands. -Makes sense.
-So first, wash your hands. -Cool.
All right, I get to see it first.
[Dr. Harris] Mm-hmm.
Beautiful.
-[Dr. Harris, in French] Thank you. -[woman] Thank you.
[Dr. Harris] So…
-This is mashed yam. -Mashed yam.
With peanut sauce.
With cheese and mutton.
Oh!
Oi.
Mm-hmm. Yum.
[in English] This is lovely peanut sauce.
-[Stephen] I love this dish. -Mm-hmm?
-[woman, in French] Hello. -Hi, so you are Valérie?
-I'm Valérie. -Jessica.
-Stephen. -Bonjour, Stephen.
[Dr. Harris, in English] Bien. Please, join us.
[Valerie] Thank you.
The food you serve here--
Is this considered a traditional restaurant?
Um…
[in French] We made the choice to showcase dishes typically from Benin.
And we only serve traditional and authentic dishes.
Dishes which tend to disappear.
[in English] And why was that important to you?
[in French] If we don't valorize,
if we don't showcase what we can do, who will?
-Okay. [chuckles] -Well, nobody else.
Every time we welcome our American brothers--
It's true. It is our brothers coming back.
It is always a pleasure to show them
what we continue to eat here. It's truly a pleasure.
-Well, thank you so much. -[Dr. Harris] Thank you.
-Merci. -Merci.
[Stephen] My experience being Black in America
has been so rooted in the struggle to belong.
I was surprised by how I was embraced in Cotonou.
Benin's biggest city is this amazing mix of old and new,
and a place where traditional cuisine can meet
the ambitions of a new generation.
[woman] You know, African cuisine is…
I don't know why our cuisine is not as popular
as Asian cuisine or French cuisine.
And I'm happy to show the world,
through my blog or through my Instagram page,
what we have.
[Stephen] As fellow writers in search of our culinary roots,
food blogger Karelle Vignon and I had a lot in common.
And her work has attracted a huge following.
[Karelle] I'm learning everyday African food.
Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Benin.
[Stephen] So, you're a student of African food.
This food is also part of your own personal history, right?
[Karelle] Yeah, exactly!
I'm born in France, but I'm from Benin, you know.
This is my culture, and I want all my followers to learn about that.
Why is it that you wanted to bring me to this restaurant?
[Karelle] Because I have a friend of mine,
and I really wanted him to present us dishes that he made,
because he uses the traditional recipes
but with a modern twist.
-[Stephen] Okay. -[Karelle] Yeah.
-Ohh! -[in French] Starter.
-Thank you. -A bite of rolled chicken.
-Very well. -And a bite of cheese.
[Karelle] Wagassi.
[in English] This is a recipe I really, really love.
[Stephen] Merci.
[Karelle] It's called amiwo.
[Stephen] Amiwo.
Mmm! This is really good.
[Karelle] We have a tomato sauce inside.
[Stephen] Yeah, inside! I just got a surprise in there, too.
It's so brilliant.
The flavor, and also the different textures.
-Mm-hmm. -Because this has a little firm,
-little crunch to it. -Yeah, exactly.
-This is from Benin. -Mm-hmm.
[soft music playing]
[both] Oh!
Wow, that looks so good!
Okay!
-I'm ready. -You like the look of that one.
[waiter, in French] Creamy sweet potato mousse and shrimp.
[Karelle] Very well, thank you.
[in English] And you don't have the same thing.
[Stephen] Uh, no.
-[Karelle] This is a new version. -[Stephen] Okay.
[Karelle] New version of the peanut sauce.
With chicken, you have peanuts on the top.
[Stephen] It's like a crust.
[Karelle] Mmm! How is the chicken?
[Stephen] The chicken's perfectly cooked.
Because this peanut sauce in the middle is warm…
[Karelle] Mm-hmm?
…it's almost like a new sauce for the chicken.
-Okay. -So, we have multiple sauces happening.
-I think this is a really creative dish. -This is great.
-You have to try that. -[Stephen] Okay. Perfect.
-[Karelle] And I have to try that. -[Stephen] Yes. The shrimp are beautiful.
[Karelle] Yeah, they were-- Whew!
And, you know, the little tomatoes…
-Mm-hmm. -…with the pepper.
[Stephen] Lovely.
Mmm. Wow. So good.
[Karelle] Mmm!
[soft music playing]
[Karelle] Whoo-hoo!
-I see the dish. It's coming! -You see something?
[waiter, in French] Piron maki with pineapple and coconut.
[Karelle] Thank you.
[Stephen, in English] Looks so good.
Sushi, or maki from Japan.
It's with piron.
Piron, in the general life, it's a salty dish.
-Now, it's sweet with pineapple… -[Stephen] Mm-hmm?
…and, uh, coconuts.
-Oh, yum! -Yeah.
[Stephen] I love how everything has something in the middle of it.
[Karelle, laughing] Yeah!
-In Africa, we don't eat a lot of dessert. -[Stephen] Mm-hmm.
But I'm a big fan of all kinds of desserts.
Well, this one is really good.
[man] Hello!
Hello.
-Hello! -Chef!
-Sedjro. -Stephen.
-Nice to meet you. Okay. -Nice to meet you.
Hello.
I'm good.
-Thank you. Merci -[Sedjro] You're welcome.
-It was amazing. -I bring some local alcohol.
Okay.
[Sedjro] It's sodabi…
-Sodabi. -…with grape.
-Ahh! -[Karelle] Okay, nice.
Okay. Shall we toast to Benin?
-To Benin? -To Benin.
-To the Beninese cuisine? -Yes.
-Beninese food. -And, uh, to-to us.
-[all chuckle] -All right.
[all] Cheers.
[Stephen] Where did you learn to cook this way?
[in French] I learned and studied in France.
And, um,
then I traveled in Senegal and Guadeloupe,
and decided to return to Benin
and create my own cuisine.
[in English] And why did you want to come home?
[in French, hesitates] It's a challenge.
To elevate the gastronomy of our country, Benin,
because we have a lot of product
that we take and create something new.
[in English] So, do you think this is something that's happening
all over the country,
where there's young chefs trying to move things forward?
They have a lot of people trying to put Benin on the map, like we do.
We are proud of our country, and we want to-to say that Benin is here.
Benin is a small country, by the size,
but we are big persons.
-[laughs] -[Stephen] Yes.
-Small and proud. -[Karelle] Exactly.
[upbeat music playing]
[Stephen] But beneath Benin's pride was a sobering reality I couldn't ignore.
We were torn from here,
and to begin to understand what that means in Benin,
I had to go to a place called Abomey.
[rhythmic drumming]
This was once the capital of the Dahomey Kingdom.
A kingdom that had an all-female regiment of Amazon warriors,
and was a force that colonial powers reckoned with for centuries.
[chanting in Fon]
[somber, reflective music fading in]
[in French] Once upon a time, uh…
At one point in time,
the kingdom of Abomey had the reputation
of being the biggest kingdom of the slave trade.
From the beginning of the creation of the kingdom…
there was a will of expansion.
They brought people here to grow the kingdom,
and they sent some that were requested by Europeans.
We cannot say we Africans
did not participate in slavery.
[rhythmic drumming]
[singing in Fon]
We definitely participated, because we accepted to supply
the Europeans with the manpower they demanded.
But at a terrible cost!
[Stephen, in English] I felt as though I was stepping back in time in Abomey.
I mean, this is a place
where you can still walk the actual road the enslaved walked.
It was a vile march.
A march that ended in a city called Ouidah,
where so many of us left, never to return again.
How-- How did it work?
[in French] They put the chains on the feet and on the wrists.
To put them in line, there was a team
that looked over the people.
[Stephen, in English] How long did it take?
[Gabin, in French] It took at a minimum four days.
[in English] I think it's really important that…
I look down this road, I see this road,
and I take this home with me.
[Gabin, in French] We have to walk down this road
because…
it is a very important part of our history.
And to ignore it…
is to ignore a part of ourselves.
[Stephen, in English] But there are roads in Benin that tell a different story.
Roads that lead to one of the most mythical places I've ever been.
And I swear I can still hear the celestial songs of freedom,
still feel the original magic
of that water village that began with a Voodoo legend.
[singing in Fon]
[speaking Fon]
[woman, in Fon] It is all the religions in the world that we practice,
but the first is Voodoo.
To those who come from abroad,
we can tell them that here, we are Voodoo followers.
We worship Voodoo with a single faith.
Ganvié-- It was owing to our ancestors that we have Ganvié.
Slave traders were chasing them.
And while running away, they came to the shore of the lake.
There was a very powerful Voodoo priest with them.
[singing in Fon]
When they arrived at the shore,
the priest who had magical powers, asked the group to wait.
He called a hawk.
When the bird came, it took him on its back…
[rhythmic drumming]
…and they started looking for a place to land.
They eventually found an isle,
and the hawk brought him back to the group.
When they came back to the shore,
the priest pronounced another magical statement,
and a crocodile came out,
and the crocodile led them all to the place he previously found.
They all got off the back of the crocodile
and set foot on the isle.
Once they arrived, they noticed nobody was chasing them.
So, they stayed there.
Once there, as there was no more war,
they gave the name of Ganvié to the place.
When we came here, we are safe.
[man, in English] Welcome to Ganvié.
-Thank you. -Yeah.
Uh, Ganvié is my village.
Uh, we have a Celestial church.
[Stephen] Okay, that's a Celestial church over there. Got it.
This big building?
This big building is another church.
Lots of churches here.
Here, yeah, many churches here.
We have a Catholic church,
Celestial church, mosque,
and, uh, Voodoo.
-Voodoo. Yeah. The very first one. -[Eric, chuckling] Yeah.
[Stephen] That's how this village came to be. That's part of the story.
-[Eric] Yeah, the history, yeah. -[Stephen] Yeah.
[Eric] People who live here are called Aïzo.
-[Stephen] Okay. -[Eric] Aïzo. And his language is Tofin.
[Stephen] Tofin.
[Eric] Tofin, to means water, and finu is population.
[Stephen] Okay. So, basically, "the water people."
-[Eric] Water people. -[Stephen] Yeah.
Okay, here is my house. We are beside my house.
-[Stephen] Oh, cool. -[Eric] Here is where--
When I haven't to work in the land,
I come here to spend weekends with my family.
[Stephen] What do you guys do?
Ah, just eat some food, local foods.
And who does the cooking?
-[Eric] Sometimes it's my mom… -Mm-hmm.
…and sometimes it's my sister.
Yeah, sometimes me. Me, too, I'm cooking.
-Yeah. Wow. -[Eric] I know how to cook.
-Okay, look at you. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We've left fish road,
and now we are going to visit a floating market.
-I can't wait. -Yeah. [chuckles]
[upbeat music playing]
[Stephen] So, what kind of stuff do you buy here?
-[Eric] We can buy rice, tomatoes, oil… -[Stephen] Oh, yeah.
-[Eric] …um, beans, and… -Mm-hmm.
…and wood for cooking.
And that's all.
She sells something like, uh, a gateau.
Gateau is a cake. Here.
Cake, yeah.
[woman and Eric speaking Fon]
Do you want to…
-I get to pick? -Yeah.
[speaking Fon]
-[Stephen] All right, we each get our own. -[Eric] Yeah.
Mmm.
-Good fried dough. -[laughs]
Nice snack.
[Eric] Very nice.
Um, it's not too sweet.
Mmm.
Flaky crust.
Every bite that I have, it gets better and better.
[Eric laughing]
Wow. She's got a whole store.
[Eric] Yeah.
[woman and Eric speaking Fon]
[Stephen] Oh, yeah. I was hoping you were gonna pick that up.
-[Eric chuckles] -[woman speaks Fon]
[Eric] In village the people call it councada.
Local name.
Councada is…
peanuts, plus sugar, and oil. Yeah.
This reminds me of a candy bar.
We call it "candy bar." Called Baby Ruth.
And it has peanuts and caramel and sugar.
It tastes just like this.
This is really good. I love peanuts.
[gentle music playing]
-[Eric] To move in Ganvié, we need boats. -[Stephen] Mm-hmm.
Without boats, we can't move.
How does everyone get their boats?
[Eric] Each family from here
-gets, uh, three boats. -[Stephen] Okay.
[Eric] And one boat belong to children, or kids,
one boat belong to father, and one boat belong to mother.
Wow! So everyone has their own boat?
-[Eric] Yeah. It's necessary here. -Amazing.
We are going now to see where our grandfather were…
[Stephen] Uh-huh.
[Eric] before starting building the house on the lake.
So, this is the very outer edge of Ganvié here.
[Eric] Of Ganvié, yeah.
[Stephen] Okay.
Over there, where we have big trees over there,
is where our grandfather came at first.
-[Stephen] Wow. -[Eric] Yeah.
And now we have no house there.
Because some parents need that.
A way where they can bury some people.
Like cemetery.
-It's a cemetery, yeah. -Yeah.
It's really beautiful that the cemetery is where also your ancestors arrived.
Once your ancestors arrived here on this island…
-Yeah? -…they were free from slavery.
Yeah, they were free from slavery.
They get total security.
And that is why they choose to stay here.
And they found fish to catch.
You keep telling me about all this fish. Can we go taste some?
[Eric] Of course. We are going to see.
-All right. I'm ready to go taste. -[Eric] Yeah.
[upbeat music playing]
[Stephen] Cheers.
-I just wanna say thank you so much for… -[Eric] Thank you, also.
…taking time and allowing me to come visit you
-in your village of Ganvié. -Yeah.
Which is, I have to tell you, the most amazing place
I've ever seen in my life.
The idea of an entire village on the water is not something I've seen before.
[music continues]
So, most people who live here are fishing…
[Eric] Are fishing, yeah.
…both for their own families and also as a commercial activity to make a living?
[Eric] Yeah.
[Stephen] And when you're fishing here, what are you fishing for?
-Tilapia or carp. Yeah. -Okay, I see. It's tilapia.
[music continues]
[music ends on gentle cymbal roll]
Okay.
Ohh, looks very good.
Here is a meal from cassava.
-[Stephen] Okay. -And the fish from lake.
-[Stephen] Okay. -[Eric] Yeah.
[Stephen] Because it's Sunday,
actually, for me, this is very common, where I'm from in the States, in Georgia.
Each Sunday after church, when I was growing up, when I was young,
my father would fry fish for the whole church.
And, actually, sometimes there would even be, uh, spaghetti,
so noodles and tomato sauce,
and so eating fried fish with tomatoes on Sundays
is actually really familiar for me, too.
So this is one of my favorite Sunday treats.
-[chuckles] Good. Yeah. -So, this is perfect.
[bleating]
[soft music playing]
Mmm.
Mmm, it's perfect.
It's perfect. It's very delicious.
-It's so good. -[Eric chuckles]
I really think that fried fish and tomato,
with a little bit of pepper is the best combination of food.
[chuckles]
[music continues]
[Stephen] To experience Benin is to understand resilience and endurance.
And, to me, no one translates that better than an artist.
Down a dusty road in the capital city of Porto Novo,
I visited the studio of Romuald Hazoumè.
You are one of the world's most revered artists,
and yet you are in the place that you were born.
You know, I never left. For what?
-[Stephen] Yeah. -For your buildings in New York?
For your big car? No. That's not it for me.
I never left because I know where I am from.
The raw material of Romuald's art are gas containers,
an everyday detail I saw countless times in Benin's streets.
And his finished work seemed to draw a line
between the ancient past and the struggles of modern life.
[Romuald] That's my studio, you know.
And what is very important here is how we survive.
[lively percussive music playing]
We got our neighbor, that's Nigeria.
Nigeria produce petrol,
and people from Nigeria, they bring petrol to the border
and we from Benin, we just go there
and pick up the petrol, and we sell that in Benin.
[speaking Fon]
Everybody who carry petrol, they have their own jerry cans, you know.
And you see somebody in the car with 2,500 liters…
[Stephen] That's amazing.
-…around him. -Right.
[Romuald] It's dangerous.
In one month, you can get 100 people dead.
-[Stephen] Yeah. -You know, with fire.
[music intensifies abruptly]
What is it that you want us to take
from the relationship of these jerry cans to Benin?
[Romuald] My work is just to show…
to the world, those people, they are so strong.
We need to respect them. They just want to survive.
[Stephen] Well, and the thing I love about it, too,
it's that you have these found objects,
but it's very easy to see faces.
[Romuald] The objects talk to me.
And I know that you think about food in relationship to your artwork as well.
I think about that a lot, too.
We have to understand where we've come from…
-[Romuald] Yes. -…in order to understand ourselves.
And the story of food is also the story of who we are.
-Don't forget, we were so strong. -[Stephen] Yeah.
That's why people take our people, the Yoruba people,
to go there for the farmer because we were so strong.
Why?
Our medicine, our food.
[Romuald] Our medicine, our food, our culture.
-Yeah. -[Romuald] You know?
-And do you know what we say here? -[Stephen] What?
Tell me what you eat…
-[Stephen] I'll tell you what you are. -…I'll tell you where you are from.
[Stephen] I'll be honest. What I was in that moment was hungry.
And the ancient feast Romuald laid out
was a menu that only women
from small villages that surround Porto Novo
know how to prepare.
Wow.
[Dr. Harris] Ohh!
[Romuald] It's not finished.
Oh, how glorious.
[Karelle] Oh, my God.
[Stephen] This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen.
So, this would have been food that we enjoyed before enslavement.
[Romuald] Everything you have here is before the slave ship.
If-- If you want to taste anything, just show, you know,
because you have ata tchitchi.
-Ata tchitchi. -Ata tchitchi. Just taste.
-[Stephen] Thank you. -Thank you.
-[Dr. Harris] How do you say "thank you"?
-[Romuald] "Awanou ka ka." -[Dr. Harris] Awanou ka ka.
-[Stephen] Awanou ka ka. -Awanou ka ka.
-[Romuald] Not so bad? -Not so bad.
Delicious.
-But-- -Yeah?
-What is the bean? What is the pea? -Bean.
[Dr. Harris] Mm-hmm. Okay.
And there's some iterations with black-eyed peas.
I want to try this one, with millet. [chuckles]
-May I pass? -[Romuald] Yes!
[Karelle] Thank you.
-That one is only for army. -[Stephen] Thank you.
Okay. I'm a warrior.
-Amazon. Amazon. -[Dr. Harris] Mm-hmm, Amazon.
-[Karelle] You already know. -[all laughing]
And, um, if you want to continue, I tell you--
-Give me the mangni mangni. Yes. -[Dr. Harris] Mangni mangni.
[Romuald] The mangni mangni, it's so good.
Just taste that. You will see.
Mmm.
And it looks like there's anchovy in the middle.
That? That's just the fish inside.
There's so much going on with this.
-It's spicy. -[Romuald] Yeah.
I love the texture, and then having fish inside, too.
[Romuald] This spice is so-- It's very important we have spice in here.
[Dr. Harris] Well seasoned.
Yeah, every flavor still comes out. It's not just the heat that you can--
-[Romuald] It needs to come out. -Yeah.
[Stephen] Part of the reason that you're bringing this food to us
-is very intentional… -Yeah.
…as is all of your work, because it's centering life
-before enslavement. -[Romuald] Yes.
And exemplifying that we had a rich culture and art and food
-before that history. -Yeah.
I'm from Benin, and I never tried all that-- Plate, recipes, never.
It's the first time.
[Dr. Harris] Do you think the traditions are being lost?
-[Romuald] Yes. -[Karelle] Yeah, I think.
Yes.
-Regarding that kind of food. -[Stephen] Culinary traditions.
[Dr. Harris] Yeah.
-[Karelle] This is the parent of-- -Ayiman.
-[Karelle] Ayiman. -That is so good.
Ayiman.
When I eat that, I think about my old, old grandparents.
[Karelle] Okay.
-I'm waiting for that. -[Romuald] Help yourself.
-Thank you. -[Romuald] Fish. But it's not only fish.
And I see there's something else.
-[Romuald] The sauce. Yes. -Okay.
No, put that on your plate, yes. With your hand.
And it's fish heads.
-Fish heads, which I will take. -Yes.
With tender fish cheeks. The best part of the fish.
And we need to eat that with kan nan.
Kan nan.
Kan nan. Look at that.
Ohh!
-[Stephen] Wow. -[Karelle] Okay.
[Romuald] Kan nan is corn.
[Dr. Harris] I love this.
-This is one of my fav-- Oh. Mm! -[Karelle] Everything.
[Dr. Harris] Fermented.
-Isn't it wonderful? -Kan nan. Yeah.
It gives it this amazing sour quality.
Great. The fish is good!
[Dr. Harris] Mmm!
-[Stephen] Mmm. -[Dr. Harris] Mmm!
[Stephen] Wow.
-Karelle. -Yeah.
One of the things that I think is so important
and magical about what's happening right now
is that where we are situated in this moment…
That's crazy.
…is the home of your grandparents.
Romuald knows my grandmother,
and she lives, like, one house away from here.
Did you just find this out today?
I found out when we arrived, and I look at the street.
I say, "I know this neighborhood!"
[Stephen] Unbelievable.
When we talk about y'all's relationship and brotherhood and nephews and nieces,
this is part of our cultural connection that is unspoken,
because I was raised in such a way where
everybody on my block and in my church, they all raised me,
and they all had the unspoken license to check me if I needed to be checked.
Yes. That is the same thing here.
[Stephen] Right? And that's unique to our culture.
-Yeah. -Right?
-It's not just metaphorical. -[Karelle] No.
-[Stephen] You really are from here. -Yeah.
[Stephen] And so this connection is so magical
because I'm now seeing you all as partners, right?
[Karelle] Yeah, you know.
Because now you know this is your home. You can--
Don't say, again, this is our home. This is your home, too.
-Yeah. -Our home.
-[Romuald] Yes, that's our home, you know? -We are home.
Through food, we can find out
that there is more that connects us than that separates us.
What we eat and what we discover brings us together.
-It's a communal table. -[Karelle] Yeah.
It's how we know who we are, and it's how we know we're connected.
[Stephen] Yeah.
[Stephen] After we leave you, we're going to Ouidah.
-[Romuald] Yeah. -What is the significance of that place?
Ouidah--
[hesitates] I can say to you,
it's where--
-It's where they leave. -[Stephen] Mm.
But at that time, they didn't know where they are going.
-[gentle, bright music plays] -[goats bleat]
[Romuald] That's where you have a Gate of No Return.
We have a chance for a return.
That's what we all are doing now.
-[Karelle] Yeah. -That is our return.
[gentle music continues]
[man shouting in rhythm]
[shouting rhythmically]
[speaking Fon]
[rhythmic shouting continues]
[atmospheric music playing]
[atmospheric music continues]
[Dr. Harris] The water at the step to cool the heat of the soles.
The sodabi…
for sustenance, for veneration.
So,
in this place,
-we have come to the end of that road. -[Stephen] Mm-hmm.
[Dr. Harris] And the beginning of the journey.
As the slaves, as those who were going to be enslaved
were marched down that road,
at the end, they came to barracoons.
Holding pens.
Separated by language, torn away from people they knew.
They were kept in dark areas to disorient them.
Some people didn't make it.
And the people who didn't make it
were taken out and buried in this mass grave.
We are standing on top of people who didn't make it.
So, we're here at this spot
to talk about how some survival took place as well.
The food?
The people who were doing the enslaving knew the cultures.
They knew that some people from some areas wanted rice,
so they brought rice.
The yams, peas, beans,
black-eyed peas, fava beans,
all of those things that now join us are things that came with us.
That's right.
This is how our food and their food conjoined.
[Stephen] We're talking about a voyage that lasted months.
[Dr. Harris] It could last months.
And in order to survive that voyage,
what was the feeding needed for the bare minimum of constitution?
It could be something that was called "slabber sauce."
The name is repellent.
It was flour, palm oil, and pepper.
There are different descriptions of what it was.
The only power that the newly enslaved had
was the power of refusal.
[Stephen] That's right.
And so, they could sometimes say, "No," and
refuse to eat, and shut their mouth.
And they invented a diabolical tool.
It was called a speculum oris,
so that they could be force-fed.
Because people resisted.
Resistance was every step of the journey.
[Stephen] I love this notion of
food
and the refusal of it
being a way for us to take back power.
-Yeah, the power of no. -That's right.
-The power of, "No, I won't eat that. " -Right.
And that's what you have in the marrow of your bones, too.
[Stephen] That's right.
[Dr. Harris] So, how do you feel in this place?
[sniffs]
[Stephen] You told me that there's no amount of literature
or reading or research
that could help you fully understand what that journey was like,
walking on these red clay roads…
Which-- I recognize that red dirt.
-Mm-hmm. -[Stephen] This red clay from Georgia
that we celebrate.
And when we talk about the unspeakable voyage…
so much of that story
is the gruesome details that you just provided.
But the latter half of that story,
for me in this moment, is the one that I'm choosing to center on.
And that is the story of our resilience.
[uplifting music playing softly]
And so…
-to be here? -[Dr. Harris] Mm-hmm.
This is the first time in my life
that I've ever been able to convene with them.
And I'm so glad that I can tell them "Thank you."
And I'm so glad that, finally… [voice breaking]
I get to bring them home with me.
Okay.
[Stephen crying softly]
And now they get to come home.
[Dr. Harris] They get to come home.
[inhaling]
-They get to come home. Come, sweetie. -[crying]
Come, sweetie. Come on.
Come.
-It's okay. -Okay.
It's okay.
-Walk tall. -Okay.
-Walk tall. -Mm-hmm.
-[softly] Thank you. -Don't put them on. You're okay.
Thank you.
[soft piano music playing]
[Dr. Harris] You did it. Sweetheart, you did it. Get it out.
-[Stephen sobbing] -[Dr. Harris] Hold on.
-Hold on. -[Stephen sobbing]
[Dr. Harris] Hold on.
-[exhaling] Oh. -[Dr. Harris] Breathe.
-[exhaling] -Breathe.
[soft music continues]
[seagulls cry]
[men chattering]
[Stephen] So many tears have been shed here.
More than a million people were forced to walk through these gates,
leaving their homes behind forever.
But they brought with them their resilience and courage.
And all the way across this ocean…
and the place I call home…
their skill and innovation would transform American cuisine.
[upbeat music playing]