The Spirit of Soul Food

Christopher Carter makes several compelling arguments in The Spirit of Soul Food: Race, Faith, and Food Justice. One is that soul food is more than just a cuisine used for daily consumption and nourishment; rather, it serves to preserve all aspects of the African American/African diaspora from the colonial period to present-day United States. Carter bolsters this argument by framing soul food through its origins in West Africa and by examining the connections between food, culture, celebration, and the social activities of African Americans. Moreover, Carter identifies how colonial African American foodways in the United States have maintained their contemporary relevance.Carter's argument for the colonial influence on the definition of African American contemporary foodways aligns with similar arguments made in Anne Bower's African American Foodways: Explorations of History and Culture (Bower, ed., University of Illinois Press, 2007). Both Carter and Bower call for a deeper examination of the dynamics behind African American foodways. According to Carter, “a decolonized understanding of our culinary and agricultural knowledge equips us to develop a more nuanced understanding of the development and importance of Black foodways and what we need to unlearn” (p. 58). Bower echoes this point, identifying in her book the importance of examining how the cultivation of commodities like sugar and rice in the New World led to the enslavement of West Africans.As suggested by the book's title, a second central argument in The Spirit of Soul Food is the significance of soulfulness and spirituality. According to Carter, all Christians should examine “food justice as an essential aspect of Christian social justice practice” (p. 3). Issues of food cultivation and distribution are inextricably linked to issues of social justice.Carter's usage of foodways to explore the African/African American diaspora and the food identity of the United States is both ingenious and stimulating. His book provides much food for thought for academics examining several related topics, including the development of African American foodways and Southern cuisine; the White European influence on narratives surrounding African American foodways and cuisine; and the role Christians played to promote the accurate narrative of Black ingenuity in cultivation, despite how White colonial ideology has modified the narrative. The book's sources delve not only into African American foodways, but also into race, religion, colonial enslavement, feminism, and capitalism.Carter's discussion of decolonization in the United States is multifaceted and complex, providing a platform for us to examine this process by understanding Black food. In my own research, this book has encouraged me to examine the complexity of race and racism in order to better understand the diverse lives of the humans responsible for cultivating, harvesting, processing, and, at times, preparing the food we eat. Carter prompts those of us studying foodways to accurately detail the racial elements in our scholarship. Because resistance manifests in a myriad of ways, Carter has used scholarship to resist the norms of studying African American foodways and to focus on accuracy when interpreting the stories of ancestors.The Spirit of Soul Food is a must-have in any collection of resources on African American foodways and US food identity, whether it's for a novice food historian or a more seasoned scholar. Carter's question “Whom do we want to be and become?” (p. 118) is exactly what we should pose when researching food history. Ingredients of all sorts may manifest anything, but what do we want them to be? Like the griots in the African diaspora, foodways tell stories—good, bad, and ugly ones. Carter challenges his readers to examine the validity of the stories being told and to explore the narratives that may have manipulated the original story

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