Contents -- Maps, Illustrations, and Word Lists -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- Notes on Linguistic Evidence and African Languages -- Chapter One Finding History in Early Afro-Atlantic Foodways -- Grist for the Mill: Africanist Historiography of Pre-Colonial Agriculture -- Directions -- Investigative Themes -- Chapter Two Introducing the Land to Culture: An Interpretation -- Early Foraging to 25,000 BCE -- Specialized Foraging, 25,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE -- Intensified Foraging from 10,000 BCE -- From Foraging to Farming -- Initial Farming from 500 BCE -- Mature Farming, Circa 1400 CE -- Conclusion -- Chapter Three Seeds of Change: Early African Experimentation with Foreign Starches -- The Agro-Historical Milieu -- Plantains -- Maize -- Asian Rice -- Conclusion -- Chapter Four You Reap What You Sow: The Profits and Perils of the New Starchy Staples -- Going for Gold with Plantains -- In Retrospect -- Allada Communities аnd Culinary Cross-Currents -- Baked Bread аnd Biscuits -- Kenkey -- Opportunities Brewing -- Sowing and Savoring Wealth -- Insecurity and Impoverishment Amid Scarcity and Violence -- Impoverishment in Times of Plenty -- Conclusion -- Chapter Five The Porcupine's Shame: Bearing the Burden of Cassava Culture -- Problems in the Earliest Records of Introduction -- Introducing Cassava -- Africanizing Cassava Culture -- Outsiders and Renewed Innovation with Cassava -- Colonial Postscript -- Conclusion -- Chapter Six Finding Food in Afro-Atlantic History -- Reflections & Prospects -- Fusion Foodways -- Conclusion -- Works Cited -- Index.