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Beya Kazadi

Food History

November 29, 2015

Dr. Holly S Hurlburt

The Rise of Corn

“Maize went nakedly to the farm

She bought back two hundred clothes
Two hundred clothes
Maize went to the farm alone
Two hundred clothes
She bought back two hundred clothes
Maize went to the farm alone
She bought back two hundred children
Two hundred children” (McCann 252)
Who could have possibly written such a poem about corn? If you guess Native

Americans, you will be wrong. The poem is written by Africans. Although the Native

Americans are well known for worshipping corn, after the Columbian exchange, corn

found itself a new home and worshippers. No continent has accepted corn more than

Africa. In Africa corn went from being an unknown crop to the national favorite in many

African nations. Of course the corn takeover did not happen smoothly. There was a

period of resistance and hatred toward corn. As time went on, corn proved itself as the

best crop that Africa could have, dominating over all the native African crops. Although

Africans resisted the introduction of corn, the corn advantages over natural African

crops allowed it to take over the continent and establish itself as one of the dominant

crop.

As a boy growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I witnessed firsthand

the dominance of corn on African population. I cannot remember a day when I went
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without eating corn. My mom will always cook fufu, which is grinded boiled corn. I would

eat this for breakfast and dinner along with other side dishes. This is why I am

wondering why Africa allowed corn to take over as the main crop in the continent. There

were other options of crops, what was special about corn?

In Africa corn faced the most challenge when it was first introduced. Corn was

introduced in Africa by the Portuguese, who brought it over from the new world. There

were many factors which led to the African resistance of allowing corn in their cultures.

The primary reason for this is, corn was an unknown crop. Africans did not know corn

origin or how to use it. As a result, corn found its way in the gardens of many African

families. “Maize was not known as a cultivated crop, the crop to the natives” (Joseph

675.) Africans did not know much about this new crop to just start cultivating it.

Africans started eating corn when Europeans started using it as a way to

facilitate slave trade. “Maize was the staple for slaves along the river Senegal” (Miracle

43.) Europeans started feeding African slaves corn in order to keep them alive until they

could transport them to Europe or America. This practice led Africans to view corn as a

food source made to punish them. So they gave it some degrading name such as

“mezza manputs” (Miracle 45.) This name to the African people implied and alleged that

maize was “the vilest of grain and only fit for the swine” (Miracle 45.) The fact that corn

was the primary crop used by slave traders made Africans not want to give the crop a

chance to enter their culture.

The fact that Europeans used corn to expand slave trade was not the only

reason why Africans resisted corn. Being a new crop, corn tested different to the African
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people. “Yes, first I ate through one bag of maize flour and then a second. Then at last I

said ‘well, there it is! There is no food to be found among the Europeans” (McCann

246.) The citation refers to the comment made by an old African man who moved away

from the village and into the city. In the city he is forced to eat maize as they don’t have

a lot of native crop in the city. After eating corn a few times, the old man realized that

corn does not taste as good as the native African crops he used to eat in the village.

The fact that he label corn as European is a testament of how African resisted corn and

did not want to associate themselves with it.

Another big issue that corn had compared to other crops is when growing it, the

farmers are taking a big risk. The issue with corn is that it is highly dependent on water,

sunlight, and nitrogen. If any one of those three element is lacking in the environment

corn is dead. “Even a few days of drought at the time of tasseling can ruin a crop. Corn

is extremely reliant on change to the environment. So if a drought comes people who

greatly depend on corn for food will starve“(McCann 248) Because of high dependency

on the environment many places in North Africa cannot grow corn. This is because they

are in a desert, and they continuously face the issue of drought. Another problem

associated with corn is that, too much dependence on corn could introduce diseases

such as pellagra and kwaskiorlor to individual. “It may also impoverish the bodies of

those who depend too heavily on it for food, resulting in disease such as pellagra and

kwashiorkor. The end result is that when they plant maize, commercial farmers and

peasant families walk a slender tightrope of risk” (McCann 249.) So whenever a farmer

grows corn there is a level of uncertainty as to whether or not the crop will yield.
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Along with the high dependency on the environment, another issue which

continuously occur in Africa and continues to threaten corn dominance is locusts.

“Sever invasion of locusts probably accelerated the shift away from maize. Because

neither sweet potatoes nor cassava are nearly so vulnerable to locust attack” (Miracle

45.) Corn is not that well protected from locusts. And there have been events, like in

1930 where locusts have destroyed farms. Corn was one of the crops destroyed by

locusts due to its high vulnerability to locusts. In some regions cassava actually

replaced corn as the dominant crop because it is well protected against locusts.

There were many reasons as to why corn should not have become the dominant

crop in Africa. It was used by Europeans to enslave African people. Africans were

forced to eat it as slave. The taste of corn was very different than the other foods

Africans were used to. Growing corn was a big gamble as a small change in the

weather could destroy the crop you are growing. While growing corn you have to be on

the lookout for locusts as they can destroy your farm. Depending too much on corn

could expose you to different diseases.

So many reasons for Africans to reject corn, but why did they ignore all those risk

and accepted it. And they started depending on it even more than the Native

Americans. The reasons for this is corn has many advantages. And those advantages

have allowed Africans to overlook all of the flaws that corn has. They overlooked those

flaws to point where they started to call it “chakula chetu” (Fourshey 225) which means

our food.
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One advantage that corn had and still has is its ability to protect itself against

birds. “Maize is protected from bird by its leafy covering” (Smale and Jayne 9.) This give

corn an advantage over sorghum and millet which have grain that are exposed the air.

Birds can fly in and eat them away. To prevent this from occurring hours and money

have to be spent to keep the birds away from the grains. This advantage of corn

became even more apparent when off farm wages were established in Africa. This

protection from bird really helped Africans turn a blind eye from the locust issue that

corn has. The birds issue occurs all year long while the locust issue does not occur

every year. This is means its advantages to have locust problem than birds. It takes

locus years if not a decade to return after coming out.

As a cereal crop, corn had to faces off against other cereal crop, mainly sorghum

and millet. Being protected from birds is not the only thing that places corn ahead of

sorghum and millet, but also because corn is more productive than those cereal crops.

“It gave higher return to land than other indigenous cereals under reasonably favorable

condition” (Smale and Jayne 9) corn gave a higher yield every time it was planted. This

means that corn was very economical for the people growing it.

Having such a high yielding capability really set corn up for taking over Africa.

The fact that you could grow so much of it allowed it to be able to feed a large group of

people, which turned out to be very beneficial to people in Africa. First you have the

slave trader who needed to feed the slaves. And it also turned out to be very beneficial

when you have to feed an army. Feeding people in large town also benefited from the

corn high yield capability. This ability to feed people for a lot less effort and money
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allowed Africa to accept corn despite the fact that slave trader used it in slavery. Also

the fact that Europeans kept on telling Africans about corn high yield rate and saying

how corn is superior to native African crop made people give corn a chance. “British

promotion of maize can be found in colonial-era circulars, advertisements, agricultural

and marketing policies” (Fourshey 226.) in their promotion of corn the British pointed out

that corn tasted better, it was healthier, and easy to grow. Corn’s abundance made

Africa ignore the taste issues they had with it. Because it could keep them from starving

and allowed them to have more food while not working as hard. Corn high yield helped

Africans as they transition from the village life into town life. Having less people in the

village to work on farm meant required high yielding crops to feed the town population.

Besides its ability to produce in high quantity, corn is very easy to move around.

This is because it does not perish as quickly as other crops. This allowed travelers and

military personnel on mission to carry it with them on their journey without fear of it

going bad. “It is easily transported and would be a convenient object of trade and

means of provision for travelers, warring parties and likes” (Miracle 45.) This helped the

spread of corn because soldiers would get used to eating corn and would bring it back

to their families. And also travelers and merchants could take it to new places and

introduce it to the people in those places.

Corn had many advantages over all the main crops found in Africa. When

compared to yam and other tubers corn had the advantage because it was not scarce

and it had enough calories to support a large group of people like an army. Also yam

and other tubes were usually part of the nature, scattered everywhere in the forest. To
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grow yam in the farm requires a lot of intensive work. When compared to sorghum and

millet, corn was better because it took it less time to mature. The other crop took a long

time to mature, and they needed more sunlight than corn. Which requires a lot of

sunlight’s itself. Corn seed could also be broadcast after only one plowing while the

other cereal crop required up to three plowing before it could be broadcast. Having

these advantage over the other crop pretty much ensured corn ascension into the

number one spot in Africa (McCann 257)

Another advantage that corn has which made it super easy for Africans to accept

is it’s similarity to other native African crops. Maize looks very similar to sorghums and

millets in appearance. The similarity does not stop there, the two require the same

technique and process in order to grow and maintain. Because corn requires the same

technique to grow as native African crops. Growing it required no need to learn new

techniques. The process of cooking corn is very similar to other African crops. Cooking

corn requires you to crush it and boil it. Looking at all those similarities, corn seems like

a native African crop. It was not that different. (Miracle 45)

Regions which greatly resisted the introduction of corn into their cultures could

not continue doing so because corn was the only crop which allowed them to

modernize. The event which occurred in many of those regions was the movement of

men away from the farm and into mine. This movement left the farms to the women.

Having women grow corn proved a better choice because it allowed faster yielding and

required a small amount of work to be done. Those benefits facilitated the transfer of the

farm into women's hands. Also poor farmer benefited from corn. This is because it could
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stay in the field for an extended amount of time before being harvested. This allowed for

labor prices to decrease so farmer could spend less money when they harvest their

crop (McCann 262-3).

The more Africans were exposed to corn the more accepting of corn they

became. The issue of taste which bothered some at first quickly went away. Some

people started to describe corn as “a healthy and tasty food that is not, chungu,

unpalatable or bitter, like millet or red sorghum.” (Fourshey 225.) At first corn tasted bad

but with just a century gone by, corn became this tasty treat. The native crops that

Africans were first used to. quickly became the terrible tasting crops. People enjoyed

eating machine milled corn because it contained good “desirable texture and flavor.”

African turned their backs on their native crops, as they describe sorghum and millet as

“stone-ground” (Fourshey 225)

With all those precedence, just how dominant did corn become in Africa? “From

its introduction in around 1500 to its current apotheosis as Africa’s dominant food crop”

(McCann 249.) Corn is without a doubt the leading crop in Africa. Looking at the way

Africans depend on corn it can be concluded that no other continent depend more

highly on corn than Africa. Africa uses more corn than corn native country of Mexico

and Guatemala. The top three countries in the world which consumes the most maize

are located in Africa. “Of the twenty-three countries in the world with the highest

percentage of maize consumed in national diets, sixteen are in Africa. Moreover, the top

three countries on this list are all in Africa (Zambia, Malawi, and Lesotho), and surpass

even Guatemala and Mexico, maize’s homelands” (McCann 247.) How is this possible
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since the United State is known for being the number one corn producing nation in the

world, this occurs because Africans use ninety five percent of the corn they grow as

human food. There are people who eat up to a hundred kilograms of corn each year.

Which translates to some countries having over fifty percent of their daily calories

coming from corn. Such high dependence on corn is why Africans started to write

poems that personifies corn just like the Native Americans use to do (McCann 246-7.)

To eat the new crop Africans invented their own dishes and techniques for

preparing and processing corn. When corn was first introduced, Africans used stones to

grind their corn into meal. “It is then made into porridge with boiling water, and partially

cooked until of a coarse bread-like nature” (Joseph 376.) They usually eat it alone with

their hand or sometimes they mix it with milk and used spoons carved out of wood.

Another way Africans preferred to consume their corn is by making it into something

that looks like ‘pudding’ which they called “kouskous.” They make this by moistening

the flour with water. They place it in gourd and shake and stir it until it takes the form of

small granules. The corn is then placed in an earthen pot with small holes in it. And they

place the pot inside another and the two are stacked together with cow’s dung. Then

they place it on fire. The items which makes their way out the pot with holes serves as

animal food. While the maize which remains inside the pot with holes is served to the

people and this unique dish is very highly valued in many African countries. Another

way which African use corn that is very unique to the African people is using a wooden

mortar to bruise the corn until “it parts with the outer covering or husk, which is then
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separated from the clean corn by exposing it to the wind” (Joseph 677.) The corn freed

from the husk is than prepared into varies meals.

To answer my question as to why corn became so ubiquitous in Africa the

answer is simple. Corn proved itself to be the superior crop compared to other crops

found in Africa. Of course it has it flaws but its advantages does more than just

eliminate those flaws. Among the flaws which caused people to resist the spread of corn

is its role in the slave trade and the way which it tasted. Its strong dependence on

environmental condition and its inability to protect itself against locusts. The issue with

locust eliminated by corn’s ability to protect itself against birds. The issue with

environmental issue and the slave trades is outweighed by the high and fast yield rate

of corn. The taste problem just took time for people to adjust. They quickly accepted the

corn taste over the taste of native crops. The other convenience which corn presented

to Africa is, it required absolutely no new skill to be learned. It is farmed, grown,

maintained, and cooked just like the native crops found in Africa. The fact that it

required less work and produced more products was perfect for the African continent

which was moving away from life in the villages and into towns.
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Work Cited

Davy, Joseph. Maize; Its History, Cultivation, Handling, and Uses, with Special Reference to

South Africa; a Text-book for Farmers, Students of Agriculture, and Teachers of Nature Study,.

London: Longmans, Green and, 1914.

https://archive.org/stream/maizeitshistoryc00burt#page/676/mode/2up

Fourshey, Catherine Cymone. 2008. “"the Remedy for Hunger Is Bending the Back": Maize and

British Agricultural Policy in Southwestern Tanzania 1920-1960”. The International Journal of

African Historical Studies 41 (2). Boston University African Studies Center: 223–61.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40282489

McCann, James. 2001. “Maize and Grace: History, Corn, and Africa's New Landscapes, 1500-

1999”. Comparative Studies in Society and History 43 (2). Cambridge University Press: 246–72.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696654.

Miracle, Marvin P. 1965. “The Introduction and Spread of Maize in Africa”. The Journal of

African History 6 (1). Cambridge University Press: 39–55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/179646.

Smale, Melinda, and Thom Jayne. "Maize In Eastern and Southern African: “Seeds” of Success in

Retrospect." 2003. Accessed November 23, 2015.

http://www.fao.org/docs/eims/upload/166420/Smale,Jayne.pdf.
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Willett, Frank. 1962. “The Introduction of Maize into West Africa: An Assessment of Recent

Evidence”. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 32 (1). Cambridge University

Press: 1–13. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1157291