Dr Rita Pemberton

Food constitutes an essential feature of the Caribbean historical experience. Still, despite this, except for the History of Jamaican Food, the references to food in Caribbean history are confined to those items which were introduced by the colonisers, what items were fed to the enslaved population and what they cultivated during the post-emancipation years.

Recipe books appeared early in the 20th century, particularly after World War II in the drive to encourage people to grow and eat locally produced food. The driving force was a reaction to the threat to shipping across the Atlantic which was posed by the German attempt to establish a blockade on ships travelling to and from the Caribbean. The British government sought to ensure that the population in the colonies had access to food to prevent the hungry from running into the arms of the communists.

After the war, there was an effort to teach nutrition and food preparation to teachers which stimulated the production of recipe books which included foods that were considered traditional some were given more elevated names and the ingredients were now hoisted into specified quantities which necessitated equipment which were not in the homes of the majority of the population. The commonly used unit of measurement in Tobago – the kn – was not even acknowledged nor were the calabash or cups made from discarded milk tin used to dip and measure flour and other dry items.

These recipe books did not make specific mention of Tobago nor were the dishes which originated on the island mentioned. The recipe books on Trinidad and Tobago were intended to assist the wives and friends of the ruling elite to settle into the colony easily, survive the war crisis of shortages of imported food items and facilitate food substitution by the wider public during the wartime crisis.

[caption id="attachment_1147997" align="aligncenter" width="255"] Dr Rita Pemberton -[/caption]

Despite their omission from such books, it is important to recognise the efforts of the faceless women who, though lumped into the broad category as labourers, toiled in their kitchens day and night preparing meals for their families across the trying times of the post-emancipation, post union and post World Wars I and II eras, in addition to their other roles as labourers on estates, gardeners on their own plots of land and vendors of homemade items all in the effort to generate increased incomes to sustain their families.

The pattern of cooking and eating of the population was affected by the pattern of food and plant introductions imported by the imperial government, influences of the First People and what was growing naturally on the island and what they were able to cultivate in addition to the influence of the African foodways which came with the captives from Africa.

Tobago was known for the cultivation of food crops; ground provisions, pigeon peas, corn, dasheen, cassava, eddoes, tannias, bananas and plantains. Their agricultural practices mirrored their food choices hence