John Teunis

De La Torre, Oscar
LBST-2102-006
16 April 2015

Black Rice
Asia is often credited for the invention of various rice cultivation systems, but what few
people know is that West Africa also developed their own unique rice cultivation system. The
Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover the cultivation of rice in West Africa. Slavery
and prejudice caused the indigenous people of West Africa to lose credibility for developing this
unique system of agriculture. Recently, credibility was returned to the indigenous people and is
just now becoming accepted. Whether people accept it or not, the systems of rice cultivation
developed by West Africans had a huge impact on the Mid-Atlantic world in many different
ways.
The Guanche, located in the Canary Islands was discovered by the Portuguese in 1336.
Shortly after, the Portuguese discovered the Senegal River. They continued to explore, and by
1460 they had explored most of the northern Guinea coast. Many trading posts were established
for the exchange of goods and slaves. The discovery and exploration of West Africa by the
Portuguese led to the discovery of a unique and complex agricultural system for cultivating rice.
The first discovery of this agricultural system was made in 1446 by Stevam Alfonso when he
entered a river, which was most likely the Gambia River. The rice being cultivated in this area
was wetland rice, and was being grown in floodplains. they found much of the land sown,
and many fields sown with riceAnd he said that landseemed like marsh (p 13).

As more and more rice plantations were discovered, the complexity of this agricultural
system was recognized. Different systems of rice cultivation were found in different kinds of
environments. There were three different types of rice cultivation that were very different from
each other. Rice grown in inland swamps, rice grown by submersion under water, and rice grown
using rain as the only source of irrigation. The use of the land was alternated between cattle and
agriculture according to the time of year. This alternation of land use helped both cattle and
agriculture. The cattle would feed on what remained after the harvest, and in return, the cattle
would leave behind manure which helped fertilize the land. The jobs involving rice cultivation
were separated by gender. Men did the labor intensive work such as preparing and irrigating the
land. Women had many different roles such as seed selection and fertilization, harvesting and
milling the rice, and cooking the rice.
Unfortunately, the indigenous people of West Africa did not receive the credit for
developing their own system of rice cultivation. The early Europeans believed that rice must
have been brought to the region from Asia. They thought that the indigenous people were not
capable of developing such a complex cultivation system. Prejudice and slavery helped carry this
false belief for centuries. It wasnt until the twentieth century, when credibility was given to the
rightful developers due to so much evidence. Language was a huge contributing factor to this.
Words used by indigenous rice farmers that involved rice, were unique to African languages.
Records of rice in Africa were found that date back to the Greeks. Also, a type of rice referred to
as red rice was identified as being unique to West Africa. The combination of this evidence led
to the acceptance of West Africas responsibility for creating their own unique rice cultivation
system.

Without the introduction of this unique rice cultivation system, the New World would not
have been the same. The cultivation of rice through this agricultural system provided people
throughout Africa, Europe, and The Americas. Ports in Africa were able to supply ships with
provisions of rice and grains for their journey. Skills and knowledge of rice cultivation brought
by slaves promoted prosperity throughout the Americas. Some of the rice grown in the Americas
would eventually make its way to Europe, providing food people there. However, West Africa
would not receive credit for this contribution to the New World for centuries. Credit for
developing the unique rice cultivation system was given to its rightful owners in the late
twentieth century. This brought along with it, the recognition of West African slaves for
contributing, shaping, and developing the New World that molded the world we see today.