Origin of the Creole Cuisine of the Seychelles (Post 2 of 5- The Africans)

The African Contribution

The second contribution is drawn from the African slaves. A large proportion of slaves who were brought to the Seychelles were from East Africa included Mozambique.

Slaves Dancing – For illustrative Purposes Only

In fact the fourth and largest group was from the Mozambique. They were brought to work on the plantations and were widely seen as inferior to the other slaves in the islands, and reports of their preference of working completely naked, and inability to learn local customs saw them named as Mazambik in Kreol, which today is used as an insult for barbarity or imbecility. However, they came from a country that had quite advanced culinary knowledge and skills. It started around the year 700 when Arab slave merchants started to set up trading posts throughout Mozambique and introduced the local population to salt as a means of preserving food. The Arabs also introduced various spices and other ingredients like onions, bay leaves, garlic, fresh coriander, paprika, chillis, sweet peppers. They also introduced maize, rice and potatoes which became staple foods. These ingredients were melded with the traditional Mozambican ingredients to create a unique and delicious cuisine.

As expected, it was inconceivable for slaves to eat with their masters or cook in their masters’ kitchen. This consequently gave rise to two different types of cooking. The cooking of the ‘Grand Blanc’, as the landowners were called then and that of the workers .

The Grand Blanc cooking would be done in a proper kitchen, usually annexed to the main house, by the lady of the house , assisted by her African or Indian ‘servante’ or maid, using recipes of her homeland, but adapted to the local environment and ingredients. The servant, by using her own experience from her own homeland would invariably contribute to the modification of the original French cookery methods.

Slaves Cooking- For illustration Purposes Only

Slaves Cooking- For illustrative Purposes Only

The cooking of the workers, who were initially mainly slaves, was done in the open air on stone trivets , known as touk, a Malagasy word for trivet. The slaves adapted their own home cooking with the joys of lively flavours inherited from their new island life. They were often fed leftover meals by their masters, which they ingeniously spiced up and adapted to make them appetising. Pungent seasoning and spicing were essential to make ‘poor’ foods palatable. They would use cooking methods from their own homelands. One interesting custom is that of cutting food, particularly meat and fish into small pieces. They could have been developed out of a concern to ensure more rapid cooking, quicker tenderisation, as most cuts of meat they were given would have been the tough ones, and better preservation. Several circumstances and external constraints may have been responsible for this. One of the oldest would have been the general absence of forks, spoons and table knives during the initial stages of the settlement. It is possible to see some connections to the custom of the African and Malagasy slaves where eating was traditionally done in a squatting position without the use of utensils.

Root crops like cassava, okra, taro, sweet potatoes were introduced very early during settlement. Mahé de Labourdonnais in fact imported cassava from Brazil.

Over time the two culinary worlds, the French and the African, with a major influence from Mozambique, merged and fused and contributed to the birth of the Creole Cuisine.

Click here to read about the third contribution.