Enid Bogle
Food is a key ingredient in our lives. It shapes our health and our identities. How people remember food is often a matter of taste, but our memories of food can also reveal where we came from, as Enid Bogle’s story shows.
Dr. Enid E. Bogle (b. 1931) moved to the US from Jamaica in 1962. She earned multiple degrees from Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she went on to work as a professor and administrator. Bogle directed Howard’s Writing Program and was named Assistant Dean in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. As a cultural organizer, she advised Howard’s Caribbean Student Association and chaired the Jamaica National Development Foundation’s Education Committee.
Selected quotations from an interview conducted on January 13, 1993. The recording is archived in the Black Mosaic collection.
I missed my food. I really missed my food. I remember one year when I was going home, I wrote to my grandmother and I told her to prepare Run Down with Susumba for me…'Gwan America, and come back, and this is what she want?' But that was exactly what I wanted.
The susumber berry, or "Susumba," is a fruit native to the Caribbean that is traditionally used in Jamaican cooking. "Solanum torvum, fruits," by Filo gèn', licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Food reflects cultural practices and shared histories.
Yesterday I went over to a Guyanese friend of mine because at Christmas time they have a dish called pepperpot, which is an Amerindian dish, and garlic pork. And, she was away for the holiday, and she invited me over...Of course, the garlic pork has a lot of vinegar, oooh. But it was good. For those people who don’t eat pork, it was bad, you know? But I eat everything, well, not everything.
Guyanese pepperpot -- an Amer-Indian dish flavored with cinnamon, cassareep, and Caribbean hot peppers -- is traditionally served on special occasions. "Pepperpot (16135006279)," by Simon Abrams from Brooklyn, USA, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Ah, my mother is coming back tomorrow. So, I had one breadfruit left in my freezer, and I have a feeling she’s gon' bring back. So, I took out my breadfruit. Said, this evening I’m going to have the roast breadfruit. Now I’m going to make sure I have it before they come so I can have all of it.
Breadfruit is a flowering tree that first originated in New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines. In Jamaica, breadfruit is often eaten in soup with the national dish ackee and salt fish. "Breadfruit," by bluesmoon, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
But yes…well, especially when my mother’s here, the oxtail, and the stew peas, and the Gungo pea soup, and the beef soup…and the pimento floating all over, and the dumpling.
There are certain things that I still do. Even the rice and peas on Sunday. Really, I don’t have it now, because my cholesterol is high, I have to stay away from the coconut. But how can you prepare peas without the coconut? It is not the same. People say that about milk. It is not the same.
This Caribbean grocery food stand, photographed by Harold Dorwin, was displayed in the museum's Black Mosaic exhibition. Black Mosaic Exhibition Records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
The good recipes must have the coconut in there. And my sister will laugh at me, but I still grate my coconut. I do not use my blender. I have a blender and I have a juicer, but my coconut, I grate my coconut.
I still do a lot of my food, my Jamaican food…I do a lot of the Run Down and the stews, as I used to, because I have become very health conscious. Wrongly or rightly so, I am not sure. But food is very important to me.