214 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the PresentHarris, Jessica. “Same Boat, Diff erent Stops: An African Atlantic
Culinary Journey.” In African Roots/American Cultures: Af-
rica in the Creation of the Americas, ed. Sheila Walker. Lan-
ham, MD: Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishers, 2001.
Klein, Sybil. “Louisiana Creole Food Culture: Afro-Caribbean
Links.” In Creole: Th e History and Legacy of Louisiana’s Free
People of Color, ed. Sybil Klein. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 2000.
Walker, Shelia. “Are You Hip to the Jive? (Re)Writing/Righting
the Pan-American Discourse.” In African Roots/American
Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas, ed. Shelia
Walker. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishers,
2001.Jas
Th e precursor of the word “jazz” was the shortened, staccato-
pronounced “jas,” commonly used in the New Orleans,
southern Louisiana, region where the music fi rst evolved.
Many scholars, jazz musicians, and critics have speculated
about the origins of the word “jazz” and its meaning. Sig-
nifi cations have variously come down as “hot,” “lively,” “to
spice up,” “fl ashy,” “to copulate,” “vulgar,” “devil music.” Th e
word seems to have taken on as many connotations as its
improvisational modes. Generally, “jas” was believed to be a
slang word that had no formal linguistic ties with English or
African languages. However, like many slang words whose
origins have been traced back to an African language, “jas,”
according to Black English expert Dr. Geneva Smitherman,
is a word of Mandenka origin that means “to speed up,” “to
act out of the ordinary,” or “unpredictable behavior.” Th e
word also has Arabic language roots meaning “to break” or
“to cut.”
For decades and for reasons understandable, given the
spurious appropriation and designation of jazz as an amal-
gamated American music, jazz musicians oft en renounced
the term as an ambiguous word loaded with stereotypic
nuances and argued instead for explanatory terminologies
that make references to its ethnic origins. Duke Ellington
decried “jazz,” a word he mistrusted, and called his music
“freedom of expression.” Yusef Lateef preferred “auto-
physio-psychic music.” Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman
referred to their art as “Black classical music,” and the Art
Ensemble of Chicago called it simply “Great Black Music.”
No single word has concisely been substituted for the
word “jazz,” and no matter how much musicians and crit-
ics try to extricate the word from that great musical genre,Th ere is debate over the word “jambalaya” and its ori-
gins. Some believe that the word comes from the combina-
tion of “jambon,” meaning ham in French; “a la,” meaning
“in the style of ”; and “ya,” which some believe to be a West
African word for rice. Others believe it may be a combi-
nation of “jambon” and “paella,” which is a Spanish dish
that also has rice as its base. Th e dish has become well
known, and variations of it are present in the Caribbean
and Brazil.
Louisiana was originally a colony that survived off of
convict labor and the labor of enslaved Native Americans,
from its establishment in 1682. Th e fi rst enslaved Africans
were not brought to Louisiana until 1719, and upon their
arrival, they were sent immediately to purchase rice to
plant. A large percentage of the enslaved Africans brought
to Louisiana from this point on came from the Senegambia
region of West Africa, which is part of the rice belt of West
Africa. Th ese persons played a large part in the develop-
ment of the culture of the area, including the food culture.
Th e enslaved Africans had immense knowledge of rice-
planting techniques. African technology in planting and
cultivating rice is what allowed areas such as Louisiana and
South Carolina to not only survive but even fl ourish. Th e
technology provided by the enslaved Africans was used to
transform dismal swamplands into areas appropriate for the
cultivation of rice. Europeans generally had no rice cultiva-
tion skills and therefore had to rely solely on the enslaved
Africans to support them with their expertise in this area.
Another infl uence from African cultures was the sea-
soning of the jambalaya. Th e seasoning generally has a bite
to it or is spicy in a way that has been noted to be West Af-
rican in nature. Th is lending of cultural food traits was seen
in foods eaten by both the enslaved and their European
enslavers, given that the enslaved women cooked for the
whites. Many of the ingredients in jambalaya may not have
been easily accessible for the enslaved themselves. Dishes
such as jambalaya were cooked for the slave owners, and
because of this, African culinary skills became interwoven
in the defi ning of a food culture in the Americas.
See also: Africanisms; Black Folk Culture; Gumbo
Dawn MilesBibliography
Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Africans in Colonial Louisiana: Th e De-
velopment of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.