Seeds of Change and Survival: Gender and Environmental Legacy of African Agricultural Practices in the Atlantic World

• In Event: Women's Environmental activism

Description for Program

Abstract
There is an intricate relationship between gender and environment. Gendered experiences are profoundly linked with environmental histories, similar to the metaphorical rivers in Hughes' poem reflecting the persistent wisdom and interconnectedness of the past. Women and men have contributed to the survival and sustainability of the environment across the world. Comparatively like black men, black women contributed to shaping agricultural practices and food systems to enhance the sustainability of the Atlantic world. Women's agricultural knowledge, labor crop cultivation, and culinary practices were critical for food security and cultural continuity. This historiographical review sheds light on gender and environment, specifically black women's roles as cultivators, crop and seed keepers, and knowledge bearers in transferring ecological and farming practices in the Atlantic world. African women employed indigenous agroecological knowledge, planting techniques, and crop management to sustain agricultural practices of the Atlantic world. This review helps to understand the ways that women contributed to the survival of sustainable agricultural practices of the Atlantic world, as the ancient rivers contributed to the survival of humanity. Black women have carried the knowledge of ecological practices across generations, shaping the environmental legacies.

Keywords: Agricultural Practices, Agroecological Knowledge, Crop Cultivation, Cultural Continuity, Indigenous Knowledge and Atlantic World

Author

• Gideon Asante, Ohio University