Kapwani Kiwanga Semence , 2020 Ceramic replicas of rice grains of variety Oryza glaberrima Variable Dimensions
There are many testimonies about how those kidnapped from the African continent and sold as slaves, carried on them during the long and violent crossing of the Atlantic, their heritage and sustenance in the form of seeds and plants. Testimonies describe how people hid grains of rice in their hair, transporting them to other continents—mainly the America—proof of how the transatlantic slave trade has also changed the biodiversity of the locus of colonialism.
The African Rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud) figured here, is a particular type of rice that was once thought of as the lost crop of the enslaved Africans. It was rediscovered in Suriname. Dutch academic Tinde van Andel has been tracing the history and presence of this type of rice, presenting evidence that Oryza glaberrima is still grown by “Saramaccan Maroons” both for food and ritual uses. As she notes, many locals informed her that “their forefathers collected their first “black rice” from a mysterious wild rice swamp and cultivated these seeds afterwards. Unmilled spikelets (grains with their husk still attached) are sold in small quantities for ancestor offerings, and even exported to the Netherlands.”1 More research is conducted currently on the different varieties of rice and other “lost crops” grown by descendants of enslaved Africans some of whom escaped from plantations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and maintained much of their African cultural heritage in the deep forests. Kiwanga commissioned local artisanal Lisanne Ceelen, to re-create ceramic grains of the variety Oryza glaberrima.
