Tripe and recognition : the pursuit of cultural justice for misrecognized African cuisine

Abstract

The food discourse is shaped by cultural norms and standards that dictate what foods are deemed valuable and acceptable. However, these standards are predominantly rooted in Eurocentric food culture making it the standard against which all other cuisines are measured. This Eurocentric dominance in the culinary world leads to a perpetuation of marginalization of cuisines. When Eurocentric food culture is considered the standard, it creates a bias that marginalizes and overlooks the richness and uniqueness of other culinary traditions such as African cuisines. As a result, African cuisines, are exposed to cultural imperialism which is a dimension of cultural injustice. Cultural injustice is rooted in how social structures represent, interpret, and communicate certain ideas, as demonstrated through cultural domination, which entails encountering foreign and hostile cultural interpretations; non-recognition, which entails being rendered invisible by dominant cultural practices; and disrespect, which entails being stereotyped and disrespected regularly in public and daily interactions (Fraser 1997: 14). In this study I investigates the food epistemology necessary to ensure that African cultural foods are valued, accepted and granted recognition for their cultural significance. This is accomplished by analyzing Charles Taylor's (1994) and Axel Honneth's (1995) theories of recognition along with Nancy Fraser's (1997) theory, and her proposed transformative remedies to address misrecognition. Through this analysis, I demonstrate how a reconceptualization of what acceptable food is defined as, as a whole can grant African cuisine a respectable status as that of Eurocentric food cuisines.