“Collards is a corruption of colewort — colewort is any non-heading cabbage,” said Dr. Harris, the author of “High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey From Africa to America.” “They became part of the foodways of African Americans. The Africanism is in the cooking of them — not in the green itself. That cooking method of long, low and slow, and with the potlikker being consumed, is a very different thing.”And celebrating on the first day of the year, is more of a global tradition, Mr. Miller said. In Italy, for example, lentils — said to resemble coins — are cooked down with pork and served for luck. The forced migration of enslaved Africans to North America and their interactions with European colonists led to a convergence of customs.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 25, 2021 00:17 UTC