Chopee Okra flower and pods

ASÉ

African Seed Exchange

Co-Founder and Co-Director,(2019-present)

The African Seed Exchange (ASÉ) brings together descendants of the enslaved community, scholars, local community members, and agriculturalists with the goal of learning about the history of plants that were grown in African and African American gardens in the South Carolina Low Country. Our examination includes seeds of crops that have an African origin and were first cultivated in North America by enslaved Africans; seeds from crops that have a Native American origin and became part of African American gardens; and seeds of crops that were brought by Europeans and adapted by African Americans. We are also considering the distinct, and common food threads that run between Barbados and the Carolinas. Utilizing the “experimental archaeology” of planting, growing, and harvesting a number of these plants, ASÉ hopes to introduce modern audiences to these historic plants and develop a narrative of their various origins and pathways during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

Jakatu/Guinea Squash

Sesame flowers, Sesame Pods, Sesame Seeds

Garden At Middleton Place

2024

ASÉ Garden -South Carolina

Watermelon

Medicinal Plant Garden

ASÉ Garden Lexington, MA

Roselle flower and bud

Seeds from harvest for next years planting

Millet & Sorghum

Dye Garden - Indigo & Marigolds

Horse Radish & Comfrey

(l-r) Tree Collards, Peppers, Benne, Sorghum, Sugar Cane, Gourds

ASÉ 2025

The African Seed Exchange (ASÉ) Project was started in 2021 to explore the horticultural practices of enslaved people in the low country of South Carolina. It was believed that researching and exploring the African foods that were grown by African people in North America that it would be possible to tell a more detailed and expanded story of the people who were enslaved. This has been the focus of this project.

This has been a productive year for the ASÉ Project. At the home site in South Carolina there has been an expansion. In addition to the vegetable garden there is also a medicinal plants garden and a dye plants garden.

ASÉ has collaborated with students at Fort Dorchester High School in Summerville, South Carolina who are studying African American history and culture. The project is also developing a relationship with the East Charleston Community Center to have their young people learn about African horticultural practices. To aid these aspects of the project ASÉ is developing a curriculum that can be used to teach about the various elements of the project.

There has been another expansion as well. This season ASÉ was provided with some space in the Experimental Garden at the Lexington Community Farm in Lexington, Massachusetts. This is enabling the project to begin to expand the story and connect the horticultural practices of enslaved people to those of self-emancipated and free Black people. The project will conduct some small workshops with the young people in summer program at the farm and will conduct a workshop in the fall on the specific foods being grown.

GARDEN UPDATE: South Carolina

In the vegetable garden the spring planting went well and many of the crops took off quickly. In June the garden had sorghum and millet (guinea corn), watermelons, squash, peppers, tomatoes, drum gourds, okra, jakatu (guinea squash), and sea island red peas.

The medicinal garden had chamomile, comfrey, echinacea, feverfew, horseradish, mullein, ribwort plantain, white horehound, and yarrow.

The dye garden has indigo, dyers chamomile, calendula, safflower, roselle, and marigolds.

Lagos Spinach & Okra

Guinea Squash & Squash

Demonstration Rice Field

Echinacea & Feverfew

GARDEN UPDATE: Massachusetts

This year the garden has a mix of the older African plants (17th & 18th centuries), some 19th century plants, and a few related but undocumented plants. The plants that are growing are peppers, okra (kanja), roselle (bissap), peas, jakatu (guinea squash), benne (sesame), tomatoes, lagos spinach, and purple tree collards. (There are also several plants that have self-seeded: Beef Steak Plant/Shiso, Purslane, Callalooo, Ground Cherries)

Guinea Squash & Black Eye Peas