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, ASÉhopes 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.