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BRANDI SIMPSON MILLER, 2022, Food and Identity in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century 

Ghana: Food, Fights, and Regionalism. Cham: Springer International, 327 pp. ISBN: 978-3-

030-88403-1  

 

Food and Identity in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Ghana: Food, Fights, and Regionalism, 

by Brandi Simpson Miller (2022) deals with the historic developments of Ghanaian foodways1 

in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Rooted in her own identity as a Nigerian-US American 

scholar and women of color she resolves – despite most of her archival sources being European 

– to write from a more local (Ghanaian) perspective. This has proven to be dearly needed as 

this volume advances the current body of literature on food and identity in Africa. The 

monograph unveils how culture, gender, age, and ethnicity structure food production, eating 

habits and values attached to commodities and meals in different regions. Based on a bouquet 

of well-connected historical and archival sources combined with her own empirical evidence, 

this book offers a densely knit understanding of Ghanaian foodways that has not been easily 

accessible before. Thus, without question, the cumbrous work that went into finding, analyzing, 

and accurately piecing together different sources, deserves to receive recognition in its own 

merit. Simpson Miller successfully relates her work to the current political discourse on food, 

globalization, and nutrition in Ghana. Further, the interspersed local recipes throughout the 

book allow a unique level of engagement with its content. 

 

Simpson Miller quickly establishes that – despite general similarities – there is no all-

encompassing-agreement of a shared national food identity in Ghana (Chapters 1 – 2). Instead, 

she distinguishes three eco-culinary regions based on a comparatively homogenous belief 

system around the main meal of the day and the concept of proper food (Chapter 3). This 

prominently includes the gendered character of meal preparation, cooking, and responsibility 

for the feeding of a family. Consequently, the book follows those three eco-culinary zones 

 
1 Foodways stands for “the eating habits and culinary practices of a people, region, or historical period” 

(Merriam-Webster 2024). 



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separately in Chapters 4 – 6: the forest, coastal and savanna zones. In all three cases, 

adjustments were made in times of (natural, political, and economic) crisis. Those led to 

changes in the key ingredients (starches), while the composition of the meals remained 

relatively stable. The same is true for the integration of New World foods which were 

incorporated either into the main meal of the day (“The Proper Meal,” Chapter 3) or as a meal 

with less implications for the region’s identity. Strongly related to Simpson Millers aim to 

decolonize literature on foodways and identity, Chapter 7 examines the influence of 

colonialism and trade with Europeans on local foodways. Through the very early trading 

relationships with Western countries, exchange can be traced back to as early as the mid-

fifteenth- century. The Portuguese were the first European nation to have “landed” on the West 

African coast (Hargrove 2015). As this chapter reflects the book’s initial purpose, it rightly so 

takes up the most space. Simpson Miller concludes that the cultural importance of regional 

meals and foods form ethnic identity and embody sense of community that endured centuries 

of European influence. In fact, recently the location-dependent character of foodways has been 

celebrated as a national good distinguishing Ghana from other nations. In the final chapter 

Simpson Miller connects previous developments in regional foodways with the consequences 

of globalization and current debates about food security. She argues that the limited outlook of 

current debates that merely look at food in terms of insecurity neglects the creativity and agency 

that characterize Ghanaian foodways. 

 

Simpson Miller herein demonstrates the relevance of her work by highlighting the persistence 

of certain patterns related to foodways today. This makes hands-on-policy recommendations 

possible to overcome issues that have been prevalent for the past decades. Rooted in her own 

analysis, she sensibly points out that the current discourse on food security, focusing on 

nutritional issues, does not target long-standing basic issues. Instead, she proposes direct action 

towards food production and infrastructure. Further work may use this as a starting point to 

investigate potential ways of improving the Ghanaian food system by keeping the eco-culinary 

origin of regional foodways in mind.   

 

Brandi Simpson Miller’s work contributes to the decolonization of literature on African 

foodways through countering the current body of literature that is either relatively broad or is 

concerned with how African concepts of food translated through the transatlantic-slave trade 

to the Americas. Here, however, Simpson Millers outstanding work contributes both a focus 

on local historical knowledge and a thorough and detail-oriented investigation. Whilst doing 



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justice to the prominent position starchy staples occupy, Simpson Miller examines the role of 

other foods, that became relevant over time. This allows for a holistic understanding of Ghana’s 

food landscape and the relation of different foods to each other. Hence, Simpson Miller 

provides an excellent vantage point that goes beyond her own disciplinary boundaries and 

invites inter- and trans-disciplinary considerations to benefit from her work.  Thus, further work 

may expand on this in conducting long-term- and in-depth forms of ethnographic research. 

Potentially, narrative case studies could be related to this book to supply more of an 

understanding of the day-to-day making and (re)production of foodways.  

 

To conclude, Brandi Simpson Miller’s book was much needed to liberate the Western 

dominated-discourse of food (in)security in Ghana and other (West) African countries. She 

provides an excellent understanding of the historical developments of Ghana’s foodways that 

should stand as the starting point for similar research.  

 

Works Cited: 

Hargrove, Jarvis L. The Political Economy of the Interior Gold Coast: The Asante and the Era 

of Legitimate Trading, 1807–1875. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2015.  

 

Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “foodways,” accessed January 4, 2024, 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foodways.  

 

 

Chiara Scheven holds a B.A. in Political Science and Ethnology from the University of 

Freiburg as well as an M.A. in Development Studies from the University of Passau. For the 

latter she conducted ethnographic field work in Ghana on informal social security networks of 

so-called kayayei (head-porters). In Accra young migrant women and girls provide for their 

own security based on a shared place of origin and ethnicity to cope with the informal nature 

of their occupation. Scheven recently started a PhD in Global Development at the University 

of East Anglia and the University of Copenhagen. Her project is concerned with market 

women’s and market queen’s role within the Ghanaian food system.  

 

 

© 2024 Chiara Scheven 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foodways

