Food and Guns Part 1

The debate over gun control has been a fixture in the news since the Newtown, Connecticut shooting and President Obama's call for an up or down vote on gun control policies during his recent State of the Union speech.  The debate moved me to delve into sources from history on the relationship between food and guns which is what I will be discussing in a new series I am launching today. Researchers have found that meat most likely represented only a  small part of the commoner’s diet in pre-17th century West and Central Africa. In these regions people obtained the meat used to supplement their diet from hunting if they lived in forest regions.  Increasingly, they hunted with guns after the establishment of the Atlantic slave trade in which African entrepreneurs traded human beings for guns among other luxury items.  Thus, West and Central African used guns to carry on the slave trade as well as obtain meat used to supplement their diets.

West African Foodways and Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=West+Africa

Central African Foodways and Recipes: http://www.foodasalens.com/search?q=Central+Africa

African Heritage Food Pyramid: http://www.foodasalens.com/2012/05/african-heritage-pyramid-diet.html

History of Guns in America: [listen now 54 min 8 sec] http://backstoryradio.org/straight-shot-guns-in-america-rebroadcast/