What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Okra?

Probably slime.

But the slick vegetable has a beautiful history and centuries-long connection to our palates.

This is two-minute black history.

What you didn't Learn in School.

Okra is a green tuber that black folk have eaten for centuries.

Love it or hated, there's no denying its importance in our history. Native to Ethiopia, the heat-loving vegetable is enjoyed everywhere from Senegal to the south. Okra is called gumbo,

short for the Angolan word, King Gumbo. Food historian Michael Twitty believes Okra arrived in the United States between 1710 and 1730.

Like other crops, Okra likely made its transatlantic journey with us.

Once on new soil, Okra became a staple in the gardens of enslaved people.

They also roasted and brewed Okra seeds as a coffee substitute.

Beyond sustenance, our people use okra for medicinal purposes. They mash the leaves into clay to make

pulses to reduce inflammation. A woman could coat her cervix with the slime from the pots to induce abortion.

As with many foods, our ways of preparing okra vary, but the roots remain the same.

Across the U.S., okra is often fried, stewed with tomatoes, or added to gumbo.

It's eaten as Karuru, a shrimp and okra stew in Brazil.

Dominicans call Okra mulidrom and eat it with onion and peppers. Food has always been more than just food to us. It's communal, it's healing, it's joyous,

no matter how it shows up on our plates.

In order to move towards the future, we've got to look to the past.

This has been Two-Minute Black History, a podcast by Push Black.

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