The Knowledge Keeper: Benta
Photo 1 : "ValencaMoro2" by billigwein is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
When you think of palm oil, do you think of resistance? The story of Benta, one of the enslaved people of the African diaspora, born into Brazilian slavery, is proof of how resistance shapeshifts; it isn’t always violent or direct. It is sometimes a woman making palm oil to combat the underwhelming, monotonous and deficient diets dictated by her captors.
The African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) first emerged in West Africa. Studies and analyses associate early oil palm groves with the Gulf of Guinea region. Oil palms were spared when farmers cleared the forests for planting. They were cherished for oils, wines, construction materials and even spiritual and medicinal purposes. Oil palms thrived in the open canopy, when the fields were left fallow. The harvested palm oils, wines and kernels were processed and became very lucrative on trade routes, and eventually became an important accessory to the transatlantic slave trade. European slavers used palm oil to season and enrich the gruels fed to their captives. They also used the oil as a salve for treating the enslaved aboard ships, and to tone their skin—a marketing ploy.
In 1699, the first account of Elaeis guineensis in Brazil was recorded among the Bahia population of Afro-descendants. Palm-berries, or Dendees (“Dende,” the contemporary Afro-Brazilian name for African oil palm, is derived from Kimbundu, a Bantu language), were associated with the New World Africans who used their ethnobotanical and agricultural knowledges to transform colonial scenes. Palm oil became central to Afro-Bahian identity in the nineteenth century, a link to Africa, a sacred symbol of Afro-Brazil. Palm oil wasn’t only a dietary supplement, it provided ointments, soaps, wines for the Afro-descendants. The African diaspora consistently adapted their cultural knowledge to new environments to realize their own culinary, spiritual, medicinal and economic preferences.
Benta lived and worked at the Engenho Maroim, in the sugar landscapes in Bahia's Recôncavo region. She processed palm oil for culinary purposes, but sold any surplus on the premises, or in local markets. In an account ledger from 1791, there is an uncommon peek into the palm oil production by slave workers. Benta is registered to have been paid a high sum of four milréis (Rs.4$000) for beans and palm oil. Benta’s account is significant for its direct reference to palm oil and labour distribution implications. By processing and selling palm oil, Benta disrupted the cultural and commercial predominance of Euro-Brazilian slaveholders who would have limited their workers’ access to markets. This palm oil processing represented cultural and economic resistance.
Benta’s processing of palm oil can be traced back to her ancestral homeland where palm oil processing was done by the women. Although she was born, and therefore learned in Brazil, Benta harnessed and blended African and Brazilian knowledge. She improved her dietary and economic conditions by taking advantage of the transatlantic network of traditions. She is a worthy representation of resilience and resistance and innovation.
