What’s the Real Deal with Watermelon, Chicken, & African Americans?

It is unclear to me when chickens arrived in the US, however, it is believed that the chicken (originally known as a red junglefowl) originated in Southern Asia and Southeast Asia about 6000-8000 years ago, making their way into North Africa, Egypt, and the Nile Valley about 2,500 years ago. My research further shows that although the chicken did not originate in West Africa, fried chicken did.

As the story goes, African people had excellent agricultural and other skills making them a necessity when caring for crops, pottery, weaving, wood carving, metalwork, building, and much more. It is said that in West Africa the chicken was a common, sacred farm animal. Unlike other farm animals, Africans allowed chickens to roam in their homes so that they could rid the homes of insects/bugs.

I cannot tell you how many times I heard jokes about watermelon and chicken being a common edible theme for African Americans depicting them as “poor, lazy, violent, liars, and thieves”. I’ve even heard (and made) many of these jokes from friends and family during social gatherings as a term of endearment. I mean, you know how it is…you can joke about yourself and those you love but others better not dare.​

Well, if you don’t already know, then I have some very interesting information to share with you. Information that I think will make even our jokes no longer funny but rather will give us something to be very proud 0f.

So, let’s start from the end of these facts (based on my research) and work our way to the beginning. As mentioned, people of African descent have been chastised for centuries about their love for watermelon and fried chicken. This chastisement has made it a bit uncomfortable for some people of color to eat these food items in front of white people for fear of being judged. How did this begin, especially considering that there is no race of people who do not indulge in watermelon or fried chicken, especially those here in the US?

First, let me quickly cover the topic of fried chicken…ready for this???​

As we all know, the association between people of African descent and fried chicken has encouraged some of the worse images. One example is this restaurant called the Coon Chicken Inn which was in Utah, Seattle, Portland, and Oregon. The chain of restaurants was open from 1925 until 1957. Nineteen fifty-seven, can you imagine? You can still find items such as dishes, menus, calendars, newspaper advertisements, and postcards for sale, today. Viewing the images says a lot about the painful and demeaning way that our people were portrayed. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to experience such abuse and be unable to retaliate in any way.

While our enslaved ancestors were raising and selling chickens to people outside of the plantations in which they resided, white people were not interested. During the colonial era, it is said that white people were more accustomed to poultry such as ducks and geese. Considering this, it was easy for Africans to raise and sell their chickens without interruption.​

Funny thing, in 1692, there were laws that were put in place in Virginia that outlawed enslaved people from owning horses, cattle, and hogs…the lawmakers did not consider the chickens. Africans were making a good amount of money selling their chickens. In some instances, some of them were able to buy their freedom with the revenue accumulated from the sales. Although this was the case, entrepreneurship amongst enslaved people was not an easy task. At some point, the Virginia General Assembly law goes into effect making it illegal for trading with another “man’s servant”. Not long after, the stories began to surface painting African Americans as thieves of chicken/chicken stealers.

We know the history from there….On yet another good note, though, African American women began to travel to different train depots where they would sell fried chicken dinners, would sell them in churches, and also used fried chicken (and potato salad) as a pack-and-go lunch when many of them traveled as part of the Great Migration.​

Although we mention Virginia, it should be said that this was not only happening in Virginia. The abuse of Africans was happening all over. We must not forget, Europeans traveled to slave states in America and sent postcards overseas regularly. The one below is an image of a postcard that read, “He can’t decide whether he should put down the watermelons to pick up the chicken.”

Like the tropes about African Americans and chicken, our ancestors were made to appear as lazy, dirty, violent, poor, and watermelon thieves. Another angle taken by enslavers was that our ancestors were happy being slaves. In the postcard below, the words appeared, “You can plainly see how miserable I am,” as a man chomps down on a piece of watermelon, much bigger than his face, with huge teeth and red lips (typical of the images used to portray our ancestors).

Although African Americans were the targets of such imagery in the 1860s, we were not the only ones who experienced such disgrace. About 1801, it was believed in Egypt (based on the story of a British soldier) that watermelon was a poor Arab’s feast which was substituted for a proper meal. The soldier mentions that he saw locals eating watermelons “ravenously”, afraid it would be snatched away. Strangely, the watermelon, upon arriving in the US, did not have the same racial connotation as it did back in Egypt.

​In 1869, the first disturbing documented image of our ancestors and watermelon appeared in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper which portrayed a black and white cartoon of five young boys devouring huge pieces of watermelon. For many decades thereafter, there were newspapers, magazines, postcards, cartoons, dishes, cookware, dish rags, paperweights, sheet music, and so much more, with images depicting our ancestors in this way.

This is where the story begins to get good…Based on my research,

I learned that there are paintings of watermelons and their seeds discovered in Egyptian tombs that were built over 4000 years ago, including the tomb of King Tut. Further research shows that the watermelon, known as the citrullus lanatus, was said to have been cultivated for its seeds only while the remaining watermelon (citrullus lanatus) was discarded. 

As I continued to research, I learned that the watermelon, as it was in Egypt, was hard and bitter, not something anyone desired to eat. Rather, the watermelon was used for its water content, as stated in the fruit’s name.

What I found really crazy, and exciting piece of knowledge is that our ancestors’ tombs showed remnants of the fruit. The Egyptian pharaohs were said to have a long journey ahead of them; therefore, they needed a source of water --- watermelon. Isn’t that crazy!?

One final note, because I can go on and on about this…there is just so much information on this!​

When the Egyptians cultivated the watermelon, as I mentioned, they were not fond of the taste causing them to discard everything except the seeds. Our ancestors understood that the watermelon, with just one dominant gene (causing the bitter flavor), could be changed which would change the taste of the watermelon. So, it began…the beginning of many changes bringing us the watermelon as we know it today.

Let us backtrack for a minute…

During the time of enslavement, our ancestors were “allowed” to enjoy watermelon. They grew it, sold it, and sometimes they were able to take a day off during the first harvest and eat it. It is said, however, that the subservient behavior of African Americans with watermelon came to a halt after emancipation. It was at this time that our ancestors grew, sold, and ate all the watermelon they wanted. Because our ancestors were masters in agriculture, growing and selling watermelons became their way of making a great living for themselves and their families --- selling watermelon and chicken, that is. African American people were living off their own lands, having markets, and enjoying one another at social gatherings; they were living the dream of true freedom.

The self-sufficiency of the African American family did not sit well with whites, particularly southern whites. As our ancestors were growing and settling into this new way of life, whites were creating a plan to end freedom as they knew it.

A couple of years after the first caricature of the boys was published in 1869, a Georgia newspaper reported that an African American man had been arrested for poisoning a watermelon with intentions of killing his neighbor --- headlined “Negro Kuklux”. Supposedly, the man was committing “Black on Black” violence. The message behind the depictions that followed was that our ancestors were not ready to be “free”.

The shaming of our people by way of imagery and the white man’s control over the media (sound familiar, doesn’t it) was all based on the inability of white people to accept that African Americans (and ALL other descendants --- or for lack of a better term, Black people) did not need them. Our ancestors were resilient. They were beyond intelligent enough to know how to, not only survive, but to thrive in any environment.

With all the history about watermelon, and there is a lot of history (I suggest you do some research of your own) we are given an idea of how important this fruit is to our culture.

Never, ever be ashamed --- hold your head up high as you eat the greasiest (figure of speech, don’t go clogging up your arteries blaming me) piece of chicken, follow it up with the biggest juiciest piece of watermelon, and be proud knowing that those two things (and potato salad) journeyed for centuries, allowing us to enjoy it today.

With all that had been stolen from our people, those who were brought to the Americas, the Caribbean, and other parts of this world, as well as those who were the first, we are still here. We are stronger than ever. We are no longer being bamboozled. We have climbed beyond the mountain top. We are, we are, we are…because we always were!

Teach your children! Sankofa!

Queendom Rising!