Rice as commodity and anti-commodity

P. Richards

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

On the Upper West Africa coast rice belongs to two species — African rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.) and Asian rice (Oryza sativa L.). African rice was domesticated in the region, perhaps three millennia ago, from a presumed wild ancestor, O. barthii. Asian rice was introduced via trans-Saharan and/or Atlantic trade routes, and belongs to one of two subspecies — japonica and indica. Temperate japonicas are grown widely in the Mediterranean basin, but West African japonicas are tropical types and so are more likely to have been introduced from South East Asia by Portuguese or other European maritime trading activity. A more recent family of West African japonicas, to be discussed in this chapter, may derive from Carolina in the late 18th century.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLocal subversions of colonial cultures: commodities and anti-commodities in global history
EditorsS. Hazareesingh, H. Maat
Place of PublicationLondon
Pages10-28
Number of pages223
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Publication series

NameCambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan Ltd

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