[Activity/Workshop] Subverting Empire’s Plate: Cuisine, Colonialism, and Diasporic Daughters from Senegal and Vietnam

The proposed activity uses Senegalese and Vietnamese foodways as a lens through which to explore the impact of French colonialism on migration, diaspora, and cultural exchange. Nem, the term used by both Senegalese and Vietnamese to refer to spring rolls, is the focus of our proposed activity. We will host a nem interactive presentation and discuss histories of French colonialism and culinary exchanges that connect Vietnam and Senegal. We will also screen video and audio clips illustrating the journey by which we locate and transport ingredients, which ones can be transported from Vietnam and which ones must come from Senegal. How do Vietnamese diasporic customs interplay with local Senegalese knowledge of indigenous ingredients, food stalls, and relationships with regional vendors? What do these processes reveal about the depths of belonging, community, and home? This activity is a meditation on how home is created and recreated through food by diasporic daughters from Senegal and Vietnam. It also brings an interdisciplinary approach in the arts, humanities, and social sciences to offer a more comprehensive and nuanced perspective on the study of histories of migration, war, and French colonial experiences between Africa and Asia.