Launch Celebration of Slaves for Peanuts with Jori Lewis
We are delighted to host Jori Lewis, who will be joining us from virtually from Dakar Senegal on the U.S. release of the her new book Slaves for Peanuts. Meet us online for a rich conversation between Jori Lewis and Dr. Hilary Jones who will discuss a unique part of Senegalese history.
Americans consume over 1.5 billion pounds of peanut products every year. But few of us know the peanut’s tumultuous history, or its intimate connection to slavery and freedom.
Lyrical and powerful, Slaves for Peanuts deftly weaves together the natural and human history of a crop that transformed the lives of millions. Author Jori Lewis reveals how demand for peanut oil in Europe ensured that slavery in Africa would persist well into the twentieth century, long after the European powers had officially banned it in the territories they controlled.
