Cross Over FoodneMaterializing Postcolonial Geographies

Cross over Food: Re-Materializing Postcolonial Geographies Author(s): Ian Cook and Michelle Harrison Source: Transactions of the
Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Sep., 2003), pp. 296-317 Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3804578 . Accessed: 14/05/2013 04:38
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Cross over food: re-materializing postcolonialgeographies

Ian Cook* and Michelle Harrisont
its emphasison Recentgeographical discussionsof postcolonialism have highlighted texts and discourses, its neglectof morematerial aspectsof (post)imperial/colonial articulating postcolonialism domination and theneed fordetailedempirical research and global capitalism. on research This paper addressestheseissues by reporting based in a recent debate in theUK tradepressoverthe 'failure'of Caribbeanfood manufacturing to 'crossover' intotheUK 'mainstream'. It outlinesthecontrasting and marketing practices of two Jamaican food companieswhose accountsof (not) resistant, ambivalent, attempting this'cross-over' illustrate postcolonialism's hybrid, scale-jumping, boundary-crossing, material cultural politics. key words Jamaica Caribbeanfood material-cultural analysis commodification postcolonialism globalization
*School ofGeography, and Environmental ofBirmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham Earth Sciences, TheUniversity B152TT email:i.j.cook@bham.ac.uk tTheHenleyCentre, 9 Bridewell Place,LondonEC4V 6AY revised manuscriptreceived 24 February2003
When the waitressdeliveredthe platter- with jerked meats, plantains, a fried 'bammy' patty of grated cassava, and 'festival', a cornmealhush puppy - she snatchedaway my silverware, 'It's OK', she explained. 'Jerk is finger to mouth'.I dipped a piece of pork into some hot sauce and took a bite. If my tongue could speak (and I'm not sayingthatit can't),it would have screamed,'HOT'! There's somethingvery HOT here! RED AND HOT!' A painfulburning sensationsubsided into a vinegarytaste in the back of my throatand a lingering pepper flavour. It was terrific jerk.I repeated thisexperiment withpieces of chicken and sausage, my lips tingling and going numb and the burn occupying my mouthforfullyten minutesafterI had eaten the last delicious bite. (Culinary travel writerJimGullo (1999) samplesJamaican food.)
Introduction
In the mid-1990s, Caribbean food was set to become the next big 'cross-over' food in the UK, the next 'ethnic' cuisine to go 'mainstream' after Chinese, Indian and Tex Mex. Its sales had doubled from ?10.1m in 1993 to ?20.4m in 1995 (Anon 1999a; Mintel 1996) and, in an 'ethnic' food market
worth over ?600m, this growthwas expected to continue. This food had a lot going for it. 'Caribbean' people comprised the third largest ethnic minorityliving in the UK. The region's complex historyhad produced a hybridregional cuisine which overlapped with the Indian and Chinese food that had already 'crossed over' in the UK. Long haul holidaysto the Caribbeanwere givingmany to UK tourists, affordable increasingly - like Gullo - an 'authentic'taste of the region's food,and an impetusto tryit at home. A number of Caribbean products - like Enco's hot pepper sauces - had already gone 'mainstream' in the UK, being available on the shelves of most of its big supermarkets.Jamaican jerk chicken' was rave reviewsat food trade shows, and jerk getting sauces and marinades were expected to be at the vanguard of this 'cross over'. Many of the chains were beginningto stock big supermarket a shopper would need to cook up an everything 'authentic'Caribbean meal in their homes. UKbased Enco had launched a range of Caribbean Caribbeanchef ready meals endorsedby celebrity Rustie Lee. Other, Caribbean-based, companies
TransInstBr Geogr NS 28 296-317 2003 ISSN 0020-2754? Royal GeographicalSociety(withThe Institute of British Geographers)2003
Crossoverfood:re-materializing postcolonial geographies
297 companies couldnotafford with, these used todealing thepay forshelfspace in thesestoresor forin-store and other'normal'promotional tastings, advertising because of theirsize and locaMoreover, activities. unstable economies, tion in distantand relatively TNCs. orreliable as these many couldnotbe as flexible had foundthat'The Thus,Caribbeanmanufacturers and if you fail once market, UK is an unforgiving you don't get back in easily - if at all' (Whitworth 1999; 1995,47; Anon 1996b1998d 1999a;Carmichael 1998;Michaels2002;Mintel1999). McLoughlin So far,this mightsound like the kind of case study which could be set within debates about of 'cultural'and 'economic'geograthearticulation and Olds 1996;Crang 1997).Howphies (e.g. Thrift ever, because it concerns relationshipsbetween colonizingparts colonized and formerly formerly of the world (of which morelater),thisis perhaps better set within current geographical debates about the articulationof 'postcolonialism' and 'globalization'(Gregory2000; Nash 2002). Briefly, centralto the argumentsof postcolonialcriticism is the assertionthat colonial discourses (such as weretheprime means and 'primitivism') 'orientalism' underEuropean imperialists which,first, through stood, and rationalizedtheiractions with respect to, theircolonized 'others';and, second, colonized peoples' self-understandingsbecame (at least partially)framedthroughthe 'civilizing process' of European-style governanceand education (see Fanon 1967; Hall 1993; Hulme 1986; Mason 1990; Retamar 1989; Said 1978). European colonialism ofcoloinvolvedthecultural and imperialism fixing nized people within colonial discourses so that fromthe coloniztheycould only gain recognition iftheyconformed to (stereo)type. ing 'mainstream' However, colonized people were also displaced (via, forexample, fromtheirrootsboth physically of enslaved African people to the mass movement the plantationsof the extended Caribbean) and to replacelocal knowledges, culturally (via attempts languages and cultureswithsupposedly 'superior' metropolitanversions: Ashcroft2001; Ashcroft et al. 1989; Jordanand Weedon 1995). Thus, as a reviewshave argued, ofrecent geographical number is to underthemainaim ofpostcolonial scholarship formsof colonial mine and resistthese persistent domination through, first,de-legitimizingand European colonial discourses (e.g. of de-centring the and 'progress'), 'modernization' second,showing natureofhistories, interconnected mixed-up, messy, and identities neatly compartmentalized geographies
were increasing their exports to satisfy thismarket. And Caribbean foods could easily be marketed by tying them into the attractiveand colourful commodity fetish- of sun, sea, sand, palm trees, colonial scenes, reggae music and the 'relaxed spicy lifestyle' of Caribbean people - which was well established in the tourist industry (Anon 1999d,10: see also Anon 1997a 1997b 1998c 1998d 1999a 1999b 1999c 1999d 2000b 2000c 2000f2000g; Arnold 1998; Beddall 2002; DeWitt2000; Ferguson 1999; Hunter 2000; JAMPRO 1996; Mintel 1998; Uhl 1999;Whitworth 1995 1996). At the time, these seemed like convincing arguments. This 'cross-over' was going to happen. But the rapid growthin sales of Caribbean food quickly fell away. Between 1995 and 1997 they grew by only 5 per cent. And, by the end of the decade, the region's food wasn't even being discussed as a separatecategory in market reports. The failure of this'crossover' therefore became the subject of much debate in the food trade press. First,this was seen as an inevitableresultof the culturethatwas being commodified. As one Grocer journalistput it, 'Caribbean food has been tipped as the new "in" cuisine foryears but, true to the region's laid back style,it's been takingits time' (Anon 1999a, 57). Second, despite the increasing numberof British people holidayingin the Caribbean, it was the resultof 'the average consumer' notbeing 'exposed to Caribbeanfoodsto any great extent'(Mintel1999, 19). What this sectordid not have were the thousandsof restaurants and takeaways that its rival Indian and Chinese sectors were based upon. Third,the failureto cross over was a resultof the provisionof a limitedrange of seasonal and/or relatively inconvenientfoods. Caribbeanfood on thesupermarket shelfprimarily comprisedlow value ingredients, seasonings and pour-overtable sauces. In a marketwhere mainstream consumers valued tasty home-cooked meals which could be preparedin less than 20 minutes, most Caribbean meals took longer to make and were therefore more likelybe cooked only on special occasions.Some productsdid fitthis20-minute meal bill,though. But thesewere theseasonal ones: the sauces and seasonings that were part of the Caribbean's barbecue tradition (Anon 1995b; Carmichael1999).Finally, thisfailure was also seen to have been caused by theCaribbean-based manufacturers who produced the most 'authentic'productsforthismarket (see Cook et al. 2000a). Unlike the huge TNCs that the UK supermarkets were
298
Harrison andMichelle Ian Cook But, would have been just anotherethnocentrism'. of course, the texts and discourses of European own.Rather, poweron their did notexercise Empires the ways in whichthey thiswas exercisedthrough understood, interwere produced, transported, and bound and so on alongside preted,reinterpreted knowledges and praup withother technologies, ctices (e.g. ships, navigation,insurance,money, weapons, labour relations,slavery,commodities, consumption,etc.) in specific ways, in/between specific places, and with locally specific results (Blunt and McEwan 2002; Jacobs1996; Law 1986; Ogborn 2000 2002). Postcolonial scholarshipthat neglectsthese kinds of materialculturalinterrela'rendersimpossiblethe cognitionshipstherefore tive mapping thatmust be the point of departure for any practice of resistance and leaves such mapping as thereis in the domain of those who world economy'(Dirlik1994, manage thecapitalist 356). So, as Katz elaborates,these circumstances require 'a situated,but at the same time scaleresponse' crossing, political and geography jumping would move (2001,1216). Here, postcolonialcritics beyond telling the usual dominant, boxed-up, stories of the effectsof Western-capital-centric macro-scale actors (e.g. the WTO or IMF) and Woods or the events (e.g. the collapse of Bretton their social systems, OPEC crisis)on 'nation-states', cultures and/or economies. Instead, they would 'work the grounds between multiply situated social actors in a range of geographicallocations who are at once bound and rent by the diverse forcesof globalisation'(Katz 2001, 1214). Tracing she conof this 'counter-topography', the contours cludes, 'mightencourageand enable theformation alliances thattranscend of new political-economic and foster a moreeffective bothplace and identity theimperial, patriarchal cultural politicsto counter of globalisation'(Katz 2001, and racistintegument 1216;Nagar etal. 2001). abouta re-materialized arguments Buthow do these relate to that postcolonial counter-topography obscure trade press debate about the failure of 'Caribbean' food to (yet) 'cross-over'into the UK 'mainstream'market?Our answer starts in perhaps the most well known academic critiqueof such 'cross-overs'.Oftenusing bell hooks' (1992) thisapproachaims to 'eatingtheother'arguments, takenidentify, explain and undermineeveryday, racisms rooted in colonial discourses for-granted still drawn upon in white 'mainstream'popular/ commercialcultures (see Ahmad 2000; Franklin
and opposed in thesediscourses, and, third, putting together alternative, hybridhistories, geographies and identities whichdo notneed to be anchoredto Europe to be worthyof attention(Jacobs 2001; McEwan 2001;Nagar etal. 2001;Sidaway 2000). Important and influential as thiswork has been, the majorcriticism levelled at it is thatit is primarily 'cultural'and neglectsthe equally important, and thoroughly interrelated, 'material' aspects of imperial/colonial dominationand its aftermaths. With its concentration on texts and discourses, contemporary postcolonialcriticism leaves largely undiscussed the articulationof imaginativeand materialgeographies, 'culture'and 'economy',and 'postcolonialism'and global capitalism (Ashcroft 2001; Bluntand McEwan 2002; Dirlik2002; During 2000; Gregory 2000; Hall 1996; Kapoor 2002; McEwan 2001; Nash 2002; Sylvester1999). With rare historical and contemporary exceptions(such as theanti-colonial theorizing ofnationalliberation movementsand newly independentpostcolonial nation-states: Boehmer and Moore-Gilbert2002; Dirlik1999),Dirlikargues,
postcolonialcritics have been silenton the relationship of the idea of postcolonialism to its contextin contemporary capitalism; indeed,theyhave suppressedthe necessity of considering such a possiblerelationship by repudiating a foundational role to capitalism in history. (Dirlik1994,331)
Yet, as Bluntand Wills (2000) argue,the history of modernEuropeanempiresis thehistory of modern globalizing capitalism: the search for silver and gold in the sixteenth century; the developmentof mercantile in the seventeenth imperialism century; the expansionof capitalist in the nineimperialism teenthand twentieth centuries(to tie vast areas of the world to Europe both as suppliers of raw materials for industrial expansion and as marketsfor its finishedgoods); and, in the postindependence era, the ways in which Western corporations, trading blocks,regulatory bodies and financial institutions have builtupon thesefoundations (Katz 2001; Nagar et al. 2001; Sidaway 2000). Indeed, the dividingline betweenEuropean imperialism/colonialism and globalization is fuzzy at best,sincethesehistorical mean that, geographies 'worldwide,we are livingin the shards of a Eurocentric but global capitalism'(Katz 2001,1214). 'Withoutcapitalismas the foundation forEuropean power and the motiveforceforits globalisation' Dirlik (1994, 347) continues,'Eurocentrism
over Cross food: re-materializing postcolonial geographies
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etal. 2000). However,thisapproachalso has a great based. These accounts draw on information company deal in commonwith the postcolonialscholarship gleaned fromofficial companyhistories, critiquedabove. First,its argumentsare usually reports,trade press accounts,newspaper articles, based on 'small but important point(s)ofclarity on other writtensources and our interviews with an otherwisethoroughly based in bothJamaicaand the mixed up journeythata companyexecutives commodity takes fromsites of productionto sites UK. They outline each company's 'scale-jumping of consumption'(Cook et al. 2000a, 132): in other and geography crossing response' to the harsh between words,a concentration on advertising and product realities of deeplyrootedcolonialrelations design materialsmeans thatthe complex material Jamaica and the UK, and their persistenceand biographies of commoditiesand the variety of complication in conditions of contemporary firmly meanings which (can) get attached to them are globalization. And theyplace theseresponses invariably ignored(Appadurai 1986; Burgess1990; within the 'postcolonial' histories and debates Hebdige 1988;Johnson 1986).Second,its arguments summarized above. In telling their stories, for invariably seem to assume, and thento set out to explainand instance, theseauthorsand interviewees coloto illustrate, to the Caribbean'sdistinctive fundamentaldifferences between a made reference slavery, African white 'mainstream'and a black 'ethnicother':in nial history (e.g. whitesupremacy, otherwords, this work is oftenbased on mosaic, the plantationsystem and sugar productionfor ratherthan hybrid, theoriesof 'culture'which are overseas consumption)and its multiple,ongoing, arguablypart of the problem(see Cook et al. 1999 hybridizing, diasporic connections(includingthe 2000a; Dirlik 1999). Finally, it involves cultural post-World War Two migrations of Caribbean how Western readingsof commodities thatpay no heed to pro- people to Europeand NorthAmerica); cesses of commodification: were involved in the 'development'! in other words, the corporations in thepost-independence productionof commodified in 'modernization' ofJamaica culturaldifference business practiceis neverpartof the argument. In period (especially in tourismand bauxite extracthispaper,then,we simplyask what ifwe were to tion); how progressiveJamaican academics and treatgoods marketedas 'ethnic'or 'exotic' in the social reformers theorized relationshipsbetween UK not as texts, but as materialculture(see Dant the social, economic,culturaland politicaleffects 1999;Lury1996;Miller1998a)?What ifwe were to of old and new (post)colonial relationshipsin transformation (e.g. through their study them not only as textualand visual reser- orderto facilitate voirs of culturalcodes, but as things communityinitiatives);how, in the in themaking grass-roots, and thingsin use, materiallyand symbolically, 1970s, Jamaica took the lead among selfto withinas well as between contexts, attempting via multi-site consciously'ThirdWorld' countries research(Jackson1999 2002; Marcus 1998)? How forge an independent,non-aligned, 'third-path' mightunderstandings of postcolonialism's which was neitherdependent on global material strategy cultural geographies contribute to theundermining capitalism or state socialism (see later references of,and resistance to, forms of colonial domination to Michael Manley); how, fora varietyof reasons, that persist in contemporaryglobal capitalist this was a spectacular failure, with Jamaica relations? per capita,one ofthemost becoming, subsequently To address these questions, the bulk of this indebted countries in the world;2 and how, paper is devoted to the corporatehistories,and throughout this history, images of Caribbean approaches to this 'cross-over',of two Jamaica- islands as lush, tropical 'paradises' with 'relaxed based food manufacturerswho have recently spicy lifestyles' popupersistedin Euro-American these won 'Championexporter' culture.In orderto negotiate awards from theJamaica lar/commercial we argue, Exporters'Association (Anon 1999b). The firstis 'post-colonial' legaciesand predicaments, Grace, Kennedy and Co., a large Western-style Grace and Walkerswood have had little choice companythathas, so far,refusedto prioritize this but to map out theirown 'counter-topographies' cross-over',preferring, instead, to cater to UK of globalization. To develop their export busi'ethnicminority' and 'ThirdWorld' consumers.In nesses, they have had to put togethersophistiof and practicalunderstandings contrast,the second is Walkerswood Caribbean cated theoretical past and present Foods,a tiny, grass-roots, former cooperative explicitly local, national, international, poliattempting this 'cross-over' in order to redress economies,culture,social relations,identity thevalue colonial inequalities in the village where it is ticsand morebesides. So, to demonstrate
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Harrison Ian Cookand Michelle
of the re-materialized postcolonialgeographieswe advocate above, below we attempt to tracethecontours of each company's 'counter-topography' to highlight the kinds of anti-colonialalliances and cultural politicswhichtheyhave triedto forge.
Grace:'Genuine Caribbean taste, enjoyed worldwide'

Grace is thebrandname used on thefoodproducts of Grace, Kennedyand Co., a TNC establishedin Jamaicain 1922. This TNC is the 'largestgrocery supplierin Jamaica, and part of the biggestconglomerate in the Caribbean, with interests in tourism, agriculture, distribution, information technology and the financialsector' (Whitworth 1995, 49), and had revenues in 1999 of over J$14,063m (E212m) (Orane 1999).3The historyof the Grace brandcan be pottedas follows.Concentrating in its earlyyears on importing food and otherproducts to Jamaica,the company's food exportsbegan to grow as they'followedthe flag' to provide a taste of home for Jamaicanmigrantswho moved to North America and to the UK in the post-war years. While the Grace trademarkwas used in theseoverseasmarkets, itwas unregistered in them. Thus, as this business became increasingly substantialin the 1960s,the overseas branchesof the company (which had been set up in partnership withBoerries a post-warGermanmigrant Terfloth, to Canada) decided thattheyneeded to register an overseas trademarkfor the company's products. This did not necessarilyhave to be Grace, but Terfloth believed thatit would work(a) because of its obvious connection to the Grace products boughtby Jamaican people at home and overseas, and (b) because it would also be attractive to nonJamaicanpeople who mightassociate it with the glamorous Hollywood film star, Grace Kelly (indeed, when she became Princess Grace of Monaco, theGrace logo was topped witha crown) (Hall 1992). In 1969,the trademark was registered by Terfloth and Kennedyin the USA but,crucially for the home company, it would not be long beforethe startof Michael Manley's two termsas Prime Minister of Jamaica. It was during the second termofhis democratic socialistgovernment thatcompanieslike Grace,Kennedyand Co. were threatened withnationalization. So, in 1977,it sold its interests in the Terflothpartnershipsand lostcontrol thereby oftheGracetrademark in all of its markets except Jamaica.The companyhoped to
ifand withTerfloth thesepartnerships re-establish when this threatof nationalizationpassed (Hall didn't happen, and the 1992). But nationalization companiesweren'trewithTerfloth's partnerships Grace,Kennedyand Co. onlyregained established. control over how its products were marketed overseasin thelate 1990s. Here, faced with a small and relativelypoor Jamaicanmarketof just 2.5 millionpeople and a national economic futureit expected to be shaky at best, company executives decided that the thattheyhad would bestbe investedin a resources i.e. the largerand morewealthyCaribbeanmarket: the 9.5 millionCaribbeanpeople livingthroughout world (Anon 1998a; Orane 1998). To do this,they had to regain control of the Grace brand in its So, at the end of 1997,it spent overseas markets. US$3m 'disengaging' with the TerflothGroup, in thesemarkets, boughtback theGrace trademark trade and began to reorganize its international a revisedand subsidiaries, wholly-owned through and expanded network of overseas distributors modern production facilities in the Caribbean which could serve these demanding markets (Orane 1997 1998). It spent anotherUS$3 million agency to 'modpaying an Americanadvertising ernize' the Grace logo (Anon 1998a) and to campaignforthe 'develop a worldwideadvertising brand' (Solomon 1997,38). And, in May 1998,this 'new face of Grace' (Plate 1) - with its bilingual labelling and new tagline of 'Genuine Caribbean taste, enjoyed worldwide' - was launched in Kingston,Jamaica.This was quickly followed by its 15 other launches in major cities throughout the Grace was to offer extendedCaribbeanmarket. or 'GenuineCaribJamaican' world 180 'Authentic bean' products,fromeverydaycommoditiessuch as canned kidneybeans to specialistfoodslike jerk barbecuesauce (Anon 1998b). was to double the The main aim ofthisre-launch sales of Grace foods over the followingfiveyears As to thisdiasporicmarket. better catering through CEO Douglas Orane explained at the time,'Quite simply Jamaica is a Caribbean country which knows Caribbean tastes and market preferences group' and, so, 'If betterthan any extra-regional in exploiting the emotionalbond we are successful between Caribbean persons overseas and their yearningfor the tastes and smells of home food and the Grace brand,thenwe will be well on our way to achievingour sales targets'(Anon 1998a, np). The company's 1999 figures indicated that
Cross over food: re-materializing 301 postcolonial geographies theywere well on theway. But what was apparent potentially lucrativemarketsinto which it could in this re-launchwas the company's intention to afford to 'crossover'. promote itself as a modern Caribbean company of thesecomexplaintheimportance Let us first making 'authentic'Caribbean foods. It explicitly pany officials' to see Jamaicanand unwillingness combineda desire to tap into an emotionalbond Caribbeanpeople as discreteculturalgroups. The withconsumers and, foroverseasretailers, obvito come factthattheydid thisshould be immediately across as a professional, reliable and quality- ous by our - and their- indecisionabout describconscious companyworkingto the highestworld ing the food they made, and the people it was standards. As one executive described the com- primarily made for,as 'Jamaican'or 'Caribbean'. pany to us in 1999,'We are a first made by world company Our interviewees echoed the arguments in a thirdworld country'.The new Grace trade academics that, in the post war period, islandmark was modern,Grace foods would look the specific often mergedintoa moregeneral identities same in all markets, and the company would Caribbeanidentity the experienceof exile through primarilymarket the kind of Caribbean foods (James1993). In this process, foods and culinary long manufactured for,and marketed islands regularly'crossed to, domestic practicesfromdifferent Caribbeanmarkets. over' into those of the others.Fromtheirperspec- i.e. the company tive, then, through 'following the flag' Grace's Even in its own literature reports,press statementsand officialcompany Jamaicanfoods had become part of an emerging history used above - we can already see how the Caribbeancuisine overseas. Yet, while thisexperimeaningand purpose of the Grace brand is satu- ence of exile helped to produce a first generation rated with a distinctive combinationof political, hybridCaribbean cuisine based on productsthat economic and cultural imperatives.These pro- people had eaten and used as theygrew up in the ducts were re-brandedin the late 1990s for sale Caribbean- a situation thatwas relatively easy for - and wider Caribbean- thecompanyto caterto - thatgeneration's throughout the Jamaican children diaspora,to revitalize in the particularly decades-oldculinary connec- had complicatedthe situation, tions and trading links in response to pressing UK where there had been no mass in-migration domesticcircumstances forthecompany.But what from the Caribbeanfordecades. By the timeof the was perhapsmostinteresting about thecompany's re-launchof the Gracebrand overseas,many first approach to the global 'ethnic' food marketwas generation had eitherdied or returned to migrants that,while it relied heavilyon exporting But theyhad had children to North the Caribbeanto retire. Americaand theUK, it did notintendto relyon its in theUK, and their had had children. The children products'crossingover' into the mainstream mar- tastes and identities of people who made up this kets there.Earl Patrick- the General Manager of part of the diaspora were changingthroughthe Grace's ExportTradingdivision- told us that'We generations. Many could only vaguely remember see mainstream as a fringe market forus right now. the Caribbean meals prepared by theirgrandparThere's no greatdesire to go headlong into main- ents,oftenfora special occasion,and often involvstream'.Talkingin detail withhim and two of his ing farmore time,effort and skill to preparethan colleaguesbased in Jamaicaand in the UK, a more theirbusy lives now allowed. Thus,Grace's ability interesting, ambitious and at times contradictory to double its sales had to depend on recognizing pictureemerged.Theircompanywas attempting to and adapting to these changingBritish-Caribbean represent Jamaica(ns) overseasthrough themarket- identities As Earl Patrickput it, 'if and lifestyles. ing ofGrace-branded foods,but theywere notrely- we continuedto rely on Grandma and Granddad ing on theCaribbeancommodity fetish outlinedso to supportour business,we wouldn't surviveas a and as so important, vividly, in theUK's foodtrade company'. Neil Hill - the company's UK-based - saw the typical second or third press.Theywere doing thisbecause, first, theydid representative not see Jamaican or Caribbeanpeople as a discrete generation Grace consumer as a person who cultural/economic marketin the firstplace; and, likes second, they believed that they could capitalize wherethere can be thatsortof family get together upon the region's hybridcuisine to make Grace riceand peas and ackeesand all this,thatand the intoa brandof and fortheThirdWorldand many, other.But they'realso buyingHeinz beans and if not all, of its diasporic communities. Unlike the at home with arequite tomato ketchup and,youknow, mainstreammarketin the UK, these were vast that.
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Ian Cookand Michelle Harrison
Platel1'The
new face of Grace' -sample
products
In terms of their national identities, he imagined people in these second and third generations as thinking, I am English. I'm ... proud to be black but I'm English and I've got my own identity.And this because (Caribbeanfood) could be partof thatidentity there's a connection. But, he added, while these consumers wanted to make this connection to the Caribbean through the food that they ate, they didn't necessarily want to do so through using the products that their parents
and grandparents had bought. This younger generationshared a lifestylewith other British people of the same age in which, he argued, 'Everything is becoming more convenient.So, to
buy ... your ackees4 and your saltfish5 ... soak ... your saltfish for two days ...
haven't got time'. So the company had to begin workingto produce the kinds of cooking sauces and ready meals that could cater to this market for quick, easy, authenticand identity-affirming Caribbean food(see Hitchman etal. 2002).In theUK, the company needed to marketGrace foods for
and to people
303
themodernday second/third generation Caribbean large proportionof the 180-plus range of Grace diaspora consumer. So, as Earl Patrick explained, brand products were simple commodityitems e.g. kidneybeans, corned beef and ketchup- the that whole re-labellingstrategywas to make (our company could not compete with bigger and products)more modern,to get a feel that when you better known companies makingthe same things. walk into a supermarket and you see Grace,it doesn't Where theydid get 'listed' by the supermarkets, look like something fromsome backwatercountry. It and/or it was with a small range of distinctive looks just as good as anything from anywhere in hot e.g. products 'authentically' Caribbean theworld.LikeHeinzor ... ? Exactly. The image would pepper and barbecue sauces - whose purchaseby be right.6 the supermarkets'shoppers, they agreed, was At this point, the difference between marketing largely dependent on impulse buying. However, goods to a thirdgenerationCaribbean,and to a given thatGrace productshad not been designed 'mainstream', consumermightseem to be neglig- for impulse buying,sales were by no means as ible. These were by no means discretepopulations. good as theymight have been. Many had grown up side by side, eaten food in subscribedto the beliefthatthe Neil Hill firmly each other's houses, and developed similar Caribbean products that would catch shoppers' lifestyles and tastes.It surelywouldn't take much eyes were the 'interesting' ones, i.e. those thathad effort to encouragethe 'crossingover' ofthesenew palm treesand sandy beaches on theirlabels, that Grace products into the mainstreamUK market. promisedthose who buy themsome kind of culiSo whywould thecompanychoose notto prioritize naryadventure, up with and thatweren'tcluttered this? Why would it not change its labelling to French translationsthat many British shoppers conform to the Caribbeancommodity fetish? Why could not understand.But he wasn't talkingonly would it choose to focusits efforts on introducing about 'mainstream'Britishshoppers.He believed these foods to other ethnic minoritymarkets thatthiswould workwithsecond and thirdgenerinstead? To answer these questions, we need to ation British-Caribbean shopperstoo. He strongly startby describingthe way a company such as believed that the company had to draw on eleGrace, Kennedyand Co. could do business in the mentsof the Caribbeancommodity fetish to break different Buthe was havinggreat sectors oftheUK foodretailing sector. We intobothofthesemarkets. were told thatthe company'smarket his bosses in Jamaicathatthis researchhad difficulty convincing foundthat,while Caribbeanconsumersin the UK should be done. He saw themas runningan olddid most of theirfood shopping in 'mainstream' fashioned'sales-led' company, thanan up to rather supermarkets like Tesco or Sainsbury's, companylike Enco whom he theywent date 'marketing-led' to specialist 'ethnic' retailersto buy fresh and had worked for previously (see also Whitworth processed Caribbean foods: i.e. to the local 1995,47). This, he argued, wouldn't get themthe markets, him. greengrocers and/or independentstores increasedsales figures thattheywanted from which have served the UK's ethnic minority He was fighting an uphill battle,though,and reccommunitiesfor generations.These distribution ognized thatwhile thecompany networks- gettinggoods to these places either should be selling the Caribbean (overseas) ... in the directlyor throughthe cash and carrysystemCaribbean,theydon't want to be seen,you know,with were a legacy of the way that Grace, Kennedy packaging.... They're palm treesand coconutson their and otherCaribbean food suppliers 'followedthe a serious companyand theywant to be seen as being flag' into such communities after World War serious. Two. Betterserving the UK's first/second/third generationCaribbean population therefore meant The main dilemma that Grace had created for tapping the full potentialof these marketsfirst. itselfwas how a companycommitted to a single, Crossingover intothe 'mainstream' would require modern'global look' could appeal to a coremarket a majorchangein direction because it would have which it needed to rely upon for continued to be done via the major supermarkets, intowhich as well as to the othermarkets something support, thata companylike Grace,Kennedyand Co. could it needed to 'cross over' to increase its sales and not (yet, perhaps) afford to do. Raising sales to ensure its survival. Simply changing the significantly throughthe supermarkets would be background colours of the Grace labels during an expensive business. Moreover, given that a there-branding processhad been unpopularin the
304
company's core markets: many consumers had Coconut milk is anotherexample: as Earl Patrick assumed that,because the labels had changed,so told us, 'whenI put mycoconutmilkon a shelfin a had the contents. Neil's bosses were allowing supermarket in theUK, a Filipinowill pick it up, a him some leeway by sanctioningthe removal of Thai could pick it up, and Indian would pick it the French translationsfrom UK labels and by up, a Caribbean person would pick it up'. There allowing him to try some more 'adventurous' are plentyof 'cross-over' goods in theGrace range, labellingon a limitedrangeof supermarket-bound then, but the 'crossing-over'process took place products. Yet the company's main means of hundredsof years ago. Moreover,many minority increasing market share in the UK was by populations,he argued, did not have brands of increasing the productrangeavailable through the theirown, so the company'schallengewas to look independent retailers. groupsthatwe can alignourselves for'otherethnic Apartfrom thisissue of 'seriousness',one of the withwho do not have a brand themselves'and to reasons forGrace's reluctanceto 'cross over' into give thema brandthat'theycan hold ontoand say the 'mainstream'marketwas that it wasn't yet "thisis myown"'. ready to meet the challenge of supplying the This was not the full extentof the 'cross-over' 'mainstream' UK supermarkets. As JohnMahfood potentialof the Grace range,though.The potential - Grace's International - told us: for these goods to appeal to first/second/etc. BusinessDirector in the UK was Filipino,Thai, Indian,etc. migrants It's veryimportant to get our productslisted and one tinyin comparisonto theirpotentialappeal in the of the problems that Caribbean companies have is Philippines,in Thailand, in India, and in many consistency of supply. ... The problemis, if you don't more 'thirdworld' countries.Here, he argued, a deliverregularly and you cause themto be out of stock, they're not veryforgiving you know. So, um, what we 'third world' company like Grace, Kennedy and elbow out Nestle and other have to do is make sure that we get our production Co. could legitimately multinationals by saying: right, thatwe have our distribution right, so thatwhen Western
we thengo to the mainstream storeswe are consistent with the products and we have a wide range of productsand we can supportit withadvertising and so on.... So, the thingis, what we want to do is to make sure that we gain our positionwith the ethnicstores and promotions, and, throughadvertising build back the recognition of Grace with the ethnicmarketand then... go intothesupermarkets. 'You don't belong here. We belong here!' you know 'We're thirdworld' I mean, being ridiculoushere,we don't go so far as saying that,you know. But, 'We relate to you. We know your culture. We know world better thantheydo.' . . . We are a first everything I use That's theterm world country. companyin a third doesn't all the time.You know,our ethnicbackground matter. as having the potential to be a 'world brand'. So, for we are lookingat the Middle East with baited breath because we think our hot pepper sauce stands a extremely good chance there. They are the highest consumersof hot pepper sauce in the world. It's the So we're hoping. middleeast,right? He saw this as one of four Grace products which the company 'can take to every single country in the world, fromEastern Europe rightthrough'. Not
Anotherreason to concentrate on the independent In particular, he saw Grace's hot pepper sauce
retail sector first was that its stores did not only Caribbean population. The people who shopped in
supply the UK's first/second/third generation instance, he told us with particular excitement that
themhad a wide variety of ethnicaffiliations. The age of Empireinvolvedthetravelsand translations

across the globe of huge numbers of people and their culinary ingredients, knowledges, practices and technologies. So, not only does the taste profile of Jamaican and Caribbean food have much in common with British culinary traditions - all include, for instance, chicken, beef, lamb, potatoes, rice and gravies - but also with countless other culinary traditions fromaround the world. Because of their simple commodity status, then, many Grace products are already part of the culinary tastes and practices of a wide variety of the UK's ethnic minority populations. Yams, sweet potatoes and plantains are an important part of many Latin
the Caribbean for the mainstream commodifying therefore made a greatdeal of sense for UK market the company,especiallyas only 3.6 per cent of its exportsales were to the UK market.Most of its streamof first exportsales were to the continuing generationCaribbean migrantsto the USA and Canada whose families had used Grace brand American,Africanand Asian culinarytraditions. goods for generationsand whose eyes would be
305 It are imported). labels,caps and cartons itsbottles, (about 60 people) and prohas a tinyworkforce vides a guaranteed market for the ingredients grown by around 100 local farmers.It has a told us in business ethos in which,as one Partner 1999,'The qualityof lifeof the people of Walkerswood is a bottomline' (see Anon 1995a). It exports to the USA, Canada, the Netherlands,Germany, Belgium,France,South Africaand Japan.Its products have been 'listed' by major Britishsupermarketsfor a numberof years as it has actively intothis a 'cross-over' from, and profited targeted, 'mainstream' market. And this targeting has involved the use of 'colourful,naive paintings featuringscenes from Jamaican life as well as which extend fromthe productsand ingredients, neck tags, and even labellingonto recipe leaflets, thecompany'sfaxcoversheets'(see Plate 2) (Anon 1995a, 54; Anon 2000a 2000b 2000c 2000d; Girvan 1999;Gow 1998;St Clair 2000). A 'WalkerswoodStory' has taken shape in the communitydevelopment literatureand, latterly, the (food trade) press withinand beyondJamaica. Political and economic commentatorshave, for the village as a hotbed at least 60 years,identified developmentideas and of innovativecommunity projectsand as a source of inspirationfor those wantingto work towardsa richerand more egalitarian Jamaican society (Henderson 1992). This Storyis an essentialpartof thecompany'sidentity it goods overseas.It has and of the way it markets in the 1930s,1970sand milestones: threeimportant 1980s. The firsttwo are times when the extreme privations of rural Jamaican life were tackled highlyunusual cooperationsbetweenthe through local white plantocracyand the descendants of was land. The third theslaves who workedon their and consumers thetimewhenoverseassupermarkets enablinga became involved in these cooperations, small village company to become an unexpected success story. international milestoneoccurredin the late 1930s,a The first time of great hardship for people living in rural Jamaica. The worldwide economic depression meantthatthe price forJamaica'sprincipalexport plantationowners crop - sugar - fell drastically, cut wages or firedworkers,and many Jamaicans labouring overseas were fired and sent home. What the lattercame back to was an island where and malnutrition substandardhousing,illiteracy, a lack of healthcare were the norm and threequartersof rural Jamaicanswere living in acute
caughtby a recognizedbrand and packaging.So, has Grace 'failed'to grasptheopportunity to break into the 'mainstream'UK market,or is this part of its success? Is downplayingthe importanceof this 'vertical' relationshipwith Jamaica's former colonizing power to prioritizemore 'horizontal' relationships with otherformerly colonized parts of the world a deliberate, anti-colonial de-centring of Europe and/or an economically rational response to difficulttrading conditions by a 'modern',Western-style corporation that happens to be based in the 'Third World'? What is so importantabout getting your products on the UK's supermarket shelves,anyway?Whatcan that represent? To answer these questions,we turnto our second case-study Walkerswood, company.As the followingsection shows, the same historical/ geographical circumstanceswhich were woven into/through Grace's 'counter-topography' work differentlyin Walkerswood's. This Jamaican companyhas deliberately adopted a more'vertical' export strategy,by targeting and successfully breaking intotheUK 'mainstream' market.
Walkerswood: 'Take a tripwithout sailing a ship'

Walkerswood is the brand name used by a combination of five companies: Walkerswood Partners (a holdingcompanyregistered in Jamaica), WalkerswoodCaribbeanFoods Ltd (a manufacturing companyregistered in Jamaica), Walkerswood MarketingJamaica Ltd (registeredin Jamaica), Walkerswood Marketing (North America) Inc. (registered in the USA) and WalkerswoodMarketing (Europe) Ltd (registered in the UK). It is also the name of the village of 1500 people, located in themountains ofSt Ann,Jamaicaon themain road betweenthe capital cityKingstonto the South and the tourist town of Ocho Rios to the North.This is where the business startedand where it is still rooted.For companiesin the same business,Grace and Walkerswood7could perhaps not be more different. Walkerswoodis a relatively young comin 1999) with a pany (celebrating its 21st birthday relatively small but rapidly growing turnover (about ?2.5m in 2000: see St Clair 2000). It is committed to manufacturing and exporting a relatively small range of Jamaicansauces, seasonings and ingredients (15 lines in 2000) whichare made from as close to 100 per cent Jamaican-sourced ingredientsas possible (only nutmeg, black pepper and
306
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poverty. These tensions produced widespread and riotingover land ownership demonstrations (Ferguson and national economic self-sufficiency 1990;Girvan1999). They also led to the formation of trade unions, political parties and to Norman Manley's Jamaica Welfare organization which promotedcooperativesas 'the principalmeans of reforming the evils of individualismand greed of a capitalistsociety'(Girvan1993,9). Walkerswood led the way in this cooperative movementafter a delegation of villagers approached Minnie Simpson - the daughterof JohnPringle (one of wealthiest landowners)and thewidowed Jamaica's owner of the Bromleyestate on the edge of the village - to ask for land. Their approach set off of a series of events which led to the formation Pioneer Club8 which,among other Jamaica'sfirst set up a collectivevegetableplot on land projects, whichshe donated. Seeing the success of thisvenofficial arranged subsequently ture,a government for 836 acres of land to be given to the people involvedto form registered cooperaJamaica'sfirst tiveat LuckyHill in 1940 (Anon 1992;Girvan1993; Henderson1992).
This chain of events was significant for two major reasons. First, the Walkerswood Pioneer Club and the Lucky Hill Co-operativefarmspearheaded a Jamaicanself-help movementwhich,by in 236 villages 1948,involved1180 groupsworking (Lean 1995). And, second, the relationship forged at the time between the familyat Bromleyand the people of Walkerswoodhas been describedas unique and even 'revolutionary' because, according to RitaGirvan,'MinnieSimpsonwas thefirst of Jamaica'srichwhiteplantocracy to open her doors to black people on the basis of friendshipand equality'(in Girvan1993,23). MinnieSimpsonand her family supportedcommunity projectsthrough donating land and finance,used theirinfluence to secure land, financeand expertisefromother sources, and participated in communitywork alongside the villagers (Boxill 1989; Henderson 1992). Accountsof why this happened here stress theroleof strongly held Christian values in forging alliancesacrossclass,racialand genderhierarchies. This tradition has continuedthroughthe generatheworkofMinnie'sdaughter Fiona tions,through and her husband JohnEdwards, and throughthe
Cross over food: re-materializing postcolonial geographies work of their sons Jonathanand Roddy. As an NGO fieldofficer in thecommunity working put it: the story of Walkerswood is about whites withan answer to racism and privilege and ofblacks learning a certain trust and beingprepared to workas equals. It has beena commitment overyears. To meet a white family who showsa love which is prepared to share and giveup something ofitspowerand resources for the sake of the village is strangeand unique. (Henderson 1992, 4; see alsoGordon 1975) The second milestone in this Story occurred in the mid to late 1970s. In the immediate postindependence period in Jamaica, bauxite and tourism became thecountry's two boom industries. In their attempts to control bauxite reserves, foreign-owned miningcompanies bought up vast tractsof agricultural land. Around Walkerswood, thisled to a situation wheremostof theplantation land surrounding the village was bought by RJM(ReynoldsJamaicaMines: a bauxitecompany based in Virginia,USA). Like the other mining companies,RJMhad no intention of maintaining agriculturalproduction on this land and, as a result, land ownership again became a heated politicalissue in Jamaica(Bayer1993;Stephensand Stephens 1986). After the abolition of slavery, former slaves were able to gain legal titleto some oftenmarginal plantationland, but not in plots which were large enough to allow themto subsist or earn a livingwithouthavingto sell theirlabour to the plantation owners. Thus, in the 1960s and 1970s,the removalof theselong-standing and necessaryemployment opportunities was a major blow to rural people. In Walkerswood,at least, RJMdid allow villagersto use its most marginal land informally by lettingthem clear hilly and wooded areas and farmthem for a short while. However,thevillagershad no legal right to use the land and were regularlymoved on because the companysaid it 'needed the land' whichhad been cleared by these farmers free of charge (Gordon 1975). By the 1970s, then, Walkerswood's small farmerswere eking out a living under highly exploitative and unstableconditions.They had to farm RJM land but were unable to plantpermanent crops and make long-term plans because eviction could take place at any time. This put the communityunder severe pressure.As one researcher in 1975: commented
307 people in Walkerswood.Instead of smilingfaces,there poverty and anger. are faces showing frustration, Young boys are always sellingorangesby the bundle, some have turnedto ganga smokingwhile some have to Kingston step,thatis, migrated takenthe inevitable (Gordon1975,23 and 28) in searchof employment.
These were the problems that Michael Manley's was trying to tacklein the 1970s.Their government primarygoal was to forge an economicallyand politically independent Jamaica, which could shake off the country's dependence on foreign adoptinga Cuban-style companiesbut notthrough communistsystem. Adopting and adapting his ideologies, social welfareand development father's aimed to develop a 'third Manley's government path' of democratic socialism (Ferguson 1990; Gayle 1986; Lean 1995; Stephens and Stephens was to 1986).In thelate 1970s,thispoliticalcontext affectGrace and Walkerswood very differently. While the government's nationalization plans were seen as a threatto the former(leading it to its sell its brand overseas to Boerries Terfloth), democracy and encouragementof participatory and councils was vital to the start-up community Walkerswood's businessethosof thelatter. current CommunityCouncil worked in two major ways: first, to provide social facilities such as a communitycentre,women's centre and playing fields and, second, to provide jobs for all of the people in the village who wanted them. Roddy Edwards, one of Minnie Simpson's grandsons, became heavily involved in the latter. As he explainedto us:
In about 1976 we startedexploring... how to create And food processing was an obvious employment. issue for a rural area. Lots of people had pigs which relatedto pigs seemed theyfed scrapsto. So something of the governlogical. The Food TechnologyInstitute menthad done quite a lot of research... on jerkpork. So we collaborated... to develop a jerk pork locally which we ... - 'we' meaningtwo of us, (community leader) Calvin Hunter and myself - made and deliveredto thelocal pubs.
This was the beginningof one of many initiatives in the village. By the late 1980s, the community of council had 'gained the respectand admiration developmentagencies and international Jamaicans for its almost phenomenalsuccess in developing social and economic activitiesfor the benefitof the community,with little or no government The smiles that government tries to have people assistance' (Boxill 1989, 2). As in the 1940s, this to tourists display are notto be found on thefaces of success was based on a strong sense of shared
308
values (rooted in Christian faith), non-partisan politics(thiswas a childoftheManleygovernment which had to survive throughthe Seaga regime which wanted to wipe out community councils) and thedonation ofland,finance and assistance from the familyat Bromley.Initiallyworkingfroman abattoirowned by RJM, the companysoon began rentingoutbuildingson the Bromleyestate: the current home of thecompany'sproduction arm. Walkerswood'sthirdmilestonewas just around in the early1980s.Here, chance played the corner, a big role in turning a tinycooperative witha very local market into an ambitious and successful export-oriented food company. Two important thingshappened here. First,a decision was made in the early 1980s to bottle the jerk mixturethat was being made to season the pork theyhad been - as it was thencalled selling.CottageIndustries was thefirst companyin Jamaica to do this,and its rationalewas simple:manyJamaican people - Ras- didn'twant or couldn'teat in particular tafarians jerkpork,so a bottledseasoningwould allow them to jerkwhat theypleased. Second, thisbottledseasoning was initially made available in one supermarket in Ocho Rios. This was a place wherelarge numbers of tourists from the USA and other 'developed nations' were eitherstayingin resort hotelsor disembarking fora day from cruiseliners whichstopped offin thetownon their toursof the Caribbean. Either way,manyvisitors sampledjerked pork and chickendishes in hotels,cafes or from roadside vendors.Some enjoyedit enoughto shop fortheseasoningin local supermarkets. And as one WalkerswoodPartner, Johnny told us: McFarlane,
American tourists found the product in this little in Ocho Rios. Theyboughtit. Theytookit supermarket back to wherever, Minnesotaor something. And then wroteto us saying 'It's fantastic. How do we get it in America?'And, at thistime,we hadn'teven thought of sellingtheproductin Kingston, muchless America! So, as another Partner,Woody Mitchell, finished off the story: 'we started posting one, maybe two or threedozen jars to the US at a time' (Anon 2000a, np). With the help of a lawyer friend of Roddy Edwards who lived in Miami, the company set up a formal exporting business to the USA in 1986, and to the UK in 1987 (Gow 1998). As a result of this sequence of events, Cottage Industries became the first Jamaican company to export jerk seasoning. Since then, the company's product range and export market have expanded and boomed respec-
tively.A great deal of care and money has been spenton developingthe brand and the look of the being a products.The companyhas changed from withfive singlecooperativeto being a partnership of separate companies,with 'partners'(a majority whom are black Jamaicans)managing the comin the core North Americanand pany's interests European markets.With the steady income that this has produced over the years for its factory large numbersof staff and farmers, office workers, people in Walkerswoodhave been able to investin as the companyhas provideda viable theirfutures to Kingstonor Ocho Rios to migrating alternative back to forwork. Othershad even been attracted jobs elsewhere.Walkerswood(the the village from in companiesand thevillage) has become enriched a nationaleconomywhose marketsfortraditional exportcrops like bananas and sugar are in sharp decline (see Anon 1996a 1999a 2000a 2000b; Gow 1998; St Clair 2000). While the value of Jamaican exportsat theend of the 1990s fellby about 20 per cent,forexample,Walkerswood'sgrew by almost therehas been talkof half(Anon 2000a). Moreover, thecompanybuildinga 30 000 square footstate-of'first world' factory to process not only its the-art own goods, but also thoseof othersmall Jamaican standto thestrictest international foodcompanies, ards (Anon 2002a). Speaking at its 21st birthday Professor Norman Girvan9described celebrations, risein thefollowing way: thecompany'smeteoric
intoaccountthedevaluationof theJ$, taking Even after this is a 150-foldincrease (in sales). If Walkerswood at CaribbeanFoods had been a 7-poundbaby at birth, 21 years it would be weighingin at about half a ton! (Girvan1999,np) It is not therefore surprising that one visitor in the late 1980s commented that 'The Walkerswood Story has all the elements of a development journalist's perfect motivational soap opera' (in Lean 1995, 27). Professor Girvan outlined the moral of the Walkerswood Story in his speech. At the end, he quoted a passage that Norman Manley, the architect of Jamaican independence, had written 50 years earlier: I have an abiding faithin the people of (Jamaica) ... they have theirfaults,but these are the faultsof the economicand social conditionunder which theylive, from. of the historical legacy theysuffer and the fruit They have endured all these thingsand are enduring which theypossess. today withthe greatpotentialities It is the greatest proofof the unquenchablepower of
Cross over food: re-materializing postcolonial geographies

the human spirit.Greaterpotentialities could not be foundanywhere in theworld.
309
Girvan then concluded by saying that 'Norman in theJamaican in Manley'sfaith people is our faith Walkerswood CaribbeanFoods' (Girvan1999,np).10 This 'WalkerswoodStory' has been a common topicof discussion(at least in part)in articles written by food tradejournalists in Europe and North Americawhen the companyand its productsare discussed. It has also made it onto the financial pages of newspapers like The Guardianand the FinancialTimesas a storyabout the 'Radicals who wentback to theirroots'(Gow 1998;St Clair 2000). It is a storythat,the 'partners'have discovered, fascinatesmany people and, mixed in with the taste and the look of the company'sproducts,has become partof Walkerswood'smarketing strategy overseas. Interviewed by a journalist from the Britishtrade magazine The Grocer, for instance, McFarlaneexplained:
- 'to providejobs so that The Walkerswoodphilosophy a significant numberof Jamaicanpeople can have a betterlife' - has provided a definiteselling edge ... When I tell (supermarket) buyersabout the set-upwe have here- 1800 ftabove sea level, thistinyfactory in the Jamaicanmountainswhere the villagerscarryin raw materialsfresheveryday - they can't believe it. (Anon 1995a,54)
talents Enco have done. Second, using the artistic VirginiaBurke,the company of anotherPartner, has triedto give its goods the 'shelfimpact' that will attract browsing 'mainstream' shoppers informadesigns and relatedpromotional through to the tion which,unlike Grace's, largelyconform Caribbean commodity fetish (see Burke 2000). However, the names and label designs of their products are designed to appeal to both 'main(diaspora) constream' and Jamaican/Caribbean sumers.Take, forinstance,her explanationof the naming and design of their 'Jonkanoo pepper sauce' (Plate 3): recognised forus to be first important It's incredibly We else,integrity-wise. We willgo nowhere at home. a balanceyet still have to do that.So, it's finding
making it acceptable to the crossover. ...
We'llcall ofourculture. is part andJonkanoo character and feeling thecarnival connotes and that itJonkanoo
comes fromslaverydays da de da de da..... Jonkanoo when they were given Sunday off... Christmasday
A crazy
offand theydressedup to mimicthe plantation can get market thatthecrossover ... I think owners. it pale and hairless thanmaking by it rather excited andthen, well,'Oh andbright I make itfuzzy (laughs). that?' what's Finally,and uniquely,Walkerswoodis a company which 'take(s) the food fromthe Caribbean soil rightthroughto the plate in a foreignmarket' (Girvan 1999, np), and does so throughits coin ownershipof Bamboula,a Caribbeanrestaurant South London (Anon 1997b; Lean 2001a). Brixton, This gives thecompanya numberof opportunities: to keep close tabs on as a businessin its own right; changing tastes in one vital export market; to to Caribbeanfood as it expose moreUK consumers should taste; to promotethe purchase of its proand in local supermarkets; ducts in the restaurant fora group of Caribbean to work on a prototype all around the world; and to entertain restaurants buyers by invitingthem to discuss supermarket business over an 'authentic'Caribbean meal preand sauces. pared withWalkerswoodingredients to buyersare thegatekeepers These supermarket UK market.If theycan visit the the 'mainstream' take in the Caribbean decor, listen to restaurant, the Bob Marley music, taste Walkerswood products as part of a delicious, 'authentic'Jamaican meal, hear somethingof the WalkerswoodStory, appreciateVirginiaBurke's product designs, and be assured thatregularsupplies can be providedat the rightprice, then Walkerswood products can
This was a story,he told us, 'that Nestle would love to have for themselves, you know, any big brand, they'd like to be able to tell a story.You know, (but) our storyis true'. The importance of the Storyis that it has allowed the company to claim that its products are as 'authentically' Jamaicanas it is possible to be: this is a Jamaican company, all of its products are based on traditional Jamaicanrecipes,they are made from ingredients whichhave (almost)all been grownon in the Jamaican soil, and theyare all manufactured villagewhichsharesthecompany'sname. This versionof 'culinaryauthenticity' (see Cook et al. 2000a) is at the heartof a seriesof differences in the approaches that Walkerswood and Grace have taken to their export markets.First,in an important sense,the demand for'authentic ethnic' foods in 'mainstream' markets overseas gives Walkerswood products the added value that allows thebusinessto continue to operatein Walkerswood, when it might be economically more sensible to source cheaper ingredientsand/or labour is Costa Rica, for instance,as Grace and
310
andMichelle Harrison Ian Cook might nevergetback on their shelves),theybought local escallion at these vastly inflated prices throughoutthe drought. This cost them J$10m, moneywhich had been put aside to pay fortheir new factory. Thus, to minimizethe chances of this happening again, the company bought a farmin thewettest partofJamaicaon whichto growescallion commercially. Moreover,because small farmers in the village could no longer supply enough ingredients to matchincreasing sales, it also began to out the growingof key ingredients to contract farms commercial (Lean 2001b). Like Grace, the majority of these sales were to movthe continuing streamof Jamaicanmigrants ing to NorthAmerica.Here, the costs of product promotionwere relativelylow and profitsrelativelyhigh.So, we wondered,why was the 'cross for over' into the UK 'mainstream'so important Walkerswood? Even though this export market Roddy may not have been the most profitable, Edwards told us, being on the UK's 'mainstream' shelves was a statement about what supermarket could be achieved if people take charge of their if theyattempt own destinies, to redressthe injusto build ticesand inequalitiesofthepast,iftheytry communities based on openness,trustand equity, and thiswas a message thatneeded to be heard in Europe just as muchas in theCaribbean.'It is very thata companylikeours in rural Jamaica important McFarlanetold has done whatit has done', Johnny us. 'It has set an example to the world,in fact,of what can be done'. Thus, the acceptanceof Walkerswood productsby the UK 'mainstream' could, as Roddy Edwards told us, 'get the Walkerswood message to a broaderpublic'.
Plate3 A bottle ofWalkerswood's 'jonkanoo' peppersauce end up on theirshelves. However,problemswith ofsupplyand consistent productquality regularity Two years of these relationships. have threatened droughtin Jamaica(in 1996 and 1997) almost put is a key Walkerswoodout of business. Escallion11 in the company'sproducts.As a result ingredient thepriceof locallygrownescallion of thedrought, a pound. from rocketed singledigitsto up to J$100 The companyinitially boughtin cheaper escallion fromoverseas,blended it with thatgrownlocally, and continued production. However, overseas buyers complained that the company's products did not taste the same (see Gullo 1999). Thus, in order to maintain product 'quality' and supply knew that,iftheyfailedto schedules (the partners deliver to the 'mainstream' as promised, they
Concluding comments
At thebeginning of thispaper,we argued thatthe was to help to mainaim ofpostcolonialscholarship and resist colonialforms of domination, undermine and thattherewere threemain ways of doing this. First, Europeancolonialdiscourses(e.g. of 'modernization' and 'progress') could be de-legitimized and
interconde-centred. Second,themessy,mixed-up, and identities nectednature ofhistories, geographies and opposed in these neatly compartmentalized alternatdiscoursescould be revealed.And, third, ive, hybrid histories,geographies and identities thatdid not need to be anchoredto Europe to be could be put together. As we consideredlegitimate have seen, the ways in which the UK food trade
Cross over food: re-materializing postcolonial geographies press discussed the inevitability, and subsequent failure,of Caribbean food 'crossingover' into the UK 'mainstream'is certainly ripe for such interpretation and critique.We couldcharacterize these discussionsas centredaround a stereotyped black Caribbean producing 'other' seeking acceptance from a largelyunmarked'mainstream' British consuming 'self': i.e. a textbook case of hooks' (1992) 'eating the other' critiqueof the commodification of cultural difference in white-dominated societies. These tradepress accountswere fullof cultural separations between the 'mainstream' and the 'Jamaican', and between the 'Jamaican'and other 'ethnics'.These accountswere Eurocentric, in that the success of a marginal 'ethnic' cuisine was measured in termsof its (in)ability to 'cross over' into the British'mainstream',and this 'success' could be best achievedby 'ThirdWorld' producers 'modernizing' their facilities and businesspractices to match 'First World' standards. Culturalfixing was presentin these accounts because European stereotypes of the Caribbean and its people were used both to promote this 'cross over' and to explain its failure. And the distinctivephysical and culturaldislocations of Caribbean people were sometimes included in these accounts, most notablyin the (albeitbrief ) historical explanations of the hybridity of the region'scuisine.In sum, it could be argued thatthe dominantunderstanding of 'culture'in theseaccountsis thatit is a thing:a bounded, stable entity, which can only mix with others over'theboundaries through 'crossing which supposedlyseparatethem. 'Crossing over' doesn't, however, make much sense if'culture', and indeed 'economy',are understood as multi-centred, diasporic, overlapping, frayed, grounded,power-soaked,ongoing,hybrid and always materialculturalprocesses in which thereare few, if any, solid boundaries. Here, it's impossibleto say where one 'culture's'history or geographystops and anotherone's starts.A relevant,particularly nastybut important example of thisis the 'triangular trade' undertaken across the AtlanticOcean from the sixteenthto nineteenth centuries. Nick-named'capitalismwith its clothes off', this connected slavery,commodityproduction,overseas consumption, and the (often violent) hybridization ofcultures on land and at sea in such a way as to make a nonsenseof Africa(ns), America(n)s and Europe(ans) as in any way separate, bounded peoples or places (see Alleyne 1988; Brathwaite 1981;Fryer 1984 1993;Gilroy1993;Hall
311 1995; Linebaugh and Rediker 2000; Mintz 1985; Patterson 1969). Following in these historical geographical footsteps, our accounts of the Grace and Walkerswood stories echo Nash's and Katz's assertions that: Postcolonial arguments about the inseparabilityof changein Europe and political social,cultural economic, from the complex encountersand mutual flows of culture,capital, objects,and people between Europe and the colonised world decentres Europe, while retainingthe criticalfocus on European colonisation. are underminedby focusPostcolonialgeneralisations scales of imperial and colonial ing on the different processes and theirgeographies;by paying attention to the ways in which colonialism and its legacies geosocial and cultural political, have shaped economic, places; and by tracing in different graphiesdifferently postcolonial between different the interconnections locations.(Nash 2002,222) Topographiesare a means to elucidatethe intersections of these processes with otherselsewhereand thereby kind of politics, one in which inspire a different rather crossingspace and jumpingscale are obligatory (Katz 2001,1231) thanoverlooked. Thus, to make sense of the relations between Caribbean food and the UK 'mainstream' in the late 1990s, a whole host of specific interconnections have to be traced across a variety of historical/ geographical scales: between formerly colonizing and formerlycolonized people and places; between culture, economy, politics, religion, music, tourism, (culinary) history and so on; between events in the 1940s, the 1970s, the present day and centuries before; between Jamaica, the UK, North America, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Thailand, India and plenty of other places; between specific people growing, manufacturing, importing, distributing, marketing, retailing and consuming specific products; between escallion, scotch bonnet peppers, salt, black pepper, allspice, nutmeg, citric acid, sugar, thyme and 'jerk' pork, chicken, or what have you; between commodities and (inter)national identities; between imaginative geographies, meal preparation times, product promotions, bench-mark culinary experiences, the weather, supermarket expectations, consistent product quality, regularity of supply and competitive pricing; and between globalization, diaspora and two types of hybridity: cultural and material-semiotic. These re-materialized 'postcolonial' geographies are, therefore,multi-locale, connective and full of ambivalences, double meanings and glimpses of
312
anti-colonialactivities. Grace, for example, has research on the 'survival strategies'adopted by hardenthusiastically takenon Western industrial 'mod- pressed cane farmers and their families (Harrison ernization' in theCaribbeanbutused thisprimarily 1994 2001). There, we met with a farmer who had as a means to make cultural/economic connections tornup his cane piece to grow scotch bonnet peppers outside of the Euro-American'mainstream' by fora small, local contractmanufacturerof Grace hot on Caribbean diaspora and 'Third pepper sauces. Growing peppers had, he told us, concentrating World' markets. Walkerswood, in contrast,has allowed him to make a clean break with the past: aimed forthisUK 'mainstream' by drawingon its You earn more money frompepper. You earn more stereotyped imaginative geographiesof the Caribmoney.The smallerman. The big cane baron,me don't bean while, at the same time,using its success to about him.But the small man like we, we know nothin consolidate(and perhaps internationalize) a rural earn more moneyfromthe pepper.... (Cane is) hard community politicswhich,formore than60 years, work,and you don't see no moneyout of it.No money. has aimed to work against the cultural/economic ... You just fed up withthat.Sometime you go out the legacies of British colonialism. Both companies field and you work and you're hungry.Now the have designed labelling and related promotional thing.... The pepper have some pepper is a different materialsto appeal to 'Caribbean', 'mainstream' workon it but,I mean,you can work on it and you're it don't stop from bear. moneycause it bearing, and other markets: Grace through representing getting The more you care it, the more it bear. ... (Other their products as simple commodityitems, and people in the village) don't want to take the risk.But Walkerswoodthrough'colourful, naive paintings' you know. Cause, up to about me still have the faith, which draw upon aspects of Caribbean cultural two night ago me a tell me brother... something's life. Both know that this UK 'mainstream'into going to workout forthe pepper. Because we can't go which they (don't) want to 'cross over' is not a back to thecane. We notgoinggo back to it! pure white cultural 'mainstream',but the five major multipleretailerswhich account for 55-65 This quotation illustrates perhaps the most imper centof UK food sales and caterto thediversity portant theme running throughout this paper: that of consumers in the UK's multicultural society the kinds of 'cognitive mapping that must be the (Anon 1998e; Cook et al. 2000b; Michaels 2002; point of departure for any practice of resistance' Wrigleyand Lowe 2002). Both have had to manu- (Dirlik 1994, 356) should not only be the prefacturefor the exportmarketbecause Jamaicais rogative of 'those who manage the world economy' such a debt-ridden and impoverished but (Dirlik 1994, 356) or postcolonial/cultural theorists, country, the success thattheyhave had has providedideas, for that matter. Such people, Daniel Miller (1997 hope and inspirationfor those business people, 1998b 2000 2002) argues, often mistake abstract for everydaypractices, policy makers and academics who recognize the theoretical representations urgent need forexportdiversification in theregion virtual actors for 'real people', and abstractthe(see Anon 1996c;Girvan1999;Thomas2000). oretical categories and connections for their Finally,this success has also promisedmuch to eclectic, complexand oftencontradictory dynamic, rural Jamaicanpeople looking for alternatives to 'real world' equivalents.Postcolonialgeographies growingsugar cane. Not only is cane farming much more than new, a need to involve,therefore, back-breaking, seasonal,poorlyand unpredictably- improved entanglements of postcolonial and paid work for these farmers, theyneed also to involve but it also carries economictheory. Rather, the stigmaof slavery:with those researching and ethnographic studies of the and detailed historical workingwith cane farmers multi-locale entanglea common diverse, material-cultural, reporting beliefthatthatconditions in thepost-independence ments of these 'cognitive mappings' in situated sugarindustry differ little from thosein theslavery theory/practice (Katz 2001; Miller 2002; Thrift days (see Harrison2001;Patterson 1969;Tilly1991). 2000). An importanttask for postcolonial geoWhile Grace, Walkerswood and the many other graphers is thereforeto locate, document and foodmanufacturers export-oriented in Jamaica will criticallyanalyse case studies where (formerly) and businesseshave obviouslynot be able to replace a sugar industry colonizedpeople,communities and counter-logics employing a significant proportionof Jamaica's been able to capitalizeon fissures workingpeople, theyhave providedopportunities within global capitalism.As argued by feminist forsome. In 1998,forexample,we returned (e.g. to the economic geographers and anthropologists village in which Michelle undertook her PhD Gibson-Graham 1996; Hannerz 1997; Kasmir 1999;
313 this(see revenuewenttowardsservicing government Anon 2000e 2002b;Ferguson1992;Gayle 1986;Kirton 1992;Lundy1999). were not provided in the original Values in sterling sources. Here and later in the paper, these values have been calculatedusing the J$:UKEexchangerate 2001 and are presentedhere forilluson 1 February tration only. a 'handfulof islands grow ackee as In the Caribbean, tree,but onlyJamaicalooks at it as a an ornamental is bright The ackee fruit tree thatbears edible fruit. red. When ripe, it burstsopen to reveal threelarge black seeds and bright yellowflesh(witha tasteand somewhat like scrambledeggs) that is consistency popular as a breakfastfood throughoutJamaica. name, blighia sapida, comes from Ackee's scientific Captain Bligh,who introducedthe plant to Jamaica WestAfrica'(Anon2000h,np). from introduced to the This is 'salted cod (and) was first (Caribbean)islands by the Portuguese.... Nowadays Canada ... As it is verydryand salty, it comes from or boiled two or it must be eithersoaked overnight threetimes(changing the waterin between)untilthe desired level of saltiness has been reached' (Burke 2000,17). In our interview the words in italicsare quotations, thoseof theinterviewer. For the purposes of this paper, we will describe this group of companies as 'Walkerswood' or 'the company'. JamaicaWelfareCo. pamAccordingto an official in Girvan(1993,113-29),'A pioneer phletreproduced Club is a club for men and women who team underthe leadershipof one or moreof their together numberto show how citizens, by workingtogether, and by doing by studyingand planning together, business together, can pioneer the way for better in thevillage,in theisland' (114). livingin thefamily, Norman Girvan is a widely respected Caribbean theSecretary economist and is currently development General of the Association of Caribbean States He (see http://www.acs-aec.org/SG/SGbio-eng.htm). had been invited to speak at the company's 21st Thom had worked celebrations as his father birthday for the JamaicaWelfareorganizationand had been involvedin the setting up of Walkerswood'sPioneer in the1940s. Club and theLuckyHill cooperative In 2002, WalkerswoodPartnerWoody Mitchellwas awarded the NormanManley Award for 'Excellence for 'buildingthe selfin Service to the Community' of his fellowJamaicans so thattheyhave confidence initiated and sustainedtheirlivelihoods'. successfully In his acceptancespeech,he 'challengedthe audience betweenwealthcreationand to get the balance right wealthdistribution' (Anon 2002c,3). Escallion is a vegetable'similarto springonion,but witha morepungent flavour'(Burke2000,6).
Nagar et al. 2001; Portes 1997; Yang 2000), such case studies can show how capitalism is not a monolithic cultural/economic system but is, rather, multiple,fragmented, dynamic, locally diverse/ hybrid and pepperedwithcreativepossibilities for achievingthe (theoretically) unexpected.
Acknowledgements
The researchon which this paper is based was fundedby The University of Wales Joint CollaborativeResearchFund, the Department of Geography at the University of Wales, Lampeter, and the ScienceFacultyResearchFund of the University of Birmingham. We thankthemall fortheirsupport. Versions of this paper have been presented at the 'Geographies of Commodities' conference at Manchester in September University 1998,theAAG annual conference in Pittsburgh in April 2000, the 'Writing Diasporas' conference at the University of Wales, Swansea in September2000, and to the Department of Geography, Nottingham University, the Instituteof Geography and Environmental UW Aberystwyth, Sciences, theWestIndianStudies Seminar Series, Universityof Birmingham, the Departmentof Geography,Universityof Southampton, the Geographical Society,Universityof Durham, and CURDS, Newcastle Universityin 2001-2. Thanksto people in all of theseaudiences for their comments,our intervieweesfor their frankness and theirtime,Don Robothamfor his Luke Desforges,CherylMcEwan, encouragement, CatherineNash and Jane Pollard for theirreadings, staffat the IGD information unit for their awesome cuttings service, and thefouranonymous referees fortheir insightful comments.
6 7 8
Notes
1 'Jerking' was originally 'a methodof preserving meat and has been tracedback to the Maroons (runaway slaves in Jamaica). It falls somewhere between barbecued and smoked meat and is hot and spicy. Traditionally, the meat (pork,chicken, etc.) is highly 10 seasoned and placed over a fire pit of smoking pimentowood, thencovered and cooked slowly.As thisis highly impractical formostcooks,thedevelopment of commercialjerk seasoning with pimento spice and all the secretingredients has made it possible to cook a decentjerk at home' (Burke2000, 51; Anon 2000f). 2 In 2001, this debt was US$5174m - approximately 11 US$2000per head - and, in 1999-2000, 66 per centof
314
Jamaica(http://www.jubileeplus.org/ Anon 2000e Profile: References Accessed19 August2002 databank/profiles/jamaica.htm) theexotic ofcookingcaptures The jerkmethod Anon 2000f Ahmad S 2000 Going strange, going nativein Ahmad S Strange encounters: embodiedothers in postcoloniality aroma of the islands (http://www.gracefoods.com/ Archives/Products/Seasonings/Jerk_seasoning/ Routledge, London 114-33 Accessed3 March2001 Alleyne, M 1998Theroots of Jamaican culture Pluto,London gracejerk_seasoning.asp) is told by the food JamaiAnon 1992 Community projectat Lucky Hill in JCDCI Anon 2000g Jamaica'shistory cans eat (http://www.jamaicatravel.com/celebrate/ OAS Development oftraining in cultural animethodologies Accessed3 March2001 food.html) mation, March9-21JCDC,Kingston 110 Anon 1995a A co-operative in paradise TheGrocer spirit 8 Anon 2000h Caribbean foods glossary (http:// 2000 Accessed 17 July www.unichef.com/glossary.htm) April54 20 March39 way TheGrocer Anon 1995bEthnicfood a hotmarket Ulster Grocer March Anon 2002a Walkerswood's Anon 2002b Regional risk analysis for Jamaica(http:// 40-2 Anon 1996a Cooking up a panfulof publicity The Grocer home.aigonline.com/country-view/0,4605,1344, Accessed 19 August2002 00.html) 18 May 14 brochure publicity Anon 2002cWalkerswood Anon 1996b Ethnic products: a niche to develop CDI in commodities Appadurai ed 1986 Thesociallifeof things: Courier May-June72-5 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge cultural perspective Anon 1996c Jamaica's economic hopes hinge in non30 Arnold H 1998 Goodness graciousme! Supermarketing traditional TheGleaner 17 June6-7 exports 27-8 January Anon 1997a Caribbean promotionimmanentThe Grocer sugar and colonialismin B 2001 Sweet futures: Ashcroft 15 February 13 culture ofcolonial transformations On post-colonial futures: Anon 1997b It's high time to get a taste of JamaicaThe London 67-80 Continuum, Grocer 23 August45 G and Tiffin H 1989 The empire Anon 1998a New look Grace Productslaunched world- AshcroftB, Griffiths literatures and practice in postcolonial back:theory wide (22 May) (http://www.gracefoods.com/News- writes London Routledge, release/news-releases.htm) Accessed4 August2000 andculture a guidetothe politics people, Anon 1998b Grace portfolio claims the Caribbean lime- BayerM 1993Jamaica: LatinAmericaBureau,London lightTheGrocer 27 June 55 30 March The Grocer Beddall C 2002 Birthof a big hitter Anon 1998cExoticexplosionValueretailing March31-6 35-8 Anon 1998d Potentials in Caribbean food exporting Postcolonial Blunt A and McEwan C 2002 Introduction CANA Busine$$ 30 June in Blunt A and McEwan C eds Postcolonial geographies Anon 1998e Somerfieldwoos ethnic communitiesThe London 1-6 Continuum, geographies Grocer 7 March 5 postAnon 1999a Ethnic foods market report Eurofood and Blunt A and Wills J 2000 Decolonisinggeography: an introducin Dissident geographies: colonialperspectives Drink October24 ideas andpractice Prentice Hall,Harlow167-207 tion toradical Anon 1999bGrace is championexporter Jamaica Observer to 25 June(http://www.jamaicaobserver.com) Accessed 4 Boehmer E and Moore-GilbertB 2002 Introduction special issue: postcolonial studies and transnational August2000 4 7-21 Interventions resistance Anon 1999cSand, sea, reggaeand fab tastesTheGrocer 21 DevelCommunity ofWalkerswood Boxill I 1989 Case studies August57 Council: and AugustTownCommunity Foundation Anon 1999d Caribbean next forthe ethnicbig time The opment ongrassroots ISER, Kingston democracy ISER project Grocer 19 June 10 of theslavesof Jamaica Anon 2000a Jerk sauces offer hope in Jamaica Africana.com BrathwaiteE K 1981 Folk culture 21 May (http://www.africana.com/news/homefront/ New Beacon,London of enviand consumption BurgessJ1990The production 2000/05/21 /-----/0947-0822-Auspicious-Spic.htm) ronmentalmeanings in the mass media: a research Accessed4 August2000 of the Instituteof agenda for the 1990s Transactions Anon 2000b Jamaican jerk sauces hit worldwideJamaica 15 139-61 Geographers Gleaner 15 June(http://www.go-jamaica.com/gleaner/ British kitchen Simon and Caribbean Burke V 2000 Walkerswood 20000615/cook/cook2.html) Accessed9 July 2001 London Anon 2000c With fans worldwide,jerk sauces proving Schuster, 21 tangy treasure for Jamaica Food Online (http:// CarmichaelM 1999 Focus on ethnicfoods The Grocer August54-8 www.foodline.com/content/news/artiCook I, Crang P and Thorpe M 1999 EatingintoBritishcle.asp?DocID=(3FBD0433-30Al-1lD4-8C3Dand the identity politics imagineries ness: multicultural Accessed4 August2000 009027DE0829)) Anon 2000d Places to go: Walkerswood of food in Roseneil S and Seymour J eds Practising B. Smith with style Macmillan, Basingstoke identities: powerand resistance (http://www.bsmithwithstyle.women.com/bsws/people/ 223-48 places/walkerswood.html) Accessed3 March2001
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Cross over Food: Re-Materializing Postcolonial Geographies Author(s): Ian Cook and Michelle Harrison Source: Transactions of the

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