After school one recent afternoon, I had a craving for cookies. Who, me? I wanted to sit with a glass of milk and have a home baked sweet. It seemed energizing and comforting at the same time.

I had just finished watching High on the Hog on Netflix and was reading the book, High on the Hog by Jessica B. Harris, about the influence of African American foodways on American culture. In the second episode of the documentary, they visit South Carolina and Anson Mills, a heritage grain mill. I have ordered Carolina Gold rice from Anson Mills in the past. And when I visit the website and start shopping it is hard to stop. My last big purchase included bags of bennecake flour and benne seeds. I wasn’t really sure what to do with them, but the name intrigued me. They have been stored in my freezer and used only occasionally. I decided to figure out how to use the bennecake flour to make a southern treat.

Inspired by High on the Hog and my curiosity in general, I began looking into the history of benne. The word benne, sesame in English, seems to come from West African languages of Malinke, Wolof, and/or Bambara. These languages are spoken in Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and Guinea in West Africa.

The websites I found all used a familiar and deceiving explanation for how benne, or sesame, was introduced to the Americas. Like okra, watermelon, and rice, benne is said to have been “brought over from Africa by slaves.” (See the websites from Wikipedia and King Arthur flour. ) That linguistic trick gives the impression that the kidnapped and enslaved Africans planned ahead about their future and gives them an agency they did not have. It diminishes the horror of slavery — how slavery rips (present tense because slavery continues in the world) people from their families, homes, and cultures. When people say that enslaved Africans brought their food with them, we are led to infer that slavery wasn’t so bad. In reality, the enslavers — British, Dutch, French, Spanish, American — brought these food items from Africa to the Americas for their own economic benefit.

By learning about the history of food and the traditions of excellence and joy in the African American community, I can honor the contributions of the ancestors of African Americans on American culinary culture.

According to a lot of websites, bennecake wafers are a traditional tea cookie from the low country in South Carolina. There are a number of other recipes on various websites. I decided to to start with Anson Mills recipe for Bennecake Shortbread. Then I made the browned butter chocolate chip cookies. On deck to be made once the weather cools are bennecake wafers and toasted bennecake ice cream with a butterscotch swirl. Once I started searching, the options blossomed!