Number

No.2025-01

Month of Issue

February 2025

Title

Othered Food Spaces in the Anglophone Caribbean

Author(s)

Samantha Nelson
Shuji Hisano

Affiliation(s)

Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University

Keywords

Alterity, Alternative food geographies, global food system, Food spaces, Jamaica

Abstract

This study aims to contribute to the agri-food discourses on the alterity of food provisioning systems by introducing the concept of othered food spaces. These food spaces serve as coping mechanisms for food provisioning and consumption, developed by marginalised groups either voluntarily or involuntarily in response to systemic discrimination. Utilising qualitative research methods, this study explores othered food spaces in Jamaica through archival research and an ethnographic case study. The findings reveal historically rooted othered food spaces, including provision grounds and Maroon food networks, which emerged within the plantation system under British colonial rule. Additionally, the study examines a contemporary example, the House of Dread in Kingston, a food space established by followers of the Rastafarian movement. These food spaces represent alternative food geographies assuming diverse forms with varying rationales under past and present regimes of the global capitalist food system.