Guinea Fowls can be fried, baked or jerked - just like its more familiar relative the chicken. The birds are reared in Canada and due to their low maintenance, they seem to be popular with hobby farmers and those playing at homesteading.
I have watched Guinea Fowls peck at the earth in Barbados, Grenada and Jamaica. The bird is common in the Caribbean and was once a main source of meat.
The word guinea turns up in a whole bunch of unrelated objects in the English language. For instance:
Animals: guinea pig, guinea fowl, guinea worm, New Guinea dog, guinea cow.
Plants: guinea pepper, guinea flowers, guinea peanut, guinea yam, guinea grass, guinea corn, guinea wood.
Objects: guinea coins, guinea cloth, guinea cotton.
Countries: Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Papua New Guinea.
In English, it seems that guinea was a hand word of anything new and exotic from the tropics and which could be used to enrich the British Empire. It didn't seem to matter where, as long as it was over there and far away, hence African and Pacific Ocean countries with guinea in their names. The exact origin of the word is disputed, but it came into English via Portuguese via a number of African languages where it may mean Black people.
In slavery days, a Guinea Negro was someone who was fresh off the boat - in this case a slave ship.
Guinea Fowls are not native to the Caribbean. The African birds came in the four ships of genocide and slavery, empire and colonialism. They were cheap and familiar birds for the enslaved.
In Britain, the guinea coin was once the top currency as it was made from gold, which was mined off the Guinea coast in Africa. The prestige value of the coin survives as many of the top-notch horse races still quote the winnings in guinea.
Tracing the history of the guinea word is to reflect on how the legacies of empire shaped the English language.
Photo: Wiki Commons
© Jacqueline L. Scott. You can support the blog here.
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