Beyond Bowties & Bean Pies: A Material Analytic Approach to Eating & Meaning-making in the Nation of Islam

Abstract

The bean pie is made of just a few essential ingredients: white beans, sugar, butter, cinnamon, pie crust, and—most importantly—grit, that jagged grain of blues, tragedy, and generational pain that has textured Black American history from the outset. Perhaps more than any other signifier, the bean pie has become representative of the Nation of Islam (NOI), a Black religious and political organization that at one time was America’s largest Muslim cohort. Of course, food is never just food: what we eat represents a complex entanglement of ideas, customs, histories, and relationships.