Farm to Fork Friday, A Taste of Africa in the Historic Stockton Waterfront District

STOCKTON, CA ~ Our Farm to Fork Friday, A Taste of Africa activities share our deep Pan African connections with our Stockton - Asaba Sister City and global opportunities linking our local food systems in a good way.

The founder of the African Baptist Church of Stockton final resting place is found within Block 27-Stockton Rural Cemetery along with many of the earliest pioneers of Pan African ancestry, both those formally born enslaved and freeborn. Early California Pioneers of Pan African Heritage endured separate and unequal treatment by law, for many, many generations before and after the US Civil War.

Current residents of Pan African ancestry share local childhood memories of laboring in difficult Agriculture conditions and most have no intention of allowing themselves or their children to explore plentiful agriculture jobs, lucrative careers and agribusiness opportunities.

2018 the City of Stockton, California, is once again considered as a finalist to become an All-American City while also considering putting positive inclusive fresh new face on a new City of Stockton Food and Agriculture public policy platform.

Our Stockton -Asaba Sister City is poised to help share our amazing connected historical legacy through our early mother's and father's of Pan African ancestry throughout San Joaquin County in a way that honors and celebrates the foundation of our culture long before the MAAFA or terrible occurrences challenging systemic institutional racism in the aftermath of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.

Our Farm to Fork Friday, A Taste of Africa will share how local food systems can connect the distant past to a mutually beneficial future, let the church say, Amen.

Agritourism with the California Pan African Heritage Trail is charged with identifying, documenting and preserving the contributions by people of African Ancestry while connecting with regional food systems in the State of California.

The historical meaning and knowledge of California Slavery and Jim Crow has changed over time yet, Etymology Studies of the origin of words and how historical meanings change over time, is food for thought.

The Germanic word frei, thought to mean outside of the fundal system, “beloved, friend, to love, clear of obstruction; sense of unrestrained movement” has a very different historical context from the unspoken and taboo conversation about “Chattel Slavery in the State of California.”

What is freedom to someone not considered a human being?

Chattel slavery, property, did not consider an “enslaved human being” thus this salient distinction remains the unspoken value and belief often in question today.

In 1803, Reverend Jeremiah King was reportedly born in the low country of Georgia and his amazing life ended July 1, 1883 and his body was laid to rest within Block 27~Stockton Rural Cemetery.

Georgia was originally claimed as part of the Spanish Mission System, to include the costal Port of Savannah, GA aligned with St. Augustine, FL and the southern ports of Mobile, AL and New Orleans, LA with New Spain's headquarters now in Havana, Cuba.

The economic bonanza of “free agriculture labor” the original stock as “enslaved human beings” from West Africa, today’s Gambia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and other nation states utilized human capital including specialized regional agriculture skills to produce the highly profitable commodities of “indigo and rice” along the low county of Georgia and the Carolinas, prior to the invention of the cotton gin and King Cotton.

Unique West African foods and agricultural production methods helped facilitate retention of ancient African cultural traditions that we see in our profound historical legacy and contributions to the State of California.

By 1849, Jeremiah King and his wife are given freedom papers, gold and passage to migrate from bowels of “chattel slavery in the deep south” to join the California Gold Rush at Monterey, California.

Jeremiah King struck it rich in the southern gold mining district and settled in San Joaquin County by purchasing over 100 acres of fertile agriculture land near today's City of Lathrop and later a full square block in the Historic Stockton Waterfront District.

It is recorded that “often” Rev. Jeremiah King and his wife would travel 40 miles to Sacramento to worship in the basement of the Chinese Baptist Church, which birthed today's Shiloh Baptist Church.

Beginning September 1854 the African Baptist Church of Stockton was organized and began hosting weekly Church services. In 1859, Rev. King successfully petitioned the founding father of Stockton, Captain Weber, for church property on W.Washington St., to facilitate plans to relocate the purchased wooden church building from Rev. James Woods and the Presbyterian Church of Stockton. A historical marker marks the general location today.

During the US Civil War, Rev. Jeremiah King successfully petitioned the Trustees of Stockton Rural Cemetery to establish Block 27, “a colored section” as the final resting place for people of Pan African ancestry. Today, the amazing historical contributions by people of Pan African ancestry remains an open secret, hidden with the grave markers within Block 27 ~ Stockton Rural Cemetery.

Our ongoing task will remove separate and unequal care by establishing equity and equal opportunity within Block 27-Stockton Rural Cemetery while researching, documenting and preserving the authentic Pan African Heritage for future generations is a serious challenge.

Farm to Fork Friday - A Taste of Africa helps build a brighter future for the City of Stockton, California, connecting us to our Pan African Heritage while continuing the journey to strengthen the connection to Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria. The Nigerian Trade Mission shared Juneteenth 2017 was completed in December 2017 and follow up conversation are essential.

When we remember, share and celebrate Rev. Jeremiah King by identifying, documenting and preserving his church and the community contributions of those early Stockton Pan African Pioneers interred within Block 27-Stockton Rural Cemetery, today’s obstacles are put in proper perspective.

Many of our friends in West Africa and Governor of Delta State Dr. Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa will be delighted to find distant relatives, here in Stockton, California and residents from throughout Northern California sharing Egusi Soup and Pounded Yam looking forward to returning home in a good way.

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