to the Southern United States including okra, black-eyed peas and African rice. Okra is a green vegetable which may originally have been domesticated in Ethiopia or Egypt. It appears in a variety of soups, stews and rice dishes. Enslaved Africans passed their recipes on to their descendants, as well as to Southern whites. These dishes became known as soul food with origins in former slave states. Many of these recipes continue to be popular and became one of the most well-known aspects of African- American and Southern American culture. The Louisiana dish 'gumbo' comes from the West African word for "okra", nkombo. Jambalaya and gumbo are similar to West African dishes such as dchebuchin, which originated in the Senegambian region. African culinary traditions have had a substantial influence on Caribbean and Latin American cuisine, as can be seen and tasted in dishes such as mondongo (chitlins), fufu , giambo, sancocho, picodillo tembleque, bean soups, chinchulines (another form of chitlins), and other dishes. Dance In Africa, music and dance were interwoven with daily life as well as with sacred traditions. Tribes danced to the beat of drums, and dances were led by acrobatic leaders who were frequently priests or holy men. African dance traditions survived the transatlantic Middle Passage because slave traders encouraged the enslaved Africans to dance on the ships to stay in shape. Other African dance traditions brought to the Americas and the Caribbean included improvisation, an orientation towards the earth, circularity and community, call-and-response, polyrhythms and the ring shout. When drumming was forbidden to slaves by their masters, they created complex percussive polyrhythms by clapping their hands and stomping their feet. One dance that was adopted into the broader American culture is the Charleston. The Charleston was adapted from the ancient African dance of the Ashanti people. This dance and the Charleston have common movements. Similar dances were performed across the American South during slavery. "The Charleston is a dance that was performed by the descendants of African slaves in the American south. Like its sister vernacular form, jazz, from which it takes its rhythmic propulsion, it is a blend of African and European sources, and it has had a broad influence on American life and art. The name derives from the fact that the dance was supposedly seen performed by black dockworkers in Charleston, South Carolina. It is probable that they came from one of the black