What a spectacular plant! Native to tropical and subtropical regions, it thrives upon warmth and moisture for growth and requires dry weather for the seeds to ripen. An erect annual, it can reach 7 ft (2 m), with a foxglove-like appearance. The long taproot throws many lateral roots. Depending on the variety, the stem, whether branched or unbranched, bears elongated oval leaves.
About six weeks after sowing, the sesame plant already sports white, yellow, pink or violet, furry, tubular flowers. In shape, they evoke a cornucopia. Someties speckled, they grow in groups of three in the leaf axils. They are usually self-pollinated.
Usually only the middle fruit of the group fully ripens. When the seed capsules have turned brownish black they burst and release the ripe, oil-rich seeds. Depending on the variety, the seeds — most familiar elements of the plant to most of us — may be white, light brown or black,.
Sesame seed-buns decorated with white seeds owe their popularity to the Macdonald fast food chain. Do they carry a meaning? Industrialized foods bear signatures, sometimes worth a closer look. Sesame seeds on burger buns and on breadsticks remind us of the African origins of Black Americans, hence of slavery, thus made indelible.
Sesame seeds, harvested for their oil predominantly, are not an isolated case. Other soul foods are relics, to this day, in the American South especially, of the slave trade from Africa. Primary cases are the peanut, okra and the cowpea (particularly the black-eyed pea). Others yet include chilies, jamaica, beans, rice, watermelon, papaya, lemons, oranges and cacao.
The Pedaliaceae family, to which sesame belongs, is found chiefly in tropical Africa, with two unique sections of the genus Sesamum exclusive to India.
Conventional wisdom thus holds sesame to have been domesticated in Africa. Which is wrong: genetic and chemical data exclude an African origin of the crop. The Indian subcontinent is most likely where sesame was domesticated — consistent with the species name, indicum.
Probably originating in Asia, the Chinese used it 5,000 years ago. For what purpose? For centuries they burned the oil to make soot for the finest Chinese ink blocks.
Records show cultivation in parts of India around 1600 BC. From there it was brought to Europe, grown in Egypt, and its medicinal value as well as nutritional gradually spread throughout Europe.
The Romans ground sesame seeds with cumin to make a pasty spread for bread. Once it was thought to have mystical powers, and sesame still retains a magical quality, as shown in the expression “open sesame,” from the Arabian Nights tale of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” In Africa the seeds, called ‟benne,‟ were eaten as food as well as being used for oil. They were taken by the slaves to the Caribbean and to America where it has been a cultivated food crop ever since.
It is interesting that sugarcane and sesame seeds had similar East-to-West trajectories and that both came to be associated, durably as it turns out, with the slave trade.