African Kaolin Paris

Unknown – XX001A
Composition: Clay
Colour: Grey
Shape: Raw

Medium hard, dry, crunchy and slightly gritty, becomes creamy after biting, a bit sticky.

This sample was obtained by SasaHara in 2017 in a Western African culture shop in Paris, in the 18th district, close to Chateau Rouge. This part of the city is inhabited by a community of individuals with roots in Western Africa. In the cultural shops of these areas, edible white kaolin can often be found. However, it also is connected to some kind of taboo. One should take it and pay for it without asking questions. Thus, the country of origin of this sample is unknown. The cost of a bag of clay of less than 100 grams was €1.

African kaolin can most likely be affiliated with the white clays eaten in Western Africa, mostly by pregnant women. The research of Giovanna Pessoa in the article ‘Le goût de l’argile’ explores gender issues in connection to the definition of white kaolin as an edible product. According to her interviews, most males from the above-mentioned community will deny the edible characteristic of such clay, while most females will talk of it as edible. Though this last statement seems invalidated when females were interviewed in the presence of males. The research thus explores the practice of geophagy as an element of control of female individuals over their bodies in secrecy, as a defense mechanism against male social dominance in their new environment.

Source:
● ‘Le goût de l’argile’, Cairn, by Giovanna Pessoa (French), accessed on 23/06/2022 www.cairn.info