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Kwanzaa, first celebrated by Californian Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga from Dec. 26, 1966, through New Year's Day, draws directly on African culinary, cultural and language traditions.

But every day, all around us, we taste subtler traces of Ghana, Ethiopia, Egypt, Namibia and Morocco.

It's peculiarly difficult to pin American foods to specific African origins -- countries or tribes -- but the influence stretches back to the earliest history of colonization here and around the world. A new book, "Hog and Hominy: Soul Food From Africa to America" by Frederick Douglass Opie, takes the history back as far as the 1490s, when global exploration set up the "creolization, or mixing, of cultures, as Europeans, Amerindians and Africans interacted for the first time in the New World."

"Hog and Hominy" isn't a cookbook, but a scholarly work. Cookbooks go into more detail about individual dishes, but are usually a little shy on the history.

Jean Anderson, in "A Love Affair With Southern Cooking: Recipes and Recollections" (William Morrow, 2007), writes that in 1619, 20 Africans (no mention of region of origin) arrived in what later became Virginia on a Dutch ship, "as indentured servants, not as slaves."

After that, she mentions rice's arrival in Charleston, S.C., from Madagascar -- off Africa's southeastern coast -- in 1684 and the first African slaves' arrival in Louisiana in 1708. Florida played a role when the English and French imported slaves into that state, and parts of three other Southeastern states, in 1717.

By 1750, slaves in the colonies numbered 280,000, more than half working tobacco plantations on the Maryland-Virginia coast -- and cooking in the plantation kitchens.

The African ancestors of Caribbean islanders enter the story in the late 1740s, when the British gained control there. Less than 20 years later, the major imports from the British West Indies to the colonies were rum, sugar and slaves.

Locally today, we can taste the African influence on the Caribbean and on those who came through the island vortex by visiting a Jamaican restaurant, such as Atuchaspice, in Daytona Beach.

Standing behind the counter at the Ridgewood Avenue restaurant earlier this week, manager Fane Dacosta recalled customers had said ackee, as in ackee and saltfish, is well-known in Africa. Although he couldn't pinpoint the exact origin, the popular food is made from a soapberry tree native to West Africa.

"The islands are all descended from Africa," he said. He estimated the food is "90 percent from Africa."

"They use yam in Africa," he and fellow manager, Sheena Bryan, agreed, referring to the tuber that grows abundantly in the tropics, not the sweet potato that got that nickname in the Southeast U.S. (The remainder of his homeland's cuisine, he said, comes from longtime British domination. "Tea, high tea, is popular.")

"Soul food" from another part of the African diaspora might be even easier to find. Sherry's Kitchen and Buffet, famous for fried chicken, whole fried catfish on Fridays, greens, hushpuppies and cornbread, has two outlets: one on State Road A1A north of Daytona Beach Shores and one on New York Avenue in DeLand reopened earlier this year.

Another hot spot is Double D Soul Food Restaurant on Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard in Daytona Beach. The 24-year-old place currently appears shuttered and no one answers the phone, but word is the proprietors will return after the holidays.

It's not hard to spot the African influence at the local supermarket either. Could there be anything more common in American cooking than sesame seeds (benne), tapioca (cassava), eggplant or, especially in the South, okra?

Luckily for us taste adventurers, ever more is being done -- in books and through other media -- to discover the original flavors and every variation they have undergone.

Lately, Travel Channel show hosts seem crazed for African destinations. Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain, the globe-trotting chefs, recently visited Ghana. While they were looking for the strange and exotic, both commented on how familiar and comfortable some of the foodways seemed.

If they had read "Hog and Hominy," they might not have been surprised at all.

Fruit Salad With Coconut Milk
Makes 6 servings. From the Associated Press.

• 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 2 bananas
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• 1 avocado
• 1 small pineapple
• 1/3 cup salted peanuts