Saveur Magazine - Louisiana - Gumbo Paradise

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Most people down here will tell you that okra is the origin of the word gumbo. In her book New Orleans: A Food Biography (AltaMira Press, 2012), historian Elizabeth M. Williams attributes the term “gumbo” to Bantu-speaking West Africans, who brought okra seeds on slave ships. Their word for okra was ki ngombo. Other scholars believe gumbo is a deviation of the Choctaw Indian word kombo, for sassafras leaves, which tribal members ground up to make an aromatic powder called filé. While either okra or filé can be used to thicken gumbo, there are strong opinions as to which is best.

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