Shrimp, Crab, and Okra Gumbo

Okra and gumbo are both words from West African languages imported by slaves to this hemisphere along with okra itself (in French okra is gombo, its botanical name is Abelmoschus esculentus).^* On this side of the Atlantic, the okra belt stretches from Brazil to the American Old South, where slavery flourished and left behind a bitter legacy, bitter except in its musical and culinary contributions to the larger cul