The conkie or “stew dumpling” is a traditional delicacy of corn meal with sweet potato, pumpkin and other ingredients. The broad leaf of the banana plant is “quailed” in boiling water to make it supple, and the dough is wrapped in these leaves and steamed until cooked.
When Guy Fawkes Day (5 November) was celebrated in Barbados (Guy Fawkes was an Englishman who plotted to blow up the British Parliament in 1605, and the day was celebrated to commemorate his failure), conkies were the delicacy for the occasion, since it is around this time that the Indian corn ripens to produce the flour used.
With independence in November 1966, celebration of Guy Fawkes’ Day was discontinued; conkies are now eaten mainly around Independence. A similar delicacy is known in Ghana as “kenkey”, evidently the origin of the local name, and among the Ashanti as “dukunoo”. In other parts of the Caribbean it is referred to as “dukuna”, or some variant, while the odd term “blue drawers” is used in Jamaica.