<scp> <i>Capsicum chinense</i> </scp> as an African traditional vegetable: Culture, resilience, and opportunity

Societal Impact Statement Capsicum chinense is central to everyday diets, cultural identity, and smallholder livelihoods across Sub‐Saharan Africa, yet remains overlooked in agricultural research and policy. This paper reframes C. chinense as a traditional, climate‐resilient vegetable shaped by centuries of farmer stewardship and cultural selection. We highlight its resilience to heat and drought, stable market demand, and importance to women‐led value chains, alongside major gaps in breeding and seed systems. Recognizing and investing in this culturally vital crop can strengthen climate adaptation, protect culinary heritage, and improve food security and incomes for millions of smallholder farmers. Summary C. chinense is a culturally, economically, and agriculturally important species whose global significance has been obscured by a long‐standing taxonomic misnomer implying a Chinese origin. This designation fails to reflect the species' South American origins or its deep biocultural integration elsewhere. We argue that C. chinense should be reconsidered through a biocultural lens that recognizes its regional diversification, cultural identities, and long‐standing human–plant relationships. In Sub‐Saharan Africa, C. chinense functions as a traditional vegetable central to everyday cooking, valued for its intense aroma, distinct flavors, balanced heat, and culinary versatility. The crop also exhibits strong agronomic resilience, performing well under heat, drought, and low‐input conditions, and providing stable income and food security for smallholder households. Parallel cultural importance in the Caribbean, where landraces anchor national cuisines and artisanal processing traditions, highlights its trans‐Atlantic significance. Shared sensory preferences for fruity aroma and balanced heat across Sub‐Saharan Africa and the Caribbean underscore the crop's biocultural connectedness. Despite this prominence, C. chinense remains severely understudied, with major gaps in genetic characterization, stress tolerance, pest and disease resistance, and aroma chemistry. Informal seed systems dominate production, limiting varietal quality and access to improved seed. We call for renewed scientific, institutional, and policy investment to advance breeding, seed systems, and conservation of this resilient and culturally vital crop.