Afro Futurism Returns Home via a Five Stars Hotel

Here is the preparation for the homecoming dinner at the Sheraton hotel in Addis Ababa. It was a difficult conversation from within but an easy one from without. I don’t occupy such places everyday but I thrive on accepting challenges and testing my skills and theories in any viable platform. I am old enough enough too to know that we grow more whenever we put ourselves in new spaces.

That is exactly what happened. I accepted the challenge and and it paid off for three parties, namely Sheraton, the Rockefeller Foundation and myself. I had the freedom to do what I thought was appropriate and created a recipe that captured both the rich history of Ethiopia, current complexities around food and the importance timeliness issue of justice.

I chose the epic story of Cepheus, the mythological king of Ethiopia in Greek mythology. Andromeda was the daughter of King Cepheus who was so beautiful that the Greeks named the next galaxy that is visible with the naked eyes after her. What’s even more interesting is that Andromeda is 2.5 million light years from earth.

If we can see a galaxy that is as far as Andromeda with our naked eyes, we can reimagine a more just system. In my closing of my lecture, I borrowed the word hippodumus, a word associated with selflessness warrior of Troy named Hector. The word literally translates to “tamer of horses. Those are the closing words of the Iliad.

As a payment to the Greeks for creating impressive stories about Ethiopia, I cooked a new word : oraldamous or tamers of mouths. A new world is possible and it doesn’t have to be 2.5 million years away. To hasten that desired reality with take new myths and epics that promote that reality. They can’t just be Eurocentric nor just Afrocentric. Whatever we mutually decide to make them, they should be futuristic enough to take us beyond Andromeda in time, space and imagination.

Thayù Thayü

#myfoodisafrican

Chef Kabui

The Hex Kitchen is a collaboration between Chef Kabui and the Hex community in a bid to promote food literacy, mindful eating and wealth creation. There is a natural connection between those who are fighting against fiat currency and those engaged in the struggle against fiat food. The two social ills of fiat currency and fiat food are at the heart of the tyrannic global world system we are now living in. That tyranny is directly connected to the climate crisis we face and there is no way we can solve one part of the problem without being mindful of the whole system, For a start, the Hex Kitchen is keen on addressing the issues of real money and real food as a basis on regaining our sovereign power. It is no accident that the struggle for food justice would find allies in cryptography and more specifically cryptocurrency. It is not a usual collaboration but yet it is one that makes sense on many levels. Chef Kabui has been studying and applying the power of food literacy, mindful eating and food justice in the struggle against oppression in general and specifically to people of African descent.

Chef Kabui has studied the disciplines of politics, anthropology and culinary arts and has designed a cuisine or rather an approach to food that is informed by the above experience and the indigenous knowledge that he gained from his Kenyan family’s history as sustainable farmers for generations. The combined experience and education resulted in the creation of a cuisine called Afro Futuristic Conscious Cuisine. It is a combination of the most sustainable practices in the growing, preparation of food with the goal of causing the least damage to the environment and maximizing the health benefits of the food. Those two conditions are necessary for a mindful community that ensures that justice thrives.

Chef Kabui has been pushing organic food and healthy eating based on his research and his own experience. The idea of healthy food and justice is not something that chef Kabui got into but was born in it. His family operated a farm and his father ran a restaurant in the capital city of Nairobi. Kabui grew up in the village with his mother where they grew almost all the food they consumed. It was at his family farm that he Kabui developed a love for fresh food and the art of consuming food following the natural cycles of seasons.

The collaboration aims to share the skills for healthy food to the Hex community and beyond. No community can survive without food and the Hex community is no different. The Hex Kitchen is another assembly point for the community to be nourished both physically and socially. While wealth is private, food is social and having a kitchen for the community to assemble is a great option for a community that is causing ripples across the world.

What to Expect

The Kitchen will have virtual classes, content on Youtube and other social media presence for a start. The goal is that the Kitchen will have a physical place that will have a kitchen in a farm that will grown food and have space that guest can visit. The farm will have a demonstration farm for the vegetables, fruits and herbs,

For the schedule of upcoming classes please visit our events section and find a class that is fit for your schedule.