Today, I came across the most eclectic granary at the Rautenshaut-Joest Museum in Cologne. I felt both indebted and honored just thinking that in a number of days to come, I will be serving Afro-futuristic cuisine and giving a lecture in this setting as an reenactment of a potentially instructive food story between German prisoners of war and the destruction of a similarly impressive granary in my indigenous community around 1945. The German prisoners of war played a significant role in the destruction of one particular particular granary that is still actively discussed in my folklore by extracting food from the public granary without replenishing it. This act, driven by desperation and the injustices of war, as well as a lack of cultural sensitivity, spelled the end of an era of food literacy and consciousness. The idea of the granary was that the food was for travelers, but the POWs treated the granary as a pantry for homeless people. The locals were not anthropologists and they felt aggrieved that someone would abuse a granary so vital that it was named after their deity.
This era was characterised by fascism in the West while the belief about food in my community was that it was a right, even for passers-by, their fascist ideology not withstanding.
Things are coming full circle, and I will explain the cultural significance and consequences of the German and Italian fascist POWs' actions to hundreds of anthropologists. As an anthropologist myself, the gap between my community and the the current European community is not as big and I will therefore be doing the work for pay. Yet majority of the funds received will go towards promoting the ideas of Food Justice similar to the founding ideology of the Granary of Ngai( Ikumbi ria Ngai). The biggest coincidence is that the conference is taking place at a time when many of us have become prisoners of our own bellies due to food injustice.
Our stomachs have literally become battlegrounds between modern forces of justice and those of injustice. I will explain why, and the menu will demonstrate what a fight on the side of justice would entail or look like.
When viewed from the side, the roof of the Indonesian granary resembles a pair of bird wings. This is a fitting symbol for our current situation, informed by our awareness of Afro Futurism. In my culture, a popular saying informed by the speed with which fascist prisoners of war (known as Bono) would dash out after selling their trench coats for food is “wathiĩ ta bono yendetie kabuti” (you run like a German prisoner of war after selling his trench coat). This saying illustrates the level of hunger amongst the POWs. We now find ourselves in a similar situation, running away from the monster born of five centuries of war on indigenous communities, which culminated in the 1945 saga.
This monster has been the almost invisible destruction of general food consciousness, which has marked the lives of those who survived the immediate violence, whether as victors or losers. We truly need a wide awareness of food and a public granary of consciousness about it, such as that captured in the story of Ikumbĩ rĩa Ngai. This would be a great place to start our healing journey. This is the spirit of Afro Futuristic Conscious Cuisine, or what could rightly be called a cuisine of the granary. It is one possible way of saving ourselves from the madness of running like modern-day prisoners of war in search of healing from the consequences of Fiat Food Consciousness, born of an unjust food system under whose gaze we live. The ravenous nature of Fiat Food Consciousness is that it recognises no artificial boundaries, racial classifications or class divisions, and is an equal opportunity epidemic. My hope, and hopefully of my anthropologists preset, is that these are smart steps in the bigger struggle for social and food justice.
There is no better kitchen to cook those just ideas than a museum as it symbolizes old power and the true potential of the commons. Maybe that could stave off the epidemic that is turning our bellies into modern day fascist POWs.