Rhythms, Food & Freedom

One of my major patron activists is Fella Kuti. His Afro Beat music is a significant inspiration behind my cuisine, Afro Futuristic Conscious Cuisine. Kuti embodies the quintessential rebel spirit necessary to break the chains of oppression without any prerequisites except originality and a consistency in unencumbered freedom of thought. I can’t think of a better reason for me to be traveling to University of California, Santa Barbara to speak of Food Literacy and African self-liberation. California, specifically Oakland, was the bedrock of the Black Panthers Party during the haydays of the Civil Rights movement. It is therefore no accident that Fela Kuti started his self awareness on the same stomping grounds as the BPP during a visit there to see Sandra, his girlfriend at the time.

At the time of his visit, Fela Kuti was studying in England at the time and was already playing in a band. The impact of his visit and his awareness about the work of the BPP would change Fela Kuti, his music and mission for the rest of his life. The product of his California trip is evident is the prolific music that touched many people across the world.

I was a young boy when my oldest brother brought a Fela Kuti which he would play all the time. My first memories of Fela's song was of a song entitled"Gentleman". I couldn't understand the message from the song and I wasn't sure whether my love for the song is solely based on its musical merits or just familiarity due to the fact that my brother played it so many times until instinctively the song became an a part of my memories of home. The influence of Afro Beat would follow me to the U.S, where it become the background music during my college years in the U.S. I was surprised to learn just how popular the music of my childhood was globally.

It made all the difference that I could now understand some of the message, thanks to some of my college friends who helped explain a lot of nuances in the message that I could not have possibly understood in my younger days. If Fela Kuti's music was the philosophical anthem, professor Ngugi Wa Thiong'o was the intellectual fire rod that ignited my desire for both activism and intellectual pursuits. I read every single book by Ngugi that I could lay my hands on. It was an interesting coincidence that I would later meet Ngugi for the first time in California.

My favorite Gìkuyu play of all time is “Ngahika Ndenda", later translated to the English into "I will Marry When I Want" by Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The play was unconventional as it was led by a university professor but using the peasant farmers as the cast. I remember my brother talking about the play but the government quickly shut it down and detained the veritable author. As I drove in a taxi on my way to Ngugi's office, I wondered if Fela had read Ngugi's play and if that had anything to do with his decision to marry all the women in his band, There were few conventions about Fela, at least as I know him. All this could just be nostalgia, but in any case, my brother would be the first to argue that my life has mirrored Fela's song "Gentleman" spirit to a letter.

As if to give credence to that theory, food features very prominently, followed by fashion. Fella Kuti makes mockery of Africa's neo colonial mentality in dressing and in eating habits all in a bid to be considered a gentleman. Fela Kuti denounces such behaviors and boldly states that his stand is to be an original African. To this day, those are two areas that continue to plague Africa in its bid to liberate itself.

I first went to California back in 2003 and it was during this visit that I met my intellectual Kenyan hero elder Ngùgì wa Thiong'o. It was a memorable meeting and the most remarkable statement he made had a lot to do with self liberation. Professor Ngùgi told me that a classical way to view our situation as previously colonized people is that of a mother that gives birth to a child but suckles another woman's child instead of her own. That powerful imagery couldn't be easily forgotten.

I have those two towering giant elders and Chef Bryant Terry, my college mate and colleague who resides in Oakland, on my mind as I head to California. Fela is an ancestor and it is only right that I serve him an original course of culinary tribute.

Quantum Culinary Voyage

Today we harvested organic plantains in Njumbi Murang’a county. These plantains were planted during the Corona lock down. Many thanks to the many hands that tilled the land, offered seedlings and financial support. The first cropped has gone to some of those supporters. 

The biggest reward has been to work on a project which involves 4 generations alive, my matriarch mother, myself, my children and grandchildren.  The project also offered internship opportunities for some of the local youths and kept them productive and learningduring the longest school break in history of modern schoolingin Kenya. Many students strayed from the normal path, with teenage pregnancy and drugs resulting in high school dropouts across the country.

Munene Antony and Stanley Gatheca  were critical in starting the project. Many others have supported in various ways. Here is a repository for very old species of indigenous bananas and other cultural and exotic foods. It's a small place with a big heart equal only to the dreams of the ancestors who kept the grounds sacred enough for those who will be nurtured both by the fertility of the soil as well as the hearts of those that fertility has nurtured.

There are also reparations that are owed to the soil for the brief period Maafa, where the custodians of the soil were duped into applying foreign chemicals into the soil as they chased the illusive and deceptive monster known as the global market. Some are yet to recover from that misadventure and the diseases of the body, soil, soul and pockets due to consequences of toxic chemicals applied on their land. It is no suprise that many today have high levels of chronic diseases. I am acutely aware of the difference between food and fiat food. I never could have thought that food could be inflationary.  The food we grow is the exact opposite.  It is deflationary.  It will be more expensive and valuable over time and we have the record and the clean soil to back the claim. But most importantly we have eaters who can bear witness of our work. What I hope will also happen simultaneously is that we will help make it easier for those who eat our consciously grown foods do is recognize the pirate cum inflationary food from miles away.

On a positive note, the work has taught me so much about value and what it means for me to stay connected to a place I call home but yet have not resided in over 40 years.  Home is truly a strange concept! Home has quantum characteristics as one can be there even when far away. For all the talking I do, for all the dreaming and theorizing I do, its an unspeakable joy to share my home with others across continents and across time and space. That is what gives life something beyond meaning and profit. I am so much wiser now and hope to grow, along with others on that fantastic voyage.

Food, Scholarship & Y-Chromosomes

Today I attended a great event organized by Dr. Frederick Douglas Opie, a prominent food scholar I highly respect. Something he implied inspired this recipe which I prepred soon after for a great friend who is a Gìkùyù scholar in his own right. Since goats and sheep are both used as currency and sacrificial animals, I choose to prepare this lamb recipe for him.

The flavor profile , the 5 mounds, the 4 corners of the bowl all add up to 9, which also happens to be the number of the ingredients used. Nine represents the one constant number. What these two men represent to me is that constant power of nurturing responsible culture as a way of cultivating manhood. Put differently, you have to love yourself through the kind of ethics you live by or aspire to. Being loved by others is subservient to love of self. I am quite aware that any oppressed group of people have to ultimately deal with the idea of compromised adulthood. Systemic racism equally undermines healthy relationship with self amongst the oppressed group, but more so especially amongst men. Having partners that enable me to shield me from such pains is a great asset.

This is a wonderful discussion to take place amongst men. Men typically don't verbally express love in words but in deeds. In the world of the Y-chromosomes, actions speak loudest. That doesn't mean that occasionally say that I love this two great men both through words and food. There is no greater love amongst brothers. Such friendship and alliances are more valuable than gold. By the way if you think toxic masculinity is problematic to you, remember that it is problematic to males too and has some roots with a toxic, violent and unjust culture such as ours. Cultivating a culture of wise, healthy and loving men who love themselves as well as other men is a benefit to us all.

Food & War

Look at the food war going on right under our nose. Here is some organic corn seeds that are priced at $.40 per gram. That means that 1 kg of these seeds cost $400 dollars. An NLAW missile that is quite common in taking down a large number of Russian tanks in Ukraine cost about $40,000. That means that 100 kg of corn seeds are equivalent to the above missile.

It all might make sense, the cost of a T-14 Armata Russian tank is about $3.7 million dollars. That means that a 40k missile takes down a tank that is almost 100 times more expensive. In a similar light, you can buy cheap food but you will end up spending over 100 times your lifetime expenditure in food.

There is no escaping this truism, no amount of prayer will keep us from paying the price of polluting our environment and our bodies. Our only choice is to protect our environment or be ready to pay through our health. I don’t need to remind us that we all pay for the pollution of our environment collectively. Eating in a conscious and responsible manner is a cheaper deal in the long run. Wake up and fight with your teeth.

Kagai Macadamia Sauce

We harvested macadamia nuts from our 4 trees today. This is one of the many sustainable products grown in my area but only gained popularity when the Chinese started importing it.

Yet this is a very versatile commodity in ensuring food security and good flavor with very little effort or toxic chemicals required.

The nuts can make the easiest and tastiest vegan milk when first harvested. When dried, the nuts can last for many months without refrigeration or canning.

I have fond memories of my childhood tied to this nut. This nut was a great snack for us after school as children in the village. As an adult, I make awesome sauce for a plantains as a breakfast meal.

The breakfast was so good that I felt as though what I had been having in the in the city is tantamount to a saucide boombers otherwise known as ketchup, tartar sauce and salad dressing. My Kìgai macadamia sauce I created used only local ingredients.

An African Food Odyssey

It's a great pleasure to be speaking to the students of Rouxbe Culinary School. My colleague Adante Hart and I will be discussing the often overlooked ongoing food relationship between America and Africa. The discussion will be based on my food oddesy in the U.S and the cuisine that has been a product of that experience. That cuisine, which I call Afro Futuristic Conscious Cuisine is a testament of what is possible as well as a prescription of what has to be done if the full culinary potential of a sustainable world will even remotely stand a chance of seeing the light of day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY6AwD3veis

The Original Illegal Immigrants in Light

It's seems as though it's time to come out of hibernation that the Corona virus had forced many of us in. That is how I felt after spending some productive time with my friend Manda Maples  at the North Carolina Museum of Art.  Amanda and I have a knack for doing out-of-the-box projects. Our collaboration has left a few imprints on the museum that are still visible to visitors today. For example, there is a video of a dinner I hosted for the Museum a few years ago where I discussed about the connection between food and art. The video clip plays continuously on the exhibition floor. 

Amanda has invited me to make a commentary on a piece of art  for an  upcoming exhibition. That piece depict people of African descent.  That commentary will accompany the art piece once it's on display. The particular piece of art is quite old and it was a great feeling to read through the file that tracks all the places it has been on display.

Of interest to me is the whole movement of repatriation of African pieces and giving credit for those that were legally acquired. I called the former  pieces of art the first "illegal immigrants ".  So when I hear people talking about illegal immigration in this country, that is the images that first come to mind. As I left the museum, I felt like I was leaving a detention center. Then I remembered that the word Photography comes from the greek words that literally means drawing with light. The space in Western museums is a dark one and the only way out of that darkness is through light and justice. In order words, the picture that many of the African visitors to those spaces should no longer leave there feeling like the original illegal immigrants of the modern day.

It's a big help to have an alley in that painful journey..

Village phoenix

When the country shut down due to the pandemic, I was mostly stuck in the house. My nostalgia for my young days on our family farm inspired several essays that I will always treasure. As a way of returning to the farm virtually,

When the country shut down due to the pandemic,  I was mostly stuck in the house. My nostalgia for my youthful days on our family farm inspired several essays that I will always treasure. As a way of returning to the farm virtually,I teamed up with some family members and  close friends to start an incubation of all the indigenous bananas of my youth. We had to clear trees, sow some wood  and then plant some bananas. This month marked our first harvest and we are so proud to be sharing our first twenty bananas with friends who were so supportive of our project. It was one of the most challenging projects I have worked on.

There were the heartbreaks from shaddy work as well as the reality of adjusting our expectations.  In the end, the outpouring of support from people I didn't even know before formed some unforgettable moments.  The fruits are just a bonus on top of the lessons we all learned. But above all else, the fact that I am growing bananas that have been in my family for over 100 years is simply phenomenal in the age of fiat food!

Thanks to my family, my neighbors  and Stanley Gatheca for their support in donating banana plants and keeping an eye on the magical space where love is both abundant and always in season.

The first 5 bananas have literally fallen to the ground partly because they were not staked and also due to the heavy size of the banana fruit. It is ironic because the falling of the banana plants might symbolize the new awakening in the village. The International outlook of the farm might just be the mark of a new Renaissance of my squeaking food culture.

The efforts are diverse and the benefits are varied. Yet only those near will consume the fruits. While those eating the bananas might never know the joy the picture brings to an indigenous chef, I am most confident that the village phoenix has arisen in me and hopefully to many who will be nourished by the food and stories inspired by our tiny tiny farm. The best might be yet to come forth. In any case, so much joy already bubbles with and without.