Decolonizing Our Minds and Our Lands

Reviving seeds, culture, and African strength

by

Gathuru Mburu, 

Published on

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

 by Other Worlds

'Even though African countries gained political independence,' writes Mburu, 'we did not gain the spiritual independence which is so critical to our development even today.' (Photo: zacharyshahan.com)

Recolonization is happening. There is a second scramble, not just in Africa, but across the global South. Corporations started it. We need to name and shame these corporations – Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, and the program promoting them, AGRA [A Green Revolution for Africa] – to take this battle to the next level.

The wars [of conquest of Africa] have not actually ended – the artillery has just transformed into a different type against us farmers today. All of us are fighting.

Organizing from the Grassroots, to the National, to the International

The problems we’re facing today can’t be solved by individuals. The way to fight the war is through a collective approach.

The African Biodiversity Network is working to bring communities across Africa together and connect them to strengthen the grassroots. Communities are reviving their culture and their seeds, and forming local alliance which we call “communities of practice.” Then we connect these communities of practice at the local, national, and regional level, and they form active coalitions.

This is why the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa formed, which consists of 13 networks collectively covering 40 of the 54 countries. We have huge strength. We can actually change farming, seeds, and culture en masse in Africa.

We are doing this first and foremost at the grassroots level, because our national and international campaign relies on people at the local level taking control, taking advocacy into their own hands. The national and international levels need to learn from the ground up to have credibility and be informed.

We also are learning from other countries which have progressed in having good seed laws or recognizing the work of family farmers. We are coming together to learn about good practices and the lessons from both the successes and failures in the movement.  

If you look at Kenya where we have made some strides, we are engaging even the government. We are trying to contribute to policy-making on farming and the handling of seeds. A small example is the new constitution of Kenya. We managed to push and have the constitution itself recognize the diversity of seeds, including the farmer [local, indigenous] varieties. It was a big success for that coalition and we are going to keep pushing further.  But we must always be vigilant to ensure that the spirit of the constitution is actually kept in the laws that are developed.

Reviving the Culture and Family Farming

Reviving the seed comes with reviving the culture, because it’s not only about the seed. You also need to bring back the context of that seed, which is the knowledge of the people, the knowledge held by elders, both men and women.

We have learned from the elders that traditional communities had very well-defined roles and responsibilities for men and women. There were specific seeds for men, and the same for women. So when bringing back the seeds, we’re bringing back the knowledge of women and of men. They are different but they are complementary. And if we are bringing back ecosystems in whole, using a holistic approach, then the two need to work together.

We also understand that our knowledge is not static. And we understand that other communities have their own knowledge. The important thing is how we connect these communities so that they can continue learning from one another and thereby strengthen one another.

Bringing back seeds and knowledge is also about bringing back rituals before planting, after planting, and before harvesting. It’s about celebration. You bring back life the way it used to be. It’s about restoring the whole ecosystem and people again.

The Strength of Spirituality and Common Principles

Reviving the culture is also about reviving the spirituality of the people. Even though African countries gained political independence, we did not gain the spiritual independence which is so critical to our development even today.

We first have to decolonize our minds because we are still carrying the shame of our ancestry. Unless we are able to shed this, our efforts are futile. It all starts in the mind. You can then look at issues from a different perspective, bringing the power inspired by your ancestors from within. You are then able to distill the answers and solutions to your problems from that ancestral knowledge.

So [our challenge is] to bring back the whole ecosystem. We are communities of humans, and the ecosystems are the other communities of the earth. These, plus our spirituality, are very important pillars in our work.

There was a meeting in Kenya that brought elders together from four different countries [South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia]. They were looking for common principles that can bring communities throughout Africa together. We are finding that even within the diversity across Africa, there are common threads, common principles, that join us together. We can derive our strength from that, so that we reclaim Africa from the yokes that we are still finding ourselves under.

This is the fourth article in a series which features interviews with grassroots African leaders working for seed and food sovereignty, the decolonization of Africa's food system, and the preservation of traditional farming practices. This series is made possible with support fromNew Field Foundation and Grassroots International.

Copyleft Other Worlds. You may reprint this article in whole or in part. Please credit any text or original research you use to Other Worlds.

Gathuru Mburu is an ecologist and activist from Kenya. He is Co-Founder of the Institute for Culture and Ecology and part of the African Biodiversity Network, which is a member of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa.

The American Fast Food Syndrome

* The people of Guam are in love with their fast food.

By Kristin Wartman from Commondreams.org

Working with people as a nutritionist, I’m often met with resistance. I try to explain making healthful food choices without using trigger words like organic, sustainable, or even local. “When I hear the word organic I think of Birkenstock-wearing hippies in Cambridge, Massachusetts or Berkeley, California,” one of my clients told me recently. Other clients have referred to whole, organic foods as “yuppie food.” There’s no doubt that food choice and diet is an indicator of class and culture, but what perplexes me is this notion that eating a diet of processed, sugary junk foods is what the “real” Americans eat.

According to food historian Felipe Fernandez-Arsmesto, food has always been a marker of class and rank in any particular society. He writes that, “Food became a social differentiator at a remote, undocumented moment when some people started to command more food resources than others.” He goes on to write that, “Class differentiation starts with the crudities of basic economics. People eat the best food they can afford: the preferred food of the rich therefore becomes a signifier of social aspirations.”

But this isn’t true in modern day America. The preferred food of the rich is now considered elitist and scoffed at by many Americans. In fact, there is data to suggest that even though many Americans can afford higher quality foods, they chose to eat cheaper and less nutritious foods. Jane Black and Brent Cunningham recently wrote about this in the Washington Post: “Many in this country who have access to good food and can afford it simply don’t think it’s important. To them, food has become a front in America’s culture wars, and the crusade against fast and processed food is an obsession of ‘elites,’ not ‘real Americans.’”

I would argue that the advertising agencies that work hand-in-hand with the big players of industrial food should take much of the blame for this change. Within the span of three short generations, Americans have come to accept industrial food as their mainstay—not only have they accepted it, they defend it like they’d defend the American flag as a symbol of their patriotism and allegiance with “real” America.

But there’s some perverse logic at work here and it strikes me as vaguely similar to the Stockholm syndrome—a paradoxical psychological phenomenon in which hostages express adulation and positive feelings towards their captors. While Americans are not experiencing a physical captivity, they are deeply mired in a psychological condition in which they’re captive to industrial food products and the corresponding ideologies that are ultimately harming them. Call it the American Fast Food Syndrome.

Part of the problem is that most Americans lack the knowledge that industrial food is a recent development in the history of agriculture. While human beings have been cultivating food for more than 10,000 years, industrial agriculture, as we know it today, has only been around for about 60 years. To many Americans, industrial food is simply food and they assume this is the way it has always been—Americans have all but forgotten that food might be the product of a farm and not a factory. I think it’s safe to say we’ve reached peak indoctrination: two out of three Americans is obese or overweight and one out of five 4-year-olds is obese. This is more than just a coincidence as we embrace our American industrial food diet wholeheartedly.

The fact that food advertising is a completely unregulated force doesn’t help. Advertisers spend billions of dollars on campaigns to make us want to buy their products. In her book Diet for a Hot Planet, Anna Lappé writes of a sly technique advertisers often use, “The food industry…is skilled at inoculation messaging, and part of its success comes from the ‘we’re one of you’ pitch.” She adds later, “The message, whether from Perdue, Nestle, or Cargill, is that these companies are like us; they care about the same things we do. It’s a message that forms another strand of the inoculation strategy.”

This “we’re one of you” ideology coupled with the food product’s corresponding affordability is slick marketing at its best.

You may remember a similar strategy used by Sarah Palin and John McCain in their 2008 Presidential campaign. Palin’s constant invocation of Joe the Plumber, Joe Six Pack, and soccer moms was the same “we’re one of you” rhetoric. Palin worked this angle again recently when she came running to the defense of the “real” Americans as she personally gave out cookies to elementary school students in her effort to stop the food police from depriving children of their god-given right to eat sugar-laden, processed foods.

These messages, from advertisers and politicians alike, are drowning out a sensible approach to healthy eating and improved quality of life for many Americans. I know that when people stop eating processed foods and start cooking whole foods, it’s nothing short of a revelation. My clients experience a transformation when they cut out junk foods—they lose weight, improve chronic health conditions, and feel better than they ever have before. Unfortunately, many Americans who really need guidance on healthy eating and cooking don’t have it. What they do have is a constant barrage of advertising for cheap industrial foods paired with the all-American rhetoric of Sarah Palin and her ilk.

Until all Americans see industrial food for what it really is, educating on healthier food options will remain a cultural battle. We can blame specific ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup or trans-fats indefinitely, but for a large portion of Americans their cultural identity is tied up in Big Macs, fries, and Cokes. As long as the food industry continues to succeed at imbuing their products with a particular sense of American authenticity, and as long as Americans continue to buy this image, while rejecting the organic, sustainable, and local food movement as part of some liberal agenda, we will remain a country in the midst of a dire health and food crisis.

© 2011 Civil Eats

Kristin Wartman is a food writer living in Brooklyn. She has a Masters in Literature from UC Santa Cruz and is a Certified Nutrition Educator. She is interested in the intersections of food, health, politics, and culture. You can read more of her writing at kristinwartman.wordpress.com.

Micronesian Island Fair now in 24th year

by Janjeera Hail from KUAM.com

Guam - The 24th Annual Micronesian Island Fair kicked-off this morning with an opening ceremony attended by hundreds of the island's schoolchildren. This year's theme is "The Tastes of Micronesia" and apart from great local and regional cuisine, visitors can look forward to authentic crafts, artwork, and exhibits from all our neighboring islands.

The event continues this weekend, running from noon to 9pm on both days.