INdiGENOUS Liquid Blockchain

Almost everyone with average education or general literacy knows about Bitcoin  and that BlockChain technology behind it. In case that technology is new to you, take heart by pulling a seat and a cup of tea.  I say that because this post is neither  about Bitcoin nor Blockchain technology.  The technology in question is an indigenous liquid that is the innovation equivalent to Blockchain. Yet few have heard about it, leave alone talk or write about it. I am not any better or at least good enough to talk about others. That's why I should talk about myself first.

It was in the early 1970s right before I started school. I had all the time to play around our ancestral farm and to interact with all the plethora of senior elders who were deeply versed about all matters related to our culture. One day will aimlessly following Awa Mùkurù(my father's oldest brother) around our farm( he was a great storyteller and I loved spending time with him), he pointed to a particular plant mid-sentence  and told me that the plant was known as "kìgwa Kìa Arìithi" (shepherds sugarcane).  Before I could even sneak a question about the purpose of the plant with a funny sounding name,  Awa mùkurù went on to inform me that the plant was the one used to make tea before the coming of the missionaries and the proselytization of Chinese tea, later mislabelled as English tea. Walah, we too had our own tea that was phenomenally tasteful as well as sustainable. 

Today I made the tea of my ancestors and unblocked the tea that had been chained into my past for over 45 years. The flavors were so rich and the act so valuable that I can only compare it to the innovation of Blockchain that allows trustless transactions and also adds a bit of the old content in the creation of new blocks, hence blockchain. In my case, I am being connected with my ancestors through tea that was local and just. The tea that was introduced by the British was stolen property of the Chinese. That tea was the subject of the most expensive espionage when Robert Fortune was able to successfully sneak out tea plants from China and thereby broke the Chinese monopoly on the popular drink. For a long time, the Chinese had refused to sell tea in any other form except in processed form. After 1848, the British managed to grow the tea in Ceylon and other parts of India and were soon able to control the global tea industry.  

Those of my ancestors who acquessed to growing and consuming tea stolen from the Chinese were accomplices to a crime of handling stolen products and then victims of another crime of having their own tea sentenced to oblivion at the cost of stealing the fertility of their own land for colonial enterprise. I find it rather ironic that the Chinese were at least the ones who made the cups, spoons, sugar dishes and kettle that were necessary in the cooking and serving their tea during my youth. While the utensils in my village are still largely manufactured in China, there is growing interest in Chinese medicine. In other words, the consumers of stolen tea are now suffering from the consequences of the foreign diet and looking for help amongst the Chinese and Asian who were part of the tea triangle in the 1800s.

The biggest capital investment by the British in Kenya by 1903 was the railway from the coastal town of Mombasa to Kisumu. The project drew a lot of criticism from many circles that it was labeled as the “lunatic lane". Surely, the whole tea business doesn't rank far from being a lunatic drink. In addition to normalization of processed sugar, it made tea a cash crop in my region. That has had a negative impact on food security, our water quality, forest cover as well as the growing of food for the international market that is skewed against my community.

A bigger irony is that I am consuming this tea in the American South for the first time. The South has its own fractured history of stolen flavors and labor from Africa. I hope to cook this tea at my next residency at Elon University next month in celebration of Black History Month. 

While the tea has been dormant for years in my psyche, it will rise rapidly and be consumed at institutions of higher learning by the next generation of warriors of food justice..

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.