Kilombo & The Great African Catastrophe

The sun delayed setting today in our village in honor of a most humbling connection. Professor Paulino Itamar was our guest. He is a professor at Federal University of Western Pará but also works closely with 9 Kilombo communities inside the Amazon Forest. These communities of Afro Brazilians, also known as maroons, are populated by Africans who escaped slavery during the painful period of African Catastrophe. Many of these communities were able to resist every effort by the Portuguese to this day.

Professor Paulino has officially invited me to Brazil to give a symposium at his university and also do an event with the Kilombo communities. I understand that these communities are eager to connect with other Africans, something they haven’t done for over 250 years. The communities are in the very interior of the forest and have only been recognized by the government not too long ago. I have spoken to one of professor Paulino’s masters class along with the late environmentalists Wanjiku Mwangi, Professor Sally Nyambura and Thiong’o wa Gachie.

The students shared some of their favorite recipes at the end of our presentation. Some of the students are eager to visit Kenya and also spend a little at our farm and we can reciprocate by sharing some of our recipes made with food that is as close as possible to the food that the first ancestors of the Africans the diaspora ate before they were caught up in the African Catastrophe.

On his part, professor Paulino shared a great story of a Black masquerade character known as FOBO. FOBOR appears at a festival parade and punishes powerful individuals who misuse their powerful positions or resources to oppress others. I was very interested in the story and even wrote a short essay about it. I hope to one day see the masquerade of Fobòr in person. How cool would it be to have FOBOR at my dinner.

In any case we are glad for opportunity at hand. I am focused at the series of dinners on our farm with the community and the African Diaspora.Those first dinners is what I call the Dinner of Return. It’s the closest concept I know to spirituality. By preparing the farm to grow such important food, we are acknowledging the Great Catastrophe in all Africans and all those who perpetrated it and continue to both benefit from it as well as keep it alive, albeit in different form. We then follow that recognition with action and gratitude.

Kilombos is our spirit of resilience and resistance. Just food is the fuel that drives that resistance. It is a common thread amongst all those who were against the Great African Catastrophe. We shall overcome. Today we overcame the divide across language, color and culture. In other words we ate as one and we ate Just Food. It’s the least we can do to uphold our humanity in a time of intense darkness. When I make it Brazil, I will light another star in our constellation of Beautiful Blackness that shine. My parents would be most proud of their work to hear that their dreams of freedom, justice and love is being felt as far as the Amazon. Mau Mau meets Kilombo again over the Dinner of Return. In honor of those who have fought so hard using their own marshal arts like capoeira and indigenous spiritual system like voodoo and Santeria, we killed a cock and uttered the peace refrain Thayù Thayú. One Thayü for the Professor and one for the Kilombo communities that have invited me to their community. When I make to Brazil, I will start the same way we ended and the Kilombo will close the best way we know how. The spirit of Kilombo is the spirit of food justice, an integral part of overcoming the Great African Catastrophe. A deep debt of gratitude to all the stewards who have been working on that for all the generations past and those yet to come and those support this vision from a far even though they might never eat a morsel of grain from these farms. To those generous souls, may the FOBO 0f the carnival called life smile on you.

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.