In the Heart of the Moon

Twenty years ago, Ali Farka Toure and Toumini Diabate come out with a classic collection of songs they produced under the title of In the Heart of The Moon. I immediately got my copy as soon as I heard about it on NPR. It was as if it had been designed to be a collectable item. It comes with a sleeve with a blurry image of what looks like a boat with an oversized white sailcloth in a narrow river in the middle and dry banks on both sides.

 I fell in love with the whole collection for reasons I couldn’t easily explain. I then forgot the CD following the coming of Youtube. I packed all my music collection and stored it away. I recently revisited my collection and started playing some of my favorites. I obviously needed a lot of time and therefore started with just a few. Funny enough, the tunes would tend to remind me of a specific feeling or emotion.  In the case of In the Heart of the Moon, it reminded me of my discontents with the state of the world at the time. Looking back, this period must have marked the tipping point of my discontent. It was the period when I read the most. 

During the time I retrieved the CD above, I also retrieved some of my old books. I obviously didn’t have as my food books as I have today. Yet food had been  a central topic in my life for a decade and a half. 

I took time to listen to Toure’s unique guitar rhythms as I meditated on the English title of a CD without one English song. How ironical that African music is clearly packaged for Western consumption? I was then drawn to the image on the cover with a boat and dry lands on the side. My feelings of nostalgia for home and discontent about the food and social injustices are no longer personal issues but global matters. We are out of the heart of the sun and into the heart of the moon. Darkness persists and that state of being has come with serious consequences that only a fool can deny.

As I finished listening to this gem, I felt a great appreciation of the melodic music on one hand but an equal debt of gratitude for the writers who had preserved the wealth of scholarship, wisdom and folk knowledge from our ancestors. It them occurred to me that the bulk of our present day crises we face primarily, but not exclusively, came about whenever our ancestors failed to correctly answer three  questions: what should I eat, what should do with my time and who should I trust to act on my behalf.  

What we should eat was outsourced to those who cared to answer the question of the cost of eating the way the proposed. Those who were entrusted to manage time created an unjust economy where some toil but fruits benefit those that did the least work. Those who were entrusted to be custodian of justice and governance were equally corrupt and untrustworthy. 

Out of the three critical questions above, the easiest and most important one to correctly answer is what we should eat. A correct answer to that seemingly simple question would make it much easier to answer the other two and to ultimately return to “ Heart of the Sun”. 

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.