“Look at your plates when you eat. These imported grains of rice, corn and millet are imperialism. This famous quote from Thomas Sankara shows the importance of what you eat and where it comes from. Thomas Sankara realized that the power structures behind our meals, our daily food, must be taken into account. He states, “Whoever feeds you usually imposes his will on you. “Let’s consume what we can control”, and thus he expresses the immense importance of food sovereignty, which is also repeatedly questioned today. (1)
Food and nutrition were once an important means and tool of colonialism, although they are not given the same importance as political, military, or economic constraints. Food is thus so important because it mediates social and cultural norms, but it can also violate them. The issue of food sovereignty is therefore of great importance and remains so today.
The issue of food sovereignty began with the arrival of the colonial nation around 1884. The colonial nation attempted to transform all food production. The state, on behalf of the settlers and the colonial administration, forcibly seized land, livestock and other indigenous assets from some communities and households, systematically marginalizing and subordinating indigenous African agriculture.
Farmers have been forced to grow crops based on their economic value for export rather than concern for food security and sovereignty.
Agricultural development has been based on Western economic, technological and political ideologies, rather than African solutions for African conditions.
Everything from the loss of indigenous cultural education to cultural exchange to the destruction of indigenous regional markets has been destroyed. As a result, African agricultural systems have been changed forever, traditional practices have been lost, and cultural norms have been destroyed.
Food sovereignty is about the right of a people to make their own decisions about food and agriculture, not about subjecting their food supply to external forces such as imperialism or the global economic market.
Food has never been a simple act of eating; food is a history and an identity. Therefore, colonialism, as a violent process, has fundamentally changed the way of life of a people, including their culinary habits. Since the European occupation of Africa, people have been confronted with a radically different food system. As food choices are influenced and constrained by cultural, political and economic values, they play an important role in the deconstruction and decolonization of social identity.
In Africa in particular, food and its production must be synonymous not only with health, well-being, economic stability, and cultural heritage, but also with restoring the balance of power, restoring dignity, and building a better future for the people. Food is power.
Today, we are also witnessing a new form of food imperialism. The food policies that have been put in place aim to facilitate corporate access to the most important resources and markets. Farmers are being forced to shift from traditional, sustainable, low-cost agriculture to intensive industrial agriculture, which makes extensive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and corporate-owned seeds. Controlling what food people grow, how they grow it, and how they consume it is contrary to what many call food sovereignty.
This form of imperialism can be seen on cocoa plantations in West Africa. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana together account for 65 percent of the world’s cocoa production, but farmers in these two countries generate less than 6 percent of the chocolate industry’s total revenue, according to researchers at The Conversation. Most of the revenue is received by multinationals that buy the raw product from farmers. This shows how systems have turned agriculture into a form of profit and exploitation.
Both colonization and neo-colonization have eliminated ancient indigenous knowledge, destroyed the environment, suppressed domestic self-preservation, prevented economic independence, imposed rapid urbanization, destroyed the family unit and introduced a globalized food system. This globalized food system, which resulted from the economic reforms of the World Bank and IMF, is now controlled by a handful of multinational corporations.
Overcoming this situation and returning to a dignified food sovereignty is therefore a huge task. The globalized system cannot be overturned in a short time.
Ultimately, it is the individual, the family and the local community that must unite to reclaim their birthright to grow and eat their own local whole foods according to their own traditional practices. Such concerted efforts are necessary to circumvent the New World Order and its multinational corporations that currently control the global food system. In summary, it is imperative to expose the colonial and neo-colonial forces that have undermined food security in African countries and around the world.
It is unreasonable that European, and especially French, cuisine is considered the superior form of cooking, especially in restaurants. If Africans were oppressed and mistreated, it is obvious that the food was despised. Thus, while colonizers appropriated local foods, they also attacked local food traditions.
“The current view of West African cuisine is complicated,” says Ozoz Sokoh, a culinary anthropologist based in Lagos, Nigeria. “To decolonize it, you have to go back to its origins and recognize its links to other cuisines.
Global agricultural structures have long favored the standardization of cultures at the expense of the diversity of regional products, a practice that originated in meeting the needs of colonial powers.
But there is also a new generation of top African chefs who see the need to rebel against the constraints of cooking and celebrate local traditions, dishes and ingredients. “If we want to move forward as a people – as a continent – we need to localize our food,” says Ousman Manneh, chef of one of Gambia’s top restaurants. “Ninety percent of our food comes from outside Europe, North America and even New Zealand. Chefs and restaurants need to take the lead in empowering African farmers.” (2)
There are many opportunities to restore African cuisine to its rightful place and grandeur. There are countless other indigenous ingredients that can be substituted for invasive ones to enhance indigenous products: Bambarabi instead of peanuts; Tatashe instead of tomatoes; Buchu, Baobab, Sorel and Ngai-Ngai leaves instead of imported teas and juices.
However, another approach to decolonizing food is to mix local products with others to bring out their full intensity and flavor.
The fight against the imperialization of food begins in the mind of each individual. We must become aware of what we are and where it comes from, how it was grown and the traditions that are attached to it. By being interested in the food and the ingredients, you appreciate them at the same time. This appreciation allows you to explore traditions and cultures. Every dish has a story.
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Xtfaw8yHY
2 https://www.cntraveler.com/story/these-chefs-are-on-a-mission-to-decolonize-west-african-food