Who am I? Journey To My Identity Through Food

Hey everyone, for those that don’t know me yet, my name is Joy, but people also call me Makena.

First Christmas in Canada

My story begins in Nakuru, Kenya when I entered the world causing chaos right from the jump – or at least that’s my parent’s version. I spent the first few years of my childhood in Kenya but moved to Canada when I was five. A few years later when I was seven, the ‘only child’ life I had become accustomed to ended, when my little brother was born. Despite living in Canada, my parents always made it clear to my brother and me that:

It may be Canada out there, but this house sits on Kenyan ground.

This Kenyan-first mentality manifested itself in many ways throughout my childhood, but as you can imagine it was the underlying factor for many disagreements between my brother, my parents, and me. Although one thing that we could always agree on, and often brought the family back together, was our love for Kenyan food.

After moving to Canada, it wasn’t too long until I was made aware of my culture and began asking myself questions given my new surroundings. One of my earliest memories takes me back to my first day of Senior Kindergarten, sitting around in a circle with my classmates and teacher, being asked to introduce myself. With excitement, I said hi to everyone and belted out my full name without a caution in the world. My excitement quickly shifted to confusion as five-year-old me sat there and watched my teacher struggle to repeat my name as my new classmates laughed. This was the first time that I had encountered a situation where someone struggled with my name as in Kenya, I have a quite common name – at times too common. Of course, at that age, I wasn’t able to process what had happened and just brushed it off but that same feeling still managed to come up again multiple times in my childhood.

It wasn’t until I hit my 20s that I started to truly understand that feeling and began asking fundamental questions about my cultural identity. During my second year of university, I traveled to Kenya for a study abroad program. I spent the first orientation week bouncing between the sessions for ‘International Students’ and ‘Kenyan Students,’ because although I was born in Kenya – and identify as Kenyan – I was at the school through the international exchange program. Situations like this challenged my sense of belonging as I worked to find a way to hit within two cultures that although I identified with both, neither fully accepted me.

My various life experiences have brought me to a place where I can see the value of both cultures and how they influence my overall life perspective. When specifically looking at my Kenyan culture, it drives me to live a life of influence that sparks change in the world. I highly value the diverse perspective that others bring to the table and believe that only through the equal acceptance of knowledge, can we advance as a society. It pushes me to use my courage, creativity, and passion for justice to ensure that all people– specifically marginalized populations – in my communities have a channel to ensure that their voices are heard.

My Canadian side has opened doors and opportunities that even surpassed the dreams of my grandmother. The multicultural environment that I grew up in taught me how to learn and appreciate other cultures and exposed me to their various beauties. I grew up with the chance to embrace various foods, cultures, and traditions and even apply a few to my life.

So where do food and culture intersect? Food transcends beyond the need to meet dietary and nutritional requirements, but rather it symbolizes a country’s social sensibilities and gives insight into the population’s history, geographies, ethnicities, cultures, tragedies, and self-perceptions. For example, in Kenya, 10 of the exotic species, such as maize and wheat, that were introduced during the pre-colonial period have been integrated into the traditions of various Kenyan tribes and are now viewed as traditional food items across the country. Reading into the history of maize and wheat in Kenya may lead you down a road where you can learn more about the importance of maize to different Kenyan tribes and the role that wheat plays in Kenya’s export sector.

Jean Brillat-Savarin brilliantly said:

Tell me what kind of food you eat, and I will tell you what kind of man you are.

Food can create a link between a country and its ability as a social indicator and cultural identity. It is safe to agree with Jean Brillat-Savarin that people are what they eat, and their food choices are based on habits, health, religion, or cultural taboos. Our food traditions display to others our beliefs, cultural and social backgrounds, incomes, and experiences.

When looking at my journey with food and culture, I instantly think about school lunchtimes when I would be eating the food my parents packed, which was often a mixture of the previous night’s leftovers. It was always a challenge to explain what I was eating to my classmates, but over time it became an opportunity to share my culture and traditions with them. Moving around a lot as a child usually meant that I often had to make new friends. I quickly realized that sharing my lunch and talking about the meanings behind the food was a way to turn my mere classmates into friends. Past school lunches, food, and mealtimes have continued to play an integral role in my life. From preparing meals at an incredibly early age with my grandma and aunts while sharing their childhood stories, to dining with Kenyan country leaders, food proved to not only be great for its delicious taste, but it has also supplied an environment to have stimulating and bold conversations.

Keeping with this theme, Malkia Cuisine aims to create a community where folks in the diaspora can partake in conversations that relate to Kenyan culture and traditions. At times they may not be easy conversations, but we aim to create a brave space so that everyone feels comfortable learning, sharing, and growing. Over the next few months, we will be introducing various conversation starter pieces and encourage you to boldly join the conversation. Our first piece will be the introduction of the ‘Conversations Over Food’ series where we will be visiting Kenyan women in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) whose cooking I have grown up with. The interviews will be hosted in their kitchens, while we prepare a meal together, which will be available through Malkia Cuisine. This will not only provide you access to delicious Kenyan meals & snacks but will also serve as a chance for us to hear about Kenyan women’s life stories and passions.

However, the conversation does not start and end with us. We want to hear from you.

• What is on your mind?

• Are there any issues happening in Kenya that truly touch your heart?

• Tap into your memories of the influential moments in your life, did food or shared meals play a role?

• How do you share your culture and traditions with others? Friends? Family? Children?

• Are there any influential women in your life, who also slay in the kitchen, that you think we should include in our ‘Conversations Over Food’ series?

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