Thread by @aleyakassam

Yesterday's eyebrow raising news about the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) had me wondering about how we will feel the implications of this in our lives...

& it had me remembering a story about KMC from a lifetime ago

Bungoma, bumper harvests & burning bean cobs

A story thread

Many years ago I lived in Bungoma, working for an NGO.

At one point I was assisting with research looking at kitchen gardens, and how HIV/AIDS in the area was affecting farming...who was doing the farming, what was being grown, what it was being grown for...

It's been over a decade, but this particular story I haven't been able to forget

An elderly woman was telling us about the ways in which they used to farm & cook when she was much younger

Bungoma is lush with a treasure trove of delicious and nutritious indigenous vegetables

Litoto (Amaranth), Namasaka (Black Nightshade), Sikhubi (Cowpeas), Kimiroo (Crotolania), Malenge (Pumpkin Leaves), Tsisaka (Spider Plant), Murenda (Jute Mallow) & many more

Most of these grew easily, were drought resistant, highly nutritious and often had medicinal properties

The elder was telling us how growing up, how beloved & valued these vegetables were.

She told us how you'd just pick what was growing around and then put it in a gourd over a fire, and let it slowly cook as you went about your business

You cooked them with munyu mesherekha and added soured milk - the slight fermentation made them even more delicious & kept them preserved for days & days & days.

Munyu mesherekha is high in potassium, it tenderizes tough leaves & adds a smoky flavour to the dish

To make the munyu mesherekha, you gather bean pods, groundnut kernels, maize cobbs...you dry them in the hot sun until they are paper dry

Then you burn it up till it turns to ash, adding little sprinkles of water as it cools down

So the elder was telling us about how things were before...

then one year, she remembers that the colonials brought with them kale, and 'convinced' them to grow these in the farms

Strangely there was a bumper harvest that year, at the kale DID SO WELL!

Now there was an abundance of this one crop - but it just wasn't very tasty 😒

Even when they added their munyu mesherekha, the kale was just....well...bland

However, they discovered that kale didn't take long to cook - which meant they used up less firewood...

They figured out if they added tomatoes, it made it more palatable, and the colonials told them if they cooked it with fat instead of munyu mesherekha, it would be tasty

it's true, with fat & tomatoes it was tasty

Just that many people didn't grow tomatoes or make their own fat

They'd have to trade or buy it...

At the same time as the bumper harvest of kale, she remembers that the Kenya Meat Commission made an appearance into Bungoma

And many people were 'convinced' to sell their livestock

And so many many many people ended up selling their cows

This bumper harvest encouraged people to grow more kale....and to do so they needed seeds...they needed to buy seeds

Whether they got money....what they did with the money...

(maybe they bought kale seeds, maybe fat, maybe tomatoes, who knows...)

But she said after that, she remembers their diet began becoming less varied

Many decades later, she told us she wished kale had never been introduced, because she's seen how the community's health has been affected by this over-dependence on one type of green

This memory that she has of that specific time is one that was repeated by other elders within her age-set

She felt this moment was such a pivotal moment, and the appearance of KMC and Kale had such long-lasting effects on their lives

I've never been able to forget that story (and I can still taste the smokiness in the mrenda she served us)

(I know this, and yet) It is so striking to see the tangible ways in which decisions made by others up there have such real life impact on people

Fin

This thread is especially for you @Nanjala1 - I've been meaning to share with you this memory for a long time

❤️