Memory and Flavors of an Afro-Diasporic Dialogue Toward Food Justice: Contributions from the Venezuelan Experience

Abstract

The inequalities across the global food system are rooted in structural racism and the increasing hunger across the world. Black, Indigenous, and people of color have been disproportionately affected by food injustice interlinked with other forms of violence and oppression. The current health, food, ecological, and social crisis poses new challenges on the everyday food practices. We consider social memory as a key field to explore the meanings, silences, and resistances of afro-diasporic peoples in relation to food. To answer the question: Which are the meanings of the food systems that are produced, recovered, and transformed from the social memory in the current context of a greater mediatization of racial violence throughout the continent? We started this exploration during the COVID-19 lockdown. Under the project “Flavors of Afro Memory - Sabores de la Memoria Afro” and with the aim of understanding the intersections between food, race, and power, we used social media (Instagram and WhatsApp) to collect testimonies and recipes. From May to December 2020, we receive 43 contributions from afro-descendant people from Venezuela, and other countries from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. From testimonies, recipes, and stories, we found narratives related with diversity, agency, and identity as important aspects for culturally appropriate agendas toward food justice. These aspects are connected with the evocated places, creating territories of Afro-food memories. Finally, we discuss the importance of the afro-diasporic dialogues from the Afro-Venezuelan perspective to contribute to comparative and relational analysis for linking the North–South struggles for black liberation toward food justice.