Title: Diet Models, Indigenous Gastronomic Knowledge, and a Colonial Legacy: From Food Heritage to a Healthy, Sustainable and Kenyan Diet
Abstract:IT IS NOT POSSIBLE to discuss the present and future of the Kenyan diet without reconsidering the country's social and gastronomic history. Colonization not only affected the country's economic trajec...IT IS NOT POSSIBLE to discuss the present and future of the Kenyan diet without reconsidering the country's social and gastronomic history. Colonization not only affected the country's economic trajectory but also imposed new and foreign gastronomic models based on Franco-British cuisine. The few cookbooks published in the years following independence reflect a culinary hegemony of Western products, rooted in the use of non-indigenous plants and a higher quantity of meat. In the following decades, this gastronomic hegemony continued, leading to the introduction of new ultra-processed products as well as new urban foodways. In this context, traditional practices and products were marginalized and almost forgotten. However, in the past decade, a new attitude toward food has emerged—an understanding aimed at promoting a more sustainable, healthy, and resilient diet. This new understanding has sparked a silent revolution that reconsiders the potential of traditional products and foodways, relaunching them and opening new opportunities for the country's rural and dietary development. Drawing on the work conducted for the making of the Slow Food's Ark of Taste in Kenya (2018) and its anticipated second edition (2024), this paper will explore these trajectories and illustrate the emerging scenario regarding the Kenyan diet and the revival of traditional gastronomic products.Read More