A Journey of Culinary Liberation!
It's all about the Red, Black, and Green! Choosing more red, black, and green foods leads to renewed health and vigor - making us stronger warriors, healers, and builders. Growing the foods we eat and supporting black farmers are our choices for liberation. Preparing delicious meals that inspire, heal and bring families together comes out of our Afrikan ways.
Join the AYA-Ngolo family and create your own Ngolo liberation plates that inspire, nourish, and heal. Praise the Red, Black, and Green!
This book is a culmination of a #LiberationPlateChallenge called by the AYA-Ngolo Gardens Committee in February 2021. More than one hundred took up the challenge to create dishes and share photos, recipes, and family stories. This book is Ujamaa - collective work and responsibility - with flavor!
It will help you walk away from the malaise nurtured by imbalanced food choices and our consuming too many processed foods. We hope it will also encourage you to incorporate more plant-based cooking and eating into your lifestyle. You will learn about allomelanin-rich and African cultural foods that feed our Blackness.
In our tradition, a feast without stories is not a feast at all. We hope the family stories included will trigger your olfactory memories and spark you to create new dishes and new stories that create authentic emotional and cultural connections and lead you back home.
RECIPE CONTRIBUTORS
Jasmine BarberGrace CheptuJohnika DreherBaoku DuduyemiHabiba Hall-BeyKhem IrbyHopi LoveQoqo LoveAfiya Madzimoyo
Barber, Jasmine: - Jasmine came to the Liberation Plate Challenge because she wanted to participate in the embodiment of Pan-Afrikanism by "feeding her blackness" and honoring the wisdom of the Afrikan way of being. Jasmine is a self-proclaimed dream maker and an advocate for small business owners. She prides herself on understanding the needs of the business owner and being able to connect entrepreneurs with their passion and the necessary resources to move their dreams and businesses forward. She is CEO of Alerio Management Group LLC (business management consulting), Founder of Money Savvy Single Mom sacred economics collective, Owner of Jasmine Annette Company (a luxury artisan craft company), and a Beauty Consultant for TruAura Beauty. Jasmine is a single mom of three adventurous boys and enjoys subsistence home gardening, Ancient Egyptian Yoga, Kemetic philosophy, healing arts therapy, Afro-Caribbean dance, and Ayurvedic living.
Cheptu, Grace: - Cheptu came to the Liberation Plate Challenge as a way to celebrate her Blackness in community with others while building her personal health through nutritious, melanin-enriched eating. In addition to empowering others for vibrance and well-being, she enjoyed the challenge as an avenue to exercise her creativity through food preparation and presentation. Cheptu enjoys bringing forth life and creativity through whatever she endeavors. As an independent musician/teacher, Cheptu nurtures and draws out the musical talents and expressive gifts in her students of all ages. Through her ministry, NowJourneyHome, Cheptu is deeply committed to her calling as an archetypal dreamwork analyst and spiritual companion who helps others explore the language and messages of their dreams for personal growth and actualization. She is also a writer, a perennial gardener, and the loving mother of an adult son.
Madzimoyo, Afiya C.: - Afiya came to the Liberation Plate Challenge with lots of enthusiasm. She was hyped at the idea of preparing more melanin-rich foods, and to do that around our Marcus Garvey flag colors actually delighted her. She launched herself quickly by going out and buying all the red, black, and green foods she could find, and the rest is history. Afiya is the Co-Director of AYA Educational Institute and joined her husband, Wekesa (co-director of AYA), in launching the Ngolo Movement in early 2020. This movement was designed to support us in staying healthy and strong during COVID. Our protocol called for eating more allomellanins. This challenge showed us how. Afiya is the lead administrator for AYA, a principal trainer in AYA's Warriors / Healers / Builders model, and she enjoys growing food. She is a mother to four and a grandma to ten.
