Anan Lololi
In this episode
In this episode, Steph chats with Anan Lololi, a seed saver, activist, and musician who has been working in Toronto’s food sovereignty movement for over 30 years. Co-founder of the Afri-Can Food Basket, Anan is currently the Chair of the Black Food Sovereignty Working Group, and a Research Associate with Toronto Metropolitan University at the Centre for Studies in Food Security. In this episode Anan talks about how learning to farm and save seeds for culturally important foods–like long beans, bitter melon, pak choi, and callaloo–brings food security, leadership skills, and joy, to folks of African descent. He talks about Toronto’s food sovereignty movement, the impact of community gardens, and what authentic allyship in the food movement looks like.
ANAN’S WORK & INFLUENCES
- Afri-Can Food Basket: Building strong, sustainable, local food systems
- About Toronto’s Black Food Sovereignty Plan, City of Toronto, 2021
- About Ujamaa Farm
- A cool example of a yam festival that Anan references can be found here
- Marcus Garvey
- Walter Rodney
UPLIFTING PEOPLE
- Malik Yakini, People’s Food Co-op, Detroit.
- Leticia Ama Deawuo, Executive Director, SeedChange
- Bashir Monier, chef, food sovereignty activist, professor at George Brown College
- Nicole Austin- Black Student Engagement Coordinator | Ryerson Urban Farm
- Winston Husbands
- Solomon Boye, Master gardener, Community Garden Manager