Direct Link to PDF zine: https://warzonedistro.noblogs.org/files/2023/07/Veganism-as-Anti-Colonial-Praxis_A-Collection-of-Indigenous-Vegan-Perspectives.pdf
Despite the absorption of veganism by the capitalist market - a process that
admittingly reinforces pre-existing divisions across class and racial lines - a
vegan lifestyle taken to its logical conclusion is fundamentally anticapitalist
and anti-colonial. By (re)acknowledging sentience and
personalities within the bodies of colonized (animal) subjects, a vegan
lifestyle rejects authoritarian relationships based on disrespect for the bodily
autonomy of those whose lives have been re-purposed for human
supremacist consumption.
This small collection of shared experiences, while reflective of a larger anticolonial
struggle, highlights the inclusion of an anti-speciesist, animal
liberation.
Contents:
Veganism Is Not Anti-Indigenous
by Samah Seger ... 2
The Fascinating Plant-based History of the Dine People
by Mansour Ya row ... 5
Dairy in the Americas: How Colonialism Left Its Mark on
the Continent
by Matilde Nufiez del Prado ... 8
Veganism Through the Lens of Decolonization
By Venita Januarie ... 12
#Veganism Is Not Anti-Indigenous
by Samah Seger
Indigenous people represent around 5 percent of the world's population.
Even fewer continue to live according to traditional ways, which can include
killing animals for survival. Despite just how rare this is, arguments against
veganism often evoke Indigenous peoples to prop them up.
How often have you heard - "would you tell an Indigenous person to go
vegan?" In fact, the argument that veganism is incompatible with Indigenous
culture is unfounded. Advocates for humans, animals and our ecosystems are
natural allies in the fight against oppressive colonial structures.
As an Indigenous person, I understand the drive to protect our customs from
further erasure. Because I'm also an immigrant, I know this sentiment exists
among people living outside of their home lands who use food to maintain a
feeling of home. But modern meat production and other systems of animal
agriculture are rooted in pastoralism, which is central to the western JudeoChristian
tradition, with its pastors and godly shepherds. Colonizers were
able to spread animal agriculture around the world with the help of
Christianity, a tool used against Indigenous peoples.
Indigenous Hunter Stereotype
The argument that veganism is anti-Indigenous makes the mistake of
equating indigeneity with hunting. Portrayals of Indigenous people that
focus on violent, primitive or devious aspects of our cultures reinforce
colonial narratives of Indigenous people as savages, when in fact we have
long been masterful thinkers, gardeners, foragers, story-tellers, builders,
healers, navigators, astronomers, artists, sailors and so much more.
The shallow snapshot of Indigenous people as hunters paints us as frozen in
time, ignoring our lived reality. Today, most of us get our food from
supermarkets, eating food that bears very little resemblance to our traditional
diet. The fact that we eat differently - plant-based or not - doesn't make
us any less Indigenous.
Dairy as a Tool of Colonization
Before Europeans introduced dairy farming, the majority of the world did
not consume the milk of other species. High numbers of non-Europeans
have never adapted to the adult consumption of lactose and even experience
disproportionate rates of disease linked to dairy consumption.
Many Indigenous cultures too did not raise cattle for milk. Yet animal milk
has long been used as a tool of colonization. In the article, Animal
Colonialism: The Case of Milk, author Mathilde Cohen writes that because
animal milk was wrongly thought to be a way of boosting population
growth, governments pushed dairy farming to fulfill the "desire for a larger
indigenous [and black] labor force and army." Long term breastfeeding - a
traditional form of contraception - was demonized, and animal milk was
aggressively encouraged.
Despite widespread knowledge of its harmful effects on mothers and babies,
'breastfeeding colonialism' continues today, with formula companies using
"pervasive, misleading and aggressive," marketing tactics. According to The
United Nations, these tactics are used on vulnerable parents around the
world, creating a "substantial barrier to breastfeeding."
The practice continues into childhood. In Aotearoa (New Zealand) today,
government guidelines tell us to consume 2.5 servings of dairy a day, and
offer it in schools with no alternative, even though around 64 percent of the
Indigenous Maori people are lactose intolerant.
The White Gaze of Veganism
The earliest record of nonviolence towards animals comes from around 3000
years ago in ancient India. Nonviolence, or ahimsa, became central to
Hinduism, Buddhism and especially Jainism, which asks its adherents not to
enslave or hurt other animals. These philosophies inspired countless people
and paved the way for movements of nonviolent resistance.
Since then, decolonial and anti-racist activists, environmentalists, disability
advocates, anti-capitalists, feminists, anarchists, philosophers and others
have discussed the oppression of animals through numerous and important
lenses. For example, civil rights activist Dick Gregory once said in an
interview that "the same thing that we do to animals, the system is doing to
us," believing that "eventually it will come to a vegetarian world or no world
at all."
More recently, during a talk at the University of California, Berkeley,
political activist Angela Davis called on humanity to "develop
compassionate relations with other creatures with whom we share this
planet," placing veganism as "part of a revolutionary perspective."
Despite the many powerful and diverse activists fighting against some of the
world's most exploitative industries, veganism is often reduced in media and
academia to a mere fad for privileged white people. In reality, Black
Americans are noted as the fastest growing vegan demographic in the U.S.,
and there is notable growth of veganism among Maori too.
These stereotypes about Indigenous cultures ignore and erase the many
nations that have long relied on cheap and abundant plant staples such as
lentils, corn, potatoes, beans and chickpeas, as well as the many poor vegans
in affluent nations.
Indigenous Values
In contrast to the modern anthropocentric worldview, which sees humans as
separate and superior to other animals, most Indigenous traditions recognize
that humans are part of nature. We knew that animals were our relatives long
before Charles Darwin said so.
For example, the Mandaean God (Hayyi or "the living") is the life force of
the natural world and all its inhabitants, a perspective which sees the
sacredness of all living things. Our teachings say all killing and bloodletting
is sinful - and though we are (perhaps paradoxically) given permission to
eat male sheep, prey birds and scaled fish, "the attitude towards slaughter is
always apologetic." Some say that we, or at least our priests, used to be
vegetarian.
Though some Indigenous cultures are tokenized against veganism, their
stories tell us they cared deeply about their animal siblings. In her talk
Indigenous Veganism: Feminist Natives do eat tofu, Margaret Robinson
discusses the Mi'kmaq view that all life is related, encapsulated by the
concept of "M'sit No'maq," which means "all my relations." Because of that
view, she explains, "The modern commercial fishery, often touted as
offering economic security for Aboriginal communities, is even further
removed from our Mi'kmaq values than modern day vegan practices are."
These perspectives offer pathways to a veganism which is compatible with
the values of our ancestors, and may even help us live up to them. As
Robinson says, "Veganism offers us a sense of belonging to a moral
community, whose principles and practices reflect the values of our
ancestors, even if they might be at odds with their traditional practice."
Veganism as a Decolonial Tool
Veganism is often accused of being anti-Indigenous, but in reality it is a
response to the anti-Indigenous systems of today. Veganism offers an
opportunity to disrupt colonial logic by challenging the most basic building
blocks of colonialism, which reduce all life forms to mere objects for
capitalist exploitation.
Our people had to adapt in order to survive - and we now must do it again.
#The Fascinating Plant-based History of the Dine People
by Mansour Yarow
The Dine are an Indigenous tribe located in what is now the southwest
United States. Commonly referred to as Navajo, this population extends to
the four corners region of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. As the
most populated tribe in the U.S., we are perhaps best known for herding
sheep and weaving wool. Yet it turns out this legacy was greatly influenced
by European colonizers. The Dine people were not always sheep herders -
we have a lesser-known history that predates this colonial-era, a history very
much rooted in a plant-based way of life.
Corn, Beans and Squash Before Sheep
The Navajo Churro sheep have been a central facet of Dine culture and life
since the arrival of the European settlers in the 1500s. These animals
provided food and clothing, including mutton soup and wool blankets. Yet
prior to colonization, there were very few known instances of domesticated
animals for consumption among Indigenous people.
The Dine - which means "the people" in our language - were mainly
semi-nomadic, relying on hunting and gathering for hundreds of years for
sustenance, while migrating southwards across the plains in as early as the
1300s. We soon settled in northern New Mexico surrounded by mesas,
canyons and rivers, where they named this great land Dinetah (among the
people). Here we encountered the Pueblo, a group of Indigenous people with
strong plant-based agricultural ties that live along the Rio Grande river.
Some scientists believed the Pueblos were the ones who taught us how to
farm, although others speculate the Dine already knew how to farm at this
point. Nevertheless, the Dine culture shifted towards a farming and
agriculture lifestyle thanks to its interactions with the Pueblos, and trading
between the two groups.
Like many Indigenous tribes, the Dine learned to plant and harvest the
"Three Sisters" crops of corn, beans and squash, and discovered ways to
cook them. We used corn for a variety of dishes, such as steamed corn,
stews, corn mush, corn cakes and many more. We also used corn pollen to
bless homes, farmland and family. Though the Dine continued to hunt
animals and forage when necessary for survival, we increasingly came to
rely on farming plants, which provided families with enough food to get
them through dry summers and to be able to survive harsh winters. Soon, all
throughout Dinetah, cultivated plant crops filled the land. By the 1600s we
were masters of our own agricultural practices.
"As more and more Navajo Bands began farming, their population
increased," says Lawrence D. Sundberg, author of 'Dinetah: An Early
History of the Navajo People.' "The Farms provided more food," he writes,
boosting health and food security. As a result of this cultivation, "more
young children and older band members survived the hard winters."
Evidence of the Dine's plant-based lifestyle also emerges from the oral
stories passed down through generations. In Dine Bahane' (Navajo creation
story) the evolution of life is told through a sequence of worlds, the first
being the beginning of time all the way through the fifth world being the
present. In the fifth world, the Diyin Dine'e (holy people) gifted corn, beans,
squash, and tobacco to the Dine people. We believe that by consuming these
foods, a person will live a long life and achieve the "ultimate goal of sacred
existence in old age."
Straying from these spiritual foods also has consequences, we believe, a
higher chance of suffering poor health. By eating corn, beans and squash,
our bodies and organs function as they should and we are gifted with healthy
skin.
Healthy Indigenous Diets Replaced By Rancid Pork
The Dine witnessed a big cultural shift in the late 1500s after the arrival of
Francisco Coronado, a Spanish colonizer in what is now regarded as the
American Southwest. He and his armed forces brought with them horses,
goats, cattle, and sheep, which were traded among our people soon after
acquiring the Churro sheep. This interaction started the domestication of
animals within our tribe, eventually leading us to integrate Churro sheep into
our diet and culture for the following centuries.
Our food system was even further disrupted in 1864, when our people were
displaced from their original homeland by the U.S. Army. American soldiers
burned our farmlands, slaughtered the herds and forced us on a 300 mile
walk, known as "The Long Walk," to Fort Sumner, New Mexico for
internment at Hweeldi (Bosque Redondo).
It was there that our people had a hard time adjusting to the white man's
food. The land there was unsuitable for growing our staples, and the Dine
had to rely on government food rations of pork, cattle, flour, coffee, sugar
and goats milk. But these foods were nutritionally inadequate and, in some
cases, cooked improperly. After falling ill eating rancid meat of pork and
bacon, many Dine developed an abhorrence to pork that exists in our culture
to this day. Dairy products, such as goat milk, were forced upon us. In
hospitals and boarding schools, children were fed dairy products despite
expressing a strong dislike for these foods - perhaps because nearly 75
percent of Indigenous people are lactose intolerant.
My tribe is not the only one with strong plant-based ties. Records show that
throughout Turtle Island, most Indigenous people were in fact predominantly
plant-based agriculturists. According to Choctaw tribal member Rita Laws,
Choctaw Indians based in Mississippi and Oklahoma were excellent farmers
who grew and ate corn, pumpkins and beans - eating very little to no meat.
Their homes were made from wood, bark and cane - even their clothing
was plant-based and made from cotton.
The Mayan, Aztec and Zapotec people had twice the lifespan as most
Spanish people, eating a nutrient-dense vegetarian diet since birth. And
almost half of the world's crops were originally cultivated by Indigenous
people of North and South America, including four of the top ten: corn,
cassava, potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Many Indigenous tribes have creation stories that point to vegetarianism. In
the Choctaw creation story, corn was given to them by Hashtali (the Great
Spirit) which is considered divine. In Cherokee legends, animals, plants and
humans lived in harmony with one another until the humans became
aggressive and ate the animals. The animals created diseases in response, to
keep human population in check. Even among the Mi'Kmaq people, legends
are told with multiple references to veganism, including regret at animal
death and a kinship relationship between humans and animals.
Historically, animal agriculture was used as a tool for colonization by the
European settlers to disrupt our food systems and leave us food insecure on
reservations. For example, meat and dairy were fed to Indigenous children in
boarding schools as an effort to "civilize" us and disconnect us from our
agricultural history. Antonio De Mendoza, first Viceroy of New Spain, to the
Spanish king in the 1530s boasted of plans to take our land: "May your
Lordship realize that if cattle is allowed, the Indians will be destroyed."
Today, I am vegan as a Dine person, and as an act of protest and opposition
to the oppressive systems that exploit humans, animals and the natural
world. By recognizing our animal siblings as one of our own, we reject the
colonial idea of anthropocentrism and live in a more harmonious existence
with the world around us.
#Dairy in the Americas: How Colonialism Left Its Mark on the Continent
by Matilde Nunez def Prado
The Americas have a long, strange history with milk. While the
domestication of animals was a widespread practice in several preColumbian
cultures, the introduction of milk to the diet on the continent
began only in the 16th century as part of the process of territorial occupation
and colonial domination. Today, milk production continues to occupy large
amounts of land, polluting water and damaging vital ecosystems around the
world, and its consumption leads to serious health problems in more than
two-thirds of the world's population.
The introduction of animals to the "New World" was one of the most
effective strategies for consolidating the European colonial agenda. The first
cows arrived on the continent with Columbus on his second voyage in 1493
and spread throughout the continent in a short time. The introduction and
expansion of cattle to the Americas helped the conquerors to occupy
territories, destroy native environments, introduce European crops, and
support various extractive activities that favored the empire. As
anthropologist Rosa E. Ficek writes, "Conquest worked indirectly through
bodies of cattle taking up more and more space." The native inhabitants animals
and humans-were invaded not only by the settlers but also by their
animals, who helped transform the Americas' environments to suit European
ends.
The importation of animals also had an ideological background bathed in
racism and a superiority complex. According to Rebecca Earle, author of
The Body of the Conquistador, for Europeans, food made their bodies
different from those of the natives. "Without the right foods Europeans
would either die, as Columbus feared, or, equally alarmingly, they might
turn into Amerindians," she writes. In addition, the conquerors considered
that their methods of agriculture, mostly based on cattle, were better than the
local forms. In the eyes of the colonists, the exercise of human dominance
over other creatures considered "lesser" was a demonstration of cultural
superiority. Imposing their livestock system, transforming human-animal
relations, and changing the feeding patterns of the natives was a way of
"civilizing" them, which was one of the main objectives of colonization.
Thus, food colonialism was not a consequence of the conquest, but an
integral part of the imperial project.
Despite the early expansion of cows after the arrival of Europeans, milk
consumption did not spread so quickly across the continent. For much of the
colonial period, milk production remained at a subsistence level and was
consumed mostly by the families of the hacendados, and by their workers
when there was a surplus. Only towards the end of the 18th century, the
growing need for labor led to concerns about the fertility, birth rate, and
breastfeeding practices of female workers, and the imposition of cow's milk
as a necessary food group. The long breastfeeding period to which
Indigenous and Black slaves were accustomed seemed to negatively impact
fertility and reduce the amount of work for the lactating mother. In addition,
the milk from these mothers was considered poor quality compared to that of
European cows. For Mathilde Cohen, Professor of Law at the University of
Connecticut, milk colonialism and breast-feeding colonialism are part of
what she calls "animal colonialism." "Improving or modernizing maternity
meant replacing the human breast by cow's milk," so "lactating animals
were conscripted in a colonial reproductive politics aimed at reforming
maternity," she writes.
Most colonies in the Americas achieved their independence from Europe
between the 18th and 19th centuries, however, milk continued to be imposed
throughout the region as a form of neo-colonialism linked to the interests of
capital. As Merisa S. Thompson, Lecturer in Gender and Development at the
University of Birmingham, writes, "Both the milk of humans and milk from
animals is increasingly manipulated for economic means, with the latter
increasingly coming under the purview of the law." During the 20th century,
the mass consumption of milk was the result of state policies, first in the
United States and then in the rest of the continent. According to Vax.com,
during World War I many American farmers left grain farming to
concentrate on milk due to state demand for this food for soldiers. With the
end of the war, the demand for milk dropped significantly, but its production
didn't cease, rather campaigns were implemented to encourage its
consumption. Milk was advertised as essential for growing children and
strengthening bones, it was introduced in school breakfasts, restaurants were
encouraged to create high-dairy menus, and leftovers were sent to other
countries as aid food.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, milk production quickly became an
essential part of the desired economic development. Governments of the
region not only created campaigns to promote milk consumption but also
facilitated the importation of milking equipment and dairy processing
infrastructure by large landowners, and invested in training and breeding
programs. The United States also intervened through development-oriented
credits that, according to Ficek, "encouraged fences, improved pasture grass,
vaccination, sanitation, and other interventions that helped turn cattle into
profit." This meant the expansion of a standardized capitalist model that
implies the importation of special grasses, antibiotics, herbicides, new
breeds, and the introduction of new foods in the diets of the cows to improve
their productivity. "As with other nation-state-building techniques, milk
production has produced new forms of domination," Veronica PaciniKetchabaw,
Cristina Vintimilla, and Alex Berry, researchers on the issue in
the Andean region, state.
The colonial footprint of the dairy industry
Today, the colonial legacy of milk continues to affect the region. Although
Latin America represents only 8 percent of the world's population, it
produces 11 percent of the world's milk. Almost a quarter of the bovine
cattle are used for milk production in Brazil, which has the second-largest
dairy herd in the world and is the first producer of milk in the region. In
other countries, the percentage can be even higher, as in Colombia, where 41
percent of the cows work for the dairy industry. In South America alone,
milk production reached 64 million tonnes in 2018, and at the Latin
American level, it increased by around 3.3 percent between 2020 and 2021.
All this has negative consequences for the environment, ranging from the
pollution of rivers, high emissions of greenhouse gases, excessive use of
water, and, probably the most serious, the destruction of the Amazon.
It is estimated that between 1985 and 2018, the Amazon rainforest lost 72.4
million hectares of forest and vegetation cover, of which 70 percent is used
for pasture and much of the rest for forage crops. Of course, local milk
production contributes to some part of this catastrophe, but in this case, it
shares the responsibility with the international dairy industry. According to a
recent investigation by the Bureau, Greenpeace Unearthed, ITV News, and
the Daily Mirror, "UK farms supplying milk and dairy products for
Cathedral City Cheddar, Anchor butter and Cadbury chocolate are feeding
their cattle soya from a controversial agribusiness accused of contributing to
widespread deforestation in Brazil." This affects not only millions of
animals that are diminished by the loss of their territory, but also the entire
ecosystem of South America, which depends on the Amazon, and the more
than 100 Indigenous peoples who live there.
In addition to environmental devastation, dairy production and consumption
in the Americas come with various health problems. According to a study
published in The Lancet, approximately 68 percent of the world's population
suffers from lactose malabsorption. This means that once they pass early
childhood they stop producing lactase and cannot digest milk sugars.
However, despite the fact that in the United States lactase non-persistence
occurs in a majority of African-, Asian-, Hispanic-, and Native-American
individuals, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends two to three
daily servings of dairy products, which could be described as racial bias,
according to a paper in this regard. Lactose intolerance can present
symptoms such as acne, bloating, cramps, or diarrhea, among others, and yet
it is not the worst consequence of milk for health. Dairy consumption has
been associated with an increased risk of breast, ovarian, and prostate
cancers, autoimmune diseases, and Parkinson's. According to the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine, saturated fat in milk and other dairy
products contributes to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer's
disease. In addition, studies show that the consumption of milk has higher
risks of total mortality and, contrary to popular belief, bone fracture rates
tend to be higher in countries that consume milk, compared to those that
don't. Despite all this, in most countries of the region, the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans are taken as a reference, and programs to promote
dairy consumption are carried out based on it- for example, in Bolivia,
Ecuador, Paraguay, and Colombia-which proves that colonialism has
transcended until today to the detriment of the population health.
Imagining a world without dairy
As writer and activist Zane McNeill explains, the dominance exercised by
nations and corporations from the Global North over previously colonized
nations in the Global South, through international capitalism, is a form of
neo-colonialism. And that is precisely what is currently happening with the
dairy industry in the Americas. But what would happen if the entire region
decided to leave the cow's milk for the calves? Can we imagine another
future?
Ecologically, a measure like this would contribute to considerably reducing
the carbon footprint, the use of water and land, and the pollution of rivers.
The use of antibiotics and pesticides would also be reduced. Deforestation of
the Amazon rainforest would be much less, leading to the recovery of local
flora and fauna, and allowing a greater capture of greenhouse gases.
Population health would improve in many ways, helping to reduce the
current overload of the health system and saving money that the States could
invest in improving hospital care. It would also reduce the risk of zoonotic
diseases associated with dairy production, such as tuberculosis, brucellosis,
leptospirosis, salmonellosis and listeriosis.
Latin America and the Caribbean are full of nutritious plants that are perfect
for preparing plant-based milks, such as amaranth, tarwi, quinoa, Amazonian
nuts, peanuts, and potatoes, among many others. Changing animal milk for
milk based on local plants would not only be an act of cultural and territorial
vindication, but also a full exercise of food sovereignty. Workers from the
old dairy sector could find employment in the native plant-based industry.
Above all, abandoning the colonial legacy of dairy would free millions of
cows, bulls, and calves from the system of exploitation to which they are
currently subjected, eliminate the suffering of mothers and babies that are
prematurely separated every day, avoid painful diseases to hundreds of
sentient animals and would allow them to enjoy the grass, the sun, and their
loved ones. For humans, such an act of compassion would bring as a reward
a healthier life, with a lower risk of invasive diseases and, probably, a longer
life span.
So, what are we waiting for?
#Veganism Through the Lens of Decolonization
By Venita Januarie
Our Ancestors Followed A Plant-Based Diet
To many of its advocates veganism is not a new trend - it is simply a return
to traditional African diets. "I particularly think it's important to spread
veganism around Africa because it originated in Africa" says Nicola
Kagoro, a chef working in South Africa and Zimbabwe. "Our ancestors
didn't eat as much meat. It is through colonization that we learned these
crazy meat-eating practices". Kagoro founded the African Vegan on a
Budget movement to show Africans vegan diets can be affordable and
filling. She also cooks for female vegan armed rangers group the Akashinga,
who fight elephant poaching in Zimbabwe. Tendai Chipara, the Zimbabwean
blogger behind Plant-Based African, adds that the plant-based movement is
not new to Zimbabwe:
"Our ancestors followed a plant-based diet and they thrived
and most died of old age. The food they ate was organic and
meat products were consumed minimally. The unfortunate thing
that happened to us as people was colonization which led to a
massive change to our food production, access to land, and the
emergence of processed foods. We now have a high number of
the population being affected by lifestyle-related issues such as
type-2 diabetes. So I am very passionate about Zimbabwean
plant-based cuisine because it is medicine."
Until about five centuries ago, Africa remained mainly dependent on
traditional food. When adventurers and slave-traders came to the African
continent, they introduced various crops and the larger-scale domestication
of animals for commercial consumption and export. These capitalistic
farming methods exacerbated the spread of animal diseases among humans.
The nomadic lifestyle of some African tribes, which required smaller herds,
also began to dwindle as meat production became a lucrative industry and
changed the eating patterns of people on the continent.
According to Kagoro, when Africa was colonized by the West, they started
industrial livestock farms for exporting meat. With time, the locals too
adapted to it and the plant-based diet started fading. But this Zimbabwe based
chef is not keeping up with the current times; rather, she is going back
to the roots. When Nicola Kagoro told her friends that she wants to start a
vegan movement in her community, they laughed at her. "Our ancestors
were vegan," she said. "We have always been vegan, and that tradition and
culture should not be forgotten." Kagoro was referring to the time before the
West has colonized the African continent and overthrew the plant-based diet
for a meat-based one.
Hummus, injera and tahini, like many other African dishes, have gained
prominence on an international scale owing to the increased popularity of
veganism. The earliest mention of hummus made using tahini dates back to
Egypt in the 13th century, although it is popular in Greek cuisine too.
In research on the world's healthiest diets, published in The Lancet in 2015,
west African countries such as Mali, Chad, Senegal and Sierra Leone, which
boasted diets rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, topped the list.
Ethiopian cuisine relies on plant-based foods such as the sourdough
flatbread injera, lentils and beans. Ethiopian cuisine is very vegan-friendly
due to strict fasting periods imposed by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Thus, during fasting, they are not allowed to consume any animal products.
Their meals mainly comprise of vegetables, legumes, and spices during
these periods. Injera is a staple flatbread used in place of plates or utensils in
Ethiopian cuisine. Stews (called wat) are spooned on top and pieces from
injera are used to scoop up the food.
"What the Health"
Health and climate concerns accelerated the growth of plant-based diets
which were once prevalent on the continent. Conditions such as heart
disease and cancer have now overtaken infectious diseases such as cholera
and measles to become the biggest drain on Africa's economies, according to
the World Health Organization. Much of the continent is already feeling the
effects of the climate crisis - a common reason for reducing meat intake - as
more regular and unpredictable droughts and floods wreak havoc for farmers
and regularly claim lives. There is a name for this: nutrition transition. This
explains a shift in dietary consumption that coincides with economic
development. It's most often used to talk about a shift away from more grain
and fiber-rich diets toward processed meat-heavy Western dietary patterns.
Fatimat Adelabu, the author of the blog Je Gbese, says that she grew up
eating many meat-heavy dishes. Goat, cow tripe, oxtail, and fish were
common additions to stewed dishes. She transitioned to plant-based in 2017
after watching the documentary "What the Health" on Netflix.
"I started off watching it with a bowl of chicken and rice, by
mid-way I had placed the half-eaten bowl next to me, and at the
end," says Adelabu. "I was in the kitchen bagging meats from
my fridge and freezer and tossing them into my garbage can."
Chipara, author of Plant-Based African, adopted a whole foods, plantbased
diet after being diagnosed with type-2 diabetes in 2018. Prior to
that, she struggled with other health issues such as anemia, fatigue,
joint pain, and depression.
"I realized that I was going down a slippery slope that would
end up with me without limbs, blind or worse dead," she says.
"Looking at evidence-based research the most successful way
to deal with insulin resistance is to adopt a whole food plantbased
diet. "
In addition to health-related reasons, many people adopt a vegan lifestyle
due to the ethical aspects associated with animal farming. By choosing
veganism, these individuals recognize that animals are not ours (humans) to
use or consume, and in this manner take a stand against cruelty and
exploitation by abstaining from its products and practices.
On a personal note, and speaking as someone who lives a vegan lifestyle,
many people ask me why did I suddenly decide to change such a big facet of
my life. Modernization, industrialization, and colonization aside, the most
honest answer I can give is because it allowed the most authentic expression
of myself. I could not advocate for life and protecting the environment while
I clearly turned a blind eye to the suffering of sentient creatures and the
systematic destruction of our environment. My bottom line is and always
will be: due to our history, colonization will always have remnants in Africa,
our responsibility is our choices and actions.
What do you think about veganism as an African?
I'm sorry but if I had the name "Catherine Putz" like the author of this article, I'd definitely change it. What a putz.