Hawa Hassan was born in Somalia and left before the age of six due to conflict in the country. As a refugee in Kenya with her mother and siblings, Hawa would later receive an opportunity to leave the country at the age of seven and relocate to Seatle, Washington where she would complete her schooling before moving to New York to pursue a career in modeling.

After a years of modeling, successfully, she began to look at her life differently and time visiting her family in Norway where they now lived, set her on the course of using food as a way to connect with loved ones and create a space to bring people of diverse backgrounds together.

As a James Beard Award-winning author for her cookbook, "In Bibi's Kitchen," she is set to release her sophmore book project "Setting a Place For Us, where she sheds light on the importance of preserving recipes and food traditions in places of conflict and migration.

Listen and Connect

Website

Instagram

Diaspora Food Stories is produced by The Global Food and Drink Initiative, a 501c3 nonprofit. Together with your generous donation we can continue to preserve the oral history and culture of Black food and drink stories both in English and other languages spoken throughout the African diaspora. To donate, visit globalforgood.org.

Website: Diaspora Food Stories

Episode Sponsor

Hayti

Doreen Irungu is the founder of Ustawi Afrika, an amazing organization that trains women farmers around food sovereignty and sustainability. To date, her organization has worked with thousands of women and continues to champion women's contributions to agriculture in Kenya. Her work has transformed the livelihoods of over 10,000 women farmers, significantly improving food security, economic independence, and resilience to climate change across Kenya’s semi-arid regions.

Born in rural Kenya to parents who are coffee farmers, Doreen saw first-hand the hard work and also the impact of farming and its ability to put food on the table and support additional needs of families such as education. These early experiences helped to shape how she wanted to build and help communities, especially women farmers.

She is also a co-author of the book, "We Took a Risk," a book highlighting the bold steps women take to create transformative change in business and leadership.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diaspora Food Stories is produced by The Global Food and Drink Initiative, a 501c3 nonprofit. Together with your generous donation we can continue to preserve the oral history and culture of Black food and drink stories both in English and other languages spoken throughout the African diaspora. To donate, visit globalforgood.org.

Website: Diaspora Food Stories

Episode Sponsor

Hayti

Nigerian chef Gbolabo Gibbs Adebakin, known simply as Chef Gibbs, founded the Nigeria Food Summit to host the largest gathering of chefs, restauranteurs, farmers, producers and more for an amazing day of speakers, panel discussions, master classes and networking.

Set to take place again on Friday, March 21 on Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria, Chef Gibbs joins us along with restauranteur and chef Nkesi Enyioha to discuss the conversations taking place as well as the work being done to amplify the rich traditions and heritage of Nigerian food culture as Nigerian cuisine continues to take its place on local and world stages.

Listen and Connect Chef Gibbs and Nigeria Food Summit

Website

Instagram

Instagram (Nigeria Food Summit)

Connect Chef Nkesi Enyioha

Instagram

Related Article from Cuisine Noir

Food Summit Celebrates Nigerian Food Culture on Local and World Stages

Diaspora Food Stories is produced by The Global Food and Drink Initiative, a 501c3 nonprofit. Together with your generous donation we can continue to preserve the oral history and culture of Black food and drink stories both in English and other languages spoken throughout the African diaspora. To donate, visit globalforgood.org.

Website: Diaspora Food Stories

Episode Sponsor

Hayti