Elton Brown: 0:07

Welcome to SpeakUP! International with Rita Burke and Elton Brown!

Rita Burke: 0:13

Dare I say that I'm like a child in a candy shop just before our interviews begin! That is because I'm excited to hear the stories that are told by our guests. And they all bring such exciting stories to this platform that I cannot wait to hear them continue! Today is no exception. We have with us somebody from our community. His name is Anan Zola Leloli. He describes himself as a food sovereignty and food justice. advocate. He's also a musician and a vegan, and Nan is one of the founders of the African Food Basket, which began in 1995. He has a master's degree in environmental studies with a focus on community food security. Anan is presently a research associate fellow at the Toronto Metropolitan University, and without any doubt, it gives Anan great joy to work with low income communities, helping them to become food secure. He has lectured across Canada, the US, and the Caribbean on food security. Folks, this community builder brings much to the table. So listen, learn, be inspired, and be educated by our guest, Mr. Anan Zola Laloli. Thank you.

Anan Xola Lololi: 1:57

Thank you very much for this introduction. I'd like to give thanks to the Almighty and the spirits of my ancestors as I come to you today. I ask of their guidance, wisdom, and support as we begin. This conversation. Thank you!

Elton Brown: 2:15

Thank you! This Definitely gives us an opportunity to focus in on the importance of your work that you've done over the years Anan can you tell us a little bit about the food basket and when it was founded.

Anan Xola Lololi: 2:35

As my dear sister Rita said, the food basket started in 1995. I had just finished college, I went to Centennial College, and I was studying business management. Um, I stated before. Most of my life before that I was a musician. I play in this, uh, someone, some people folks say, uh, the greatest reggae band ever come out of Canada, Truths and Rights, um, uh, in the late seventies and, and mid eighties, um, when, when I finished college, um, the idea was to start a vegan restaurant as a Rastaman and as an idealist Um, it's always about food, uh, you know, Rastafari, um, there's some mansions, especially the Nyabinghi Mansion, where the adherents are vegan. We like to say Aitag, we live a natural lifestyle and engage in the natural liberty, like born in spirit say, um, wish I could live up in the hills. It's about living a natural lifestyle. So, um, I finished school and the final project for me was the business plan of this vegan restaurant. It so happened, uh, just as I came out of school, a good friend of mine, uh, Nene Kofeli, Some people might know him as Paul Caffelli. He was working at the ministry, I think it was the Ministry of Citizenship and the NDP government, only NDP government in Ontario, I think. And, um, they had this funding and I applied, um, I, I see the opportunity and I said, well, I could put together a business plan and I could do this. And, uh, the idea was to set up a food buying club for the black community in Toronto. And the idea of the food buying club is because. People of African descent, uh, more so folks from the Caribbean at that time, because that was the dominant population around 1990s, 1977, uh, and so, um, 77, 95. And, um, as people of African descent, our diet, we consume the most expensive foods. Because, you know. Uh, if you're going to store right now, sweet potato from Jamaica, I could safely say it as an authority on food, the best sweet potato in the world, uh, coming and selling in Canada. That sweet potato is 4 a pound right now in Toronto. When the food basket started, it was probably around 1. 95, two dollars a pound. In a matter of... 25 years, it has doubled the price and you go in any store and that's sweet potato. So there's just one example of the foods that we like to consume. I don't talk about the yam. There's another expensive food, callaloo. For a long time, callaloo was four dollars a pound. I can tell you something quickly about callaloo. Callaloo grows very good up here. It grows wild up here too. And there's a, there's a, there's a Canadian variety. Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur is from the, the, the plant family of the Amaranth family. And, um, so what I'm saying is that we realize in our community, in the black community, um, we live in a lot of low income communities as a majority of people. Uh, we come from the low income side of, um, of communities and we were purchasing the most expensive foods. So we decided to start a food buying club. And the idea of the Food Buying Club is like a consumer cooperative whereby, um, you purchase a share in the food basket every month and you get a basket of food with all the good culturally specific foods that people of African descent consume. There could be yam, sweet potato, cassava, plantain, okra, mangoes. Um, avocados, sometimes you get chocho, uh, sometimes you get callaloo, you name it. Uh, and we always have this basket of food that we distribute. The main focus of the distribution was seniors and single parents, especially single mothers. But we had, we had support from our communities. And for sure, um, I know I'm getting myself in trouble, but I can't remember the name of Rita Burke's bookstore, but there was one of the drop offs of the African football. We had community place where we drop off baskets for people. And, and, um, and it was, it was, it was in line with what one of one of my. Heroes, uh, said about the economic basis of African life, the economic base of African life was originally a cooperative mutual aid. We always live cooperatively. And I come from a background of cooperative development from the country. That's the first cooperative Republic in the world. You have to live and experience that initial revolution in Guyana to know. About cooperative development. It was a socialist cooperative country. And it was also the way people of African live in Africa. Traditionally, we live a cooperative lifestyle. That is, being cooperative is a natural way we live. We, we don't, we just fool around with capitalism, but we don't know. That's not our style. This, this, this self destructive way of development is not the African style. It's not the indigenous community style. We live in harmony with nature. So the idea for the food buying club is a community cooperative. And we really, uh, made inroads in our community, delivering these foods in the community. And that was the beginning of the African food basket.

Rita Burke: 9:19

That's how I met you, Mr. Zula. Let me interrupt you a little bit. You have said so much that it would be too much to fit into a book. But indeed, that's how I met. That's how I met. Zola through the African food basket, and I'll let you know that I miss having those boxes dropped off. I guess COVID got in the way of so many things, but I certainly, certainly appreciated the work that you did and what you're currently doing. But I want to ask another question. I want to pretend that I'm illiterate, and I don't understand what food justice means. So tell me what a food justice advocate does, please.

Anan Xola Lololi: 10:05

Food justice advocate. Um, food justice. Um, it, I, I was one of the original folks who began the movement of food justice in North America. And I would say it come out both. From America and Canada, but it's mostly America. I'd like to give you a quick, short explanation. Basically, food justice is about dismantling racism in the food system. This food system, when we look at the food system, when we talk about the food system, we talk about everything to do with food. Everything from seed, soil, and water to table. So you have the production, then you have the area where you take the food, for instance, like peanut. You harvest peanuts, you take it to the factory, you make peanut butter. Then you start distributing it to warehouses or retail stores. And the consumer consume it. And then you recycle whatever it is, is a whole closed loop circle of a food system. Okay, there's a sustainable food system ready more conscious of making sure that. Everything you do around food is in a sustainable way for resilient communities. Now, when you look at the food system of slavery, that is a food system too. Okay. But that is a food system that has as the foundation racism of racial inequality and the enslavement of people of African descent. So when we talk about food justice, we're looking at food historically, but we're also looking at food presently, because the present food system has a lot of food injustice, has a lot of racism. So the idea is to take white supremacy out of the food system in Canada, and I would say in North America, and I would say in the world. So it's looking at how we can have justice in the food system. For instance, We've been here farming in this country probably since the 16th, 1700s, and it's hard to identify a black farming community. If we look good, we might, we might see what they're calling now modern, um, the displacement of communities. Our ethnic cleansing because we had black farmers because you know, we, we, we had a lot of experience if it's, even if it's unwillingly in slavery, we were doing the farm. Okay. Uh, there's actually an interesting book called black rice, where it outlines how people of African descent brought rice to North America. And rice was one of the highest commodity coming out of America at a certain time in history. That rice was planted by people of African descent. When I say planted, the whole production, because Europeans didn't know anything about planting rice before we. They brought us. They didn't just brought any and anybody into slavery and they brought the best minds out of Africa. Okay. And I, I think the wrong Virginia. There's, there's lots of history around black rice, the book is black rice for interesting read. You know, I mean, so we know we're planting.

Rita Burke: 13:52

You bet! Let me say though, that if you recall, in the 70s in this country, rice was not readily available in the supermarkets to comment on your rice statement. Yes.

Anan Xola Lololi: 14:06

Okay. See that. And, and we, we had it, we, we, we had it as one of the main crops commercial America, even before cotton and sugar cane, it was rice was black rice. Where I come from in Guyana and the women that were enslaved, they do something that is very, very, very important to our survival and food. They brought the seeds. Of rice and beans and okra within the cornrows in the air. Cause they don't know where we go in. And they had the foresight to introduce things like okra. And the black rice, yeah, they introduce the different crops to this part of the world because of the ingenuity of putting that here that there's crops in the hair.

Rita Burke: 14:59

So, they were thinking food security, even though they didn't know the term way back then, they were taking care of their families. That's amazing. That is truly, truly fantastic. I appreciate that.

Anan Xola Lololi: 15:12

It's not food security. It's what we're calling black food sovereignty that we, we defining what we need. So my four parents, uh, my four mothers and grandmothers. They see the need to stay food sovereign that they brought our cultural foods with them. Thank you.

Elton Brown: 15:36

Food sovereignty is extremely important for our independence, where we're not relying on anyone else but ourselves in order to eat well. So how can we use our backyards? To grow our own food. And is there a way of being educated to do so?

Anan Xola Lololi: 15:57

Yes. Um, I, I would say the African food basket. Um, we did some real pioneering work within this city, especially within the black community. We did backyard gardens and we did backyard gardens intentionally in the lower income communities and at members of the African food basket over a period of time. And as Rita said earlier, The book is coming, Rita, people to see and hear about these interesting things we did. We did, especially in Toronto Community Housing, we work in, we had a program we call Community Food Animation, where we would go into communities and help them to start planting the food in their backyard, because it's simple. All you need is to have this space with enough sun, at least five hours of sunshine. You prepare the bed. You prepare the soil, you plant the seed, and you water the seedlings that come, and then you harvest the food. It's as simple as that. And we're right now looking for the opportunity to do that more intentionally with black community. But it's got to be the will Elton of our people. To see the idea of food sovereignty of people of African descent, defining our own food security. We have to do it. We can't depend on government. Uh, we, the idea of food sovereignty is to work in partnerships with governments. So government could give us the resources for us to be more food secure by determining our black food sovereignty. That mean anyone who have a property should be able to start planting their own food. And it's, it's, it's a good exercise for the family, but it's also good knowledge for the young children in the family, because when you ask children, where food come from, especially those living apartment buildings, you know what they know, because we work with young children at community centers. And they said food comes from McDonald's, Burger King, Harvey's, and they're right to some extent, because we as parents and as community, we need to be intentional with our young children about black food sovereignty, about our cultural foods, and where they come from, and actually where food comes from. So Elton is for us to be intentional. And I can tell you something, anyone who could Google. You could plant a whole farm if you just Google farming, or Google backyard gardening, or just Google planting, whatever. But two things. Mm

Elton Brown: 18:51

hmm. Two things. Oh, go ahead, Rita.

Rita Burke: 18:54

Two things. Since we've experienced COVID, many people are planting even on their verandas these days. A lot of people are using boxes. And, do you know what? As you know, I grew up in the Caribbean and planting food. Was a natural phenomena. I remember being in our kitchen and washing the eggplants and throwing the water through the window and voila! You had eggplants growing and producing. I remember washing okras and throwing it out through the kitchen window into our backyard and you had food to eat. So, to some degree, I think we are a people who are accustomed to planting and reaping. And I think more and more people are moving in that direction. So thanks for telling us that story. And on top of that, my grandson saw me making french fries in the kitchen and thought he didn't know french fries came from people's kitchens. They came from McDonald's. So you're so correct in what you're saying. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for enlightening us!

Elton Brown: 20:07

You know, when we talk about Uh, sovereignty. I see it in the city where they have areas where they allow community farming, but I don't see. Black people participating in this type of farming. So must we come up with a way of designating our own land in order to produce our own food? And must we go through the government in order to get that land?

Anan Xola Lololi: 20:39

Well, Elton, um, again, the African Food Basket, uh, in 2007, we started what we call Black Incubator Farm Programs, where we engage any Black folks who are interested in farming. We had access to a two acre farm in McVean, and we're still there presently. And also, At Jane and Steelers, where we were Jane and Steelers since 2007 until present, and we always engage specifically young people and some older folks in what we call incubator farming and incubator farming is basically a process whereby you make access to farming accessible to communities. So, we would make sure we provide access to land, irrigation. Infrastructure when it's an infrastructure talking about irrigation system, a shed to put the tools, a wash station to wash the vegetables, and also a cooler to store the vegetables after they are harvested, after they are harvested, and also provide training. But as you say, it always comes with funding and It has always been a struggle for us to get funding because we, we tend to focus more on the, the land and doing the work. And, um, but we still at it and we still engage in farmers to this day. We're in a better position now, but I could tell you right now, your observation, uh, is a little bit skewed because right now, especially our black women farmers, I got to salute them. Because they step up to the plate. If you go to this place, like Dungeon Park, take a walk sometime, you can see black people farming, okay? You can see black people farming, um, in their backyards, actually farming. It's a farm called Zawadi Farm, my brother doing, breeding his backyard. He has like a, what you call a, a small greenhouse, a hoop house. We'll be able to extend the season. So we get in there. There's a lot of, actually there's a lot of organizing around and we're organizing around that right now. We're right now doing more research to look at what we did historically with the incubator farms. So, because I think it's a, it's a situation about knowledge and as, uh, Chancellor, Chancellor Williams. When you guys know Chancellor Williams, he is the author of, uh, The Destruction of Black Civilization. But the book that a lot of people haven't read is the other book, The Rebirth of Black Civilization. What is the answer to our situations? And he said, um, we need to begin to organize community along the cooperative lines. We need to begin to organize the community. Uh, in a way that divide the community, the educational groups, everything we do need to be intentional. It mustn't be left by chance. We have to be intentional, and that is, that is the important thing about food sovereignty. It's the intentionality of communities defining their own food system, their own food security. Because the whole idea of food security is that being co opted by capitalism. People don't control the food anymore. That's why the new paradigm in food development is food sovereignty. And even more focus for us is black food sovereignty. Because food sovereignty is nothing new to us. Food sovereignty, we were always food sovereign before colonization. Because if you're not food sovereign, you're dead. But food sovereignty is defining your food system. So if you can't do that, You're not living. Birds define the food system. Animals define the food system. Okay? We as people who came from civilization, we who started human development, we were always food sovereign.

Rita Burke: 25:01

Fascinating. Fascinating, Anan. Now, as you know, SpeakUP! International seeks to inform, to educate, to inspire, and to enlighten. And believe it or not, you're doing that with your responses and the information you're sharing with us today, you've told us what you've done and about your work and about your education. But guess what I want to know right now. Guess what I want our listeners to know a little bit about Zola. Tell us about, tell us about Zola when he was about fourteen, fifteen years of age. Tell us about the man.

Anan Xola Lololi: 25:36

Fourteen, fifteen years of age. Yeah. Um, and I like to tell young people, I had a wonderful time growing up in Guyana on the north coast of the Amazon. Uh, a lot of people sometimes think, um, when they say Guyana is part of the Caribbean, yes, it's part of the Caribbean, but the Caribbean also extends to the north coast of South America. And that's where the Amazon stops at the Atlantic Ocean. And I grew up in a household with three other brothers, four boys, mother and father. My father was a journalist among the many things he did as another musician. My mom was a seamstress and a musician. So I grew up in a house of music and I always like to say, I was terrified as a young person because my older brothers, I'm the youngest and my older brothers, these are super talented, super duper talented people that coming after them was a pressure for me, especially my, my, the one that was just a little older than I, I water. Um, he, he was a genius. So imagine me growing up with Michael March as a genius, but eventually I got into music. Um, I was just about, um, to finish high school and one of the most important parts of that development, I was going to the traditional high school called Oriental College. Um, and there was this brother who he was, he went to study in East Germany because you know, Ghana is Ghana at one time had. Two socialists and one communist party. You can't grow up in a country with better options than that. One small capitalist party that was so insignificant that it didn't even last around. So I grew up in an environment where the idea of socialism and cooperative development was the thing. So I got a chance to witness the whole revolution as it was playing out. Now. On my block, this brother, his name was Alfred Skeet Juggernaut. He went to study in East Germany, and he went under, like, the opposition party, that was the Communist Party. And he came back, and he, he, he then wasn't involved in that party again, because he didn't like the, the, the development. But he was a knowledgeable person, and he, he come to live on my block, on South Road in Georgetown. And he said, um, he used to come on his bridge is, is, is, is, is at the front of his yard and used to sit down and, and, and, you know, and have conversations with us and tell us about Europe and, and we were fascinated. Then he said, he said, he said, he says Zola. I'm opening a school, you know, um, and maybe we can do less than you say, you say, how many, how many more years you have before you read, you do a general certificate in education. That's, that's the British exam that we usually used to do. And I said, um, I said, I'm informed tree. No, I need two more years. He said, listen, if you come to this lesson, you're going to be able to sit in one year. So I said, what? I said, okay. So I decided to go to the lesson. I tell my mom, I should say, okay. Cause I felt it was like super knowledgeable anyway, what I'm about to say influenced me a lot in that school. And a friend of Alfred was the great black author, Walter Rodney Walter Rodney used to come into the school. I didn't know him at that time. And he used to be having conversations with our friend, because you know, these are these two brilliant intellectuals. And, um, and they would, they would come into the school and they would have a conversation. You imagine Rita in school, Miles Davis. Coal train, uh, with him. Sonny had, not Sonny, had a, uh, fellow around some Kuti. The music used to be playing low while we were studying. You know what I mean? So, so that was my great teenage experience.

Rita Burke: 30:02

So how was, how was that for a centric education?

Anan Xola Lololi: 30:06

That was Afrocentric education, that was, that was the heights of consciousness. Okay. And T'breerong them. And what was interesting too, other than the other students in the class, After school, I used to actually hang out with Alfred. Alfred would say, you going somewhere? I'd say, Alfred, come. He'd say, alright, come along. So I used to be moving around in a kind of a circle, the most conscious of artists. And at the same time, it's a socialist revolution. So a lot of the arts and culture had this kind of real revolutionary perspective. anti colonial decolonized way of looking at development. So that impressed me. Now I finished, I got my O levels. My brothers who were playing in all the top bands in the country, they decided finally to, okay, we can set up our own band called the Paul Brothers Combo 7. And I didn't play in them, but I got a chance to go and play percussion with them. Somebody said, okay, Zola, you don't know you, that's so good at musician. He gives something easy to play percussion. So, so that's how I got into music. But at the same time, another, I could have played a little bit of guitar and this other guy saw me and uh, he was living next door to where the barman's practices. And he said, he said, Zola, um, I'm looking for a bass player. I need you to come play in the band. I said, man, I don't know the place. He said, no, no, I see you playing. I know you could play. And even more than my big brothers, because their level of music was so high. They don't even want me to be around playing with them. And this guy took me and I started playing and I get proficient and I was playing in bands. So that was my teenage areas, uh, time in life. That was really a beautiful experience. I get a chance to travel. I even travel out to Ghana, to French, Guyana and Suriname. And I travel in many areas around Guyana. So that was it. Beautiful experience.

Rita Burke: 32:12

I'm going to let, I'm going to let Elton ask his next question, but what I'll say to you is, how often do you get a chance to tell that story about your childhood and how rich and exciting it was for you. I'm sure you don't get a chance to tell that story that often. So we are really blessed on SpeakUP! International to hear that story.

Elton Brown: 32:35

So you are obviously musical, and yes, I just wondered how does that skill help you work with other organizations outside of Food Basket in order to help other communities have food security?

Anan Xola Lololi: 32:53

That's good. In the most honest way, I use it, this one time, uh, I do a lot of work in the Lawrence Heights community. And we started what we call the Toronto Harvest Festival. And this was bringing, especially black groups across Toronto, but groups in general with the Environment Food Program, to come and celebrate the Toronto Harvest, Harvest Festival. And that festival was really exciting. One, it was in a low income community. And, uh, so we had many different groups. We had Mutadis, we had Falun Gong, we had this brilliant artist from Somalia. Her name is Faduma Nkrumah. I think she passed away recently. She was exceptionally talented. And, uh, it's the first time you would see Somali women dancing, like really, really dancing. Okay. Cause she was super popular. In Somalia before the revolution, before all this disturbance happening right now. And when she performed at that festival, she, cause there's, there's their popular music and she was a popular singer before everybody migrate. You know what I mean? And we had reggae bands. We had people come and do a little bit of jazz. We had drumming. And, and I, I was able to pull that off because of my ties to being a musician in Toronto. And, um, right now, to tell you the truth, I'm cooking up something, but I don't know if I have the energy, but I don't know if you guys know. The African Food Basket, Black Food Safety Toronto Program. Last year, we were able to get the city to acknowledge the day of people of African descent. A lot of people don't know we have a day of people of African descent in this city, and it's on July the 31st. That is a day that all people of African descent all across the world should be celebrating the brilliance of African civilization. That is a day that we all should be singing together a rambi. Rambi, so that we could see the value of us all together. So I tried to bridge this idea of what we call, um, uh, um, Africa food and arts festival. I'm just bridging the idea and talking about it. Uh, we celebrated for the first time last year. We didn't get any funding this year, but I'm still trying to see, we talk about this day. So it's important. So I tried to use that musical influence. To create these environments of food and music together.

Rita Burke: 35:49

I am just wondering, Zola or Anan, who you would like to celebrate in our community? Would you like to say thanks to anyone who you believe is a community builder, like yourself? And I know you've dropped a few names here and there, Kafeli and a few other people, any particular person.

Anan Xola Lololi: 36:13

I would like, man, there's so much people to celebrate, um, at present a very, um, a known person, but also not on the forefront who for me has been a tremendous giver and supporter of this journey of black food sovereignty, because black food sovereignty is not an idea or a process. Or a movement that is not known enough is that new paradigm when we're talking about access to food for all peoples, but especially for black people is my good friend, Winston Husbands. He has been a real supporter. He's retired now, but he seemed to be working more in retirement than any, than he was working the job as a, as a, as a scientist. And he, he was, he was in this, I think the AIDS organization, uh, in Toronto. He's a very brilliant person and he gives to community. So he's a person I would like to celebrate. There are lots of people I could call, but that is one person, uh, you ask for one person. So it's Winston Husbands. Yeah.

Elton Brown: 37:33

Well, that's, I mean, it's wonderful to have one person that you can think of. Along with the thousands of other individuals who are all pushing at the same time in order to get what we as black people need in order to live comfortably. And I think that is extremely, extremely important. Is there a website that or social media platforms that you can tell our audience so that they can become familiar with the food bank?

Anan Xola Lololi: 38:14

Yes. Um, there's a website, there's a website. I would say the mother website is AfricanFoodBaskets.ca. And then as I, I retire from the food basket, there's a program that I'm still working with, the African Food Basket called BlackFoodSovereignty.ca, blackfoodsovereigntytoronto.ca. And that, that's where most, right now I am, um, the chair of the Black Food Sovereignty Working Group. But I also manage the African Food Basket, Black Food Sovereignty Toronto program. There's the African Food Basket Facebook. There's a Black Food Sovereignty Alliance Facebook. There's a Black Food Sovereignty Toronto Instagram. And also there's the African Food Basket Instagram. And also, there's Zola Lululi Facebook. And there's... And then the lowly Instagram. Yes.

Elton Brown: 39:27

If there's Individuals that want to volunteer, how would they go about doing that?

Anan Xola Lololi: 39:35

Well, they could, they could get in touch with us at info@africanfoodbasket.ca. They could get in touch with us at info@BFStoronto.ca.

Rita Burke: 39:56

I have a few questions to throw out for myself, and I trust that those questions will be in sync with our listeners. First of all, the question is, was I inspired? Indeed, I was. I heard about your growing up in Guyana, and about You're being exposed or in the company of highly intellectual and conscious people. I certainly was inspired. Was I informed? Indeed, I was informed. I learned about BlackRice. I thank you so very, very much. Was I educated? I, I was educated about Walter Rodney. So we have, you have helped us to meet. our goals of inspiring, educating, informing, and enlightening. And so I say a huge, huge thank you to you, Mr. Anand Zola Laloli from our listeners and from Elton and myself on SpeakUP! International.

Anan Xola Lololi: 40:55

Thank you. Thank you for the honor of being here. As you said before, you guys have some curveballs. You speak about your childhood growing up that folks don't usually ask about and it was a pleasure to really to speak to that because, um, like teenage years is quite an interesting period in people's life, you know, um, I, I was, I was just. Out of my teenage when I came to Canada, because I'm here over about 45, 46 years now. So I spent most of my life in Toronto. I love this city. I love the diversity. I love the black community. And, um, as soon as I came up here, I got a chance to go into the band Fruits and Rides. That changed my life completely. This band was like, that's a whole story by itself. Of what it was. And it was a cooperative. It was one of the few bands that was a cooperative. It was a band that was managed by some intelligent people like Atasito. You probably know Atasito, Rita, right? Like people like Lillian Allen, uh, Umfra. So there's a lot of people who like bands that come up and play music. They don't have that experience. They just come up as a reggae band and you put together a set of musicians. No, we had a first class introduction. I don't know if you're familiar with the Imikan project in Regent Park. It was on Parliament Street. That is where the band came out from. That is where you had people like Mutadi of the Mutadi Drum Festival who was there. Um, so many, Clifton Joseph, Devon Hart, you name it, a lot of people who are doing great work right now, Afua Cooper, let them pass through that community center. And that was, that was my introduction to Canada.

Elton Brown: 42:56

Thank you Anan for becoming part of our SpeakUP! International family! Thank you for listening to SpeakUP! International! If you would like to contact Zola, you can go to Facebook and search for African Food Basket or Black Food Sovereignty alliance. Or you can kindly provide your name and email address and send it to info@speakuppodcast.ca. Please state in your email that you wish to contact Zola. Would you be interested in being interviewed by SpeakUP! International? Please drop us a message containing your name, company name, the service you provide to your community and email address to info@speakuppodcast.ca. You can us using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. To connect to our podcasts, use Spotify or your favorite podcast platform and search for SpeakUP! International. You can also find our podcast using our web address www.speakuppodcast.ca. Our logo has the woman with her finger pointed up mouth open speaking UP!. At SpeakUP! International we aim to inspire, to inform, to educate and enlighten.