Since our founding in 2022, Desta Food Tour has grown significantly. From the beginning, we have been dedicated to engaging with critical issues such as anti-racism, decolonization, and the historical and ongoing connections between Africa and Germany. Over the past three years, we've steadily expanded our tours to include various areas in Berlin. In 2024, we proudly introduced our Black Queer Feminism Tour, a unique experience that explores how the process of decolonization must be unlearned across many sectors of our society and within the city's cultural and historical spaces.
This year, we launched one of our most thought-provoking experiences yet: the Kreuzkölln Food Tour. This tour focuses on the deep and often overlooked relationship between food and colonialism-particularly within the context of Berlin.
You may be wondering: what does food have to do with colonialism? And how does this tie into Desta's mission, which is centred on unlearning worldviews shaped by white superiority and Western dominance? These are precisely the questions this article sets out to explore: What is the connection between food and colonialism?
When colonialism is discussed in mainstream history, the focus is often on the societal, political, and economic consequences-especially those that emerged after the colonization of the Americas. However, food has also played a major role in the history of colonization. The ways in which people grow, prepare, and consume food have been fundamentally reshaped over the past 500 years, particularly for Indigenous and colonized communities.
Let's start with the colonization of the Americas. During this time, food was used as a mechanism of control and oppression by European powers, especially the Spanish. One early example comes from the Spanish Reconquista, in which pork was used as a cultural and religious symbol of Christian identity. Refusal to eat pork was taken as a sign that a person might be Jewish or Muslim-faiths that prohibit pork consumption. This weaponization of food continued during colonization in the Americas.
European settlers created hierarchies of "right" and "wrong" foods, rooted in European norms and beliefs. Foods like bread, olives, and wine were viewed as proper and healthy-appropriate for European bodies. In contrast, indigenous foods were often dismissed as inferior, unclean, or even dangerous. This devaluation of local food cultures was not just symbolic-it was part of a broader strategy to dominate and erase Indigenous ways of life.
These early examples mark the beginning of the entanglement between food systems and colonial power. As colonization spread, food increasingly became a site of control. Europeans began to realise that introducing or altering crops-such as rice, oats, and grains-could reshape the agricultural systems of colonized territories. Nowhere was this more impactful than on the African continent.
A powerful case study is that of British colonial rule in Kenya. During colonization, the British employed a range of strategies to dominate the Kenyan population-military force, economic restructuring, and cultural suppression. One particularly harmful method was their treatment of land and agriculture. Fertile lands that had supported indigenous communities for generations were seized, and in many cases, existing crops were burned or destroyed. These acts were intended to break the resistance of local populations and make way for European settlers.
Once settlers arrived, they took over this land to grow cash crops for export, such as tea and coffee, which served European economic interests. The traditional food systems of Indigenous Kenyans were not only disrupted but systematically dismantled. As the colonial administration introduced new crops and farming techniques, they also brought in new foods that served practical needs-namely, sustaining a cheap labor force.
By the 1930s, most arable land had been redistributed to settlers, who were provided with the tools and infrastructure needed to profit from it. Africans were forced to work on these farms, and in order to maintain a steady workforce, colonial authorities introduced cheap, high-calorie foods such as maize. Maize became a staple food in many African communities not by cultural tradition, but through colonial necessity and coercion. The consequences of this intervention are still visible today, with maize meal remaining a dietary cornerstone in many African countries.
This example demonstrates how colonialism reshaped African food systems in two major ways: by eradicating traditional crops and land stewardship, and by introducing new foods that aligned with the economic and political goals of the colonizers. In doing so, the colonizers altered not only how people ate, but also how they understood food, nutrition, culture, and even identity.
We hope this has provided you with a deeper insight into the powerful and often hidden connections between colonialism and food. Of course, this is just a small glimpse into a much larger conversation. If this sparked your curiosity, we invite you to join us on one of our food tours-where history, identity, and flavor come together to tell a story that's rarely told, but urgently needed.
We hope to see you there!
Desta - Decolonial city tour
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