Afrocats and Walk the Plank brought people together to have conversations, cook together and dance in celebration
Walk the Plank are outdoor arts experts who create powerful events with mass appeal. They are driven to bring people and communities together to generate a sense of place through public celebration.
On a nice sunny day of 5th of March 2022, Walk the Plank together with Afrocats fulfilled their shared mission of bringing people, of different backgrounds, together as part of a project called Green Space Dark Skies.
Women from Afrocats were at the event to showcase their cooking expertise through cultural foods that were close to their hearts.
Four women of Pakistani, Nigerian and Sierra Leonean descent cooked their cultural foods. The women from Pakistan cooked vegetable pilau and chickpea curry.
The Nigerian lady chose to prepare jollof rice and the lady from Sierra Leone prepared puff puff and plantain.
People from Walk the Plank offered the chefs a helping hand where needed. This included getting any ingredients, that they were short of from the store to finding cutlery or anything else the ladies required.
After the participants had finished preparing food, the food was laid out beautifully on the table for everyone to enjoy and have conversations and learn more about Afrocats and Walk the Plank and their upcoming events.
People from Afrocats as well as people from Walk the Plank then began to dance to different types of songs until more people joined the event and also joined them in dancing.
When asked about their favourite part of the event, the women said:
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“to serve food and to serve people”.
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“cooking with everyone was my favourite”
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“the fact that we are different and we come together”
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“it’s fulfilling”
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“I learned about different cultures, cultural skills that are different to mine”
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“I like that it’s far from my home”
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“travelling, seeing other people, cook, we learn from each other”
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"the unity and diversity of the event eased my anxiety and tensions, I am relaxed”.
Additionally, one of the members of the Walk the Plank organisation shared her thoughts from the day: “I love everyone coming together. Everyone doing different things, getting busy”, “happy, doing little bits to come together”.
“The food was delicious; I rarely get the chance to eat food from the cultures”
“My favourite part was probably the movement; it allowed the children and I to loosen up a bit and everyone was involved in it so it was like a small bonding session”
“I love the African beats because I was able to show my dancing skills”
“Food presentation was very nice”
“I felt comfortable because they were people from my community”
“I felt comfortable, everyone was sweet and welcoming and it allowed you to get involved right away”
“I would come again because it was a nice setting and a reason to leave the house”