we want food...

Since we came to Africa we feel compelled to say that you get what you planted before. On our first night here we thought of going out to have dinner. Jacinta, the recepcionist, was very surprised one she knew our intentions of going out at such a late hour. She recommended us a restaurant and called a taxi for us. That day it seemed that everything was going to be this way: to take a car at the hotel’s parking lot, drive through the two security doors, just to pull over at the restaurant’s parking lot, after crossing its security door. We were surprised when we saw that the restaurant was only 500 m. away from the hotel and felt completely stupid. After a few days we have confirmed that it wasn’t really a safe place for us “white people”. From our cab we could see small groups of people reunited around a bonfire, others sleeping beneath a tree or standing on a corner… without any expectations of the things to come. Of course they would try to steal your mobile phone or your camera: it is worth the money they would get for six months of small-time business, of shoeshining, of reselling rotten fruits, of dealing with drugs.


That day, while we were waiting for the taxi cab to take us back to the hotel, I began to felt what I wouldn’t help but feel on the following days: You are from the part of the world who enslaved and colonized this people then and exploits and perverts them now and looks the other way, while charging them with an external debt they never owed us that squeezes them to death. Don’t count on coming from that world and feeling safe here. Today we sensed this again on our throats, while we were having lunch at one of the WSF facilities. Suddenly, in about twenty secons, all the employees started to hide the cash registers and the computers, to close the refrigerators, to pick all the liquor bottles. Nobody understood a thing, until we all began to hear some kind of canticle: We want food… we want food. A group of 150 street kids and teenagers approached while shouting to make themselves visible. In a couple of minutes there was no food left in any of the plates of the buffet. It was an assault, non violent, for the food of the restaurant. The police showed up immediatly. The kids ran like hell the moment they saw the policemen, clubs in hand. Some kids were caught, until a french activist confronted the police and challenged them to beat an european in front of the cameras. Today we can assure that solidarity is in the air of the WSF in such a way that we felt it even when we went to interview the employees, who were completely cooperative. Nobody that has ever seen the face of a hungry child could criminalize their actions. Those who have nothing to eat couldn’t pay the 500 Kshs entrance fee. But the leaders of their communities were able to negotiate a free pass for themselves. Once they were inside they saw how much food there was, and how everybody was eating. So they decided to claim for their rights to do it too. The human right for a decent meal. We want food… we want food… we want food…