THE ECHO

by Henry Whittle

Food is a vital aspect of any culture. It’s a universal way to bring people together from anywhere in the world. Avon High School’s African Diaspora put together a food exploration event on November 16th to bring people together with food.   

African Diaspora has been a club for the past 16 years, which is as long as one of the club’s sponsors, Mrs. Moore, has taught at Avon High School. Yet despite it being a longstanding club, this is the first year Taste of Diaspora has been an event, and it was set to be a fun and laid-back evening.  

“We don’t have a program. It’s just you’ll get to see the booths, see the ingredients, see the flags from each culture, sit down, listen to music, and enjoy your food,” said Moore.  

Attendees were given a card containing a box for each of the 12 booths covering a number of cultures across Africa including Ethiopian, Guinean, Fulani, Nigerian, Kenyan, and more. The box would be marked off once you got your food, all that was left was to sit and enjoy. Truthfully, it was my first time trying many of the dishes served and I didn’t know what to expect.  

“We have a lot of different rice dishes, and I feel like it’s like the hot war,” said Moore. “Each country feels like they do rice the best.”  

All the food was fantastic. Some personal standouts were the Samosa and Plantains (Kenyan), which was a fried pastry containing a beef and onion filling, Buna (Ethiopian/Eritrean), which was likely the best coffee I’ve ever tasted, and the combination of Ayib, Ades, and Injera (Ethiopian/Eritrean), which was cottage cheese (Ayib), on top a tomato and onion lentil stew (Ades), served with a pancake-like flatbread (Injera). The food served was my dinner that night, and I can’t think of a dish that disappointed.  

Taste of Diaspora was filled with delicious food but more importantly, it was filled with different cultures coming together to not only celebrate their experiences with food but sharing it with others. Unifying others with food, it was truly accomplished with the first Taste of Diaspora event.  

“Food is a way to bring us all together,” said Moore. “It’s a language that we all speak through. We all speak through the language of food.”