Zayaan Khan, cultivating food justice through seeds, art and activism

Detailed summary

From seed libraries to edible art, Zayaan Khan champions food sovereignty, traditional farming knowledge and a fairer food system in South Africa.

From a seed library in Cape Town to edible art installations, Zayaan Khan puts food at the centre of her activism and creative work.

Nestled under a staircase in Bertha House, Mowbray in Cape Town, is Seed Biblioteek (seed library). Seed Biblioteek was founded in 2015 by researcher, artist and activist Zayaan Khan. It is here where the 42-year-old told Daily Maverick about how food is deeply rooted in all her work from her library to her art.

When asked about what she considers her origin as a food justice activist, Khan at first mentions her work with the non-governmental organisation Surplus People Project where she was involved from 2011 to 2016.

At the Surplus People Project, Khan was a researcher and advocate for agrarian reform and food sovereignty. As an in-field horticulturist she supported small-scale farmers with agroecological training and farming methods.

But she is quick to explain that her origins truly lie in her awareness around hunger. After working as a food systems researcher, hunger all along the food chain is undeniable, Khan says, noting the extent of hunger – even farmers and fishers are hungry.

“I think food should be a collective engagement, and I don’t think we need to struggle when we have the land. Except all the land is held up by people who stole it. It’s not fair. And the system is designed to be that way, so it’s easy to slot people into it,” Khan says.

Khan firmly believes that there is no reason anyone should go hungry in SA, an agricultural country where large amounts of food is produced and wasted. She also believes that nobody should have to pay for food.

“So systemically... the issues are obvious from a distance, but it’s such an embedded system that’s taken many hundreds of years to build,” Khan says on SA’s food systems.

From 2013 to 2016, Khan was a co-ordinator at the Slow Food Youth Network South Africa, which she helped establish.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Maverick. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.