On World Food Day, African chefs unite to reclaim the continent’s culinary heritage, champion agroecology and put African food at the centre of Africa’s future.
On World Food Day 2026, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) calls on African citizens, governments, chefs, farmers, young people and food system actors to reclaim Africa’s rich food heritage and place healthy, culturally appropriate and ecologically produced food at the heart of the continent’s future. Under its Pan-African campaign, My Food Is African, AFSA is advancing a powerful message: Africa’s food is a source of identity, dignity, health and sovereignty, and its future must be shaped by the people who grow, prepare and consume it.
Across Africa, traditional food systems that have sustained communities for generations are increasingly threatened by industrial agriculture, the expansion of ultra-processed foods and changing dietary habits that undermine indigenous knowledge and local food cultures. Traditional African foods, despite their extraordinary diversity and cultural significance, are too often portrayed as inferior, outdated or incompatible with modern lifestyles. Meanwhile, the smallholder farmers, women, seed custodians and traditional food producers who sustain Africa’s food systems remain insufficiently recognised and supported.
For AFSA, reversing this trend requires a fundamental shift in how African societies understand and value food. My Food Is African is a call to reclaim our food, our health, our culture and our power. It challenges the notion that progress must come at the expense of African food traditions and asserts that the continent’s food future lies in embracing its rich culinary diversity, strengthening agroecological production and restoring the connection between people, land and food.
African Chefs Take the Lead in Reclaiming Our Food
This year’s World Food Day carries particular significance as African chefs across the continent come together to translate this vision into action. From 12 to 16 October 2026, the My Food Is African Chefs Network is leading the first continental MyFIA Chefs Week, celebrating indigenous ingredients, traditional recipes, African food knowledge and the farmers and communities who keep these traditions alive.
The initiative builds on the historic First African Chefs’ Gathering and Policy Convening on African Food Systems, organised by AFSA in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July 2025. Bringing together participants from 23 African countries, the gathering adopted the Declaration of African Chefs, affirming a collective commitment to elevate African cuisine, defend indigenous food systems and strengthen the role of chefs in advancing food sovereignty.
That commitment is now taking shape through a growing continental movement of chefs who recognise that their responsibility extends beyond preparing and serving food. African chefs are educators, cultural ambassadors, storytellers and advocates who can reconnect consumers with the origins of their food, celebrate forgotten ingredients, preserve ancestral recipes and promote food grown through agroecological practices.
Throughout Chefs Week, participating chefs are sharing stories from their kitchens, farms and local markets, highlighting the relationship between indigenous seeds, healthy soils, traditional food preparation and African culinary identity. The week culminates in an online gathering on 16 October, bringing together chefs, farmers, seed custodians, journalists and other food system actors to celebrate their collective efforts, discuss the future of African cuisine and consider the adoption of the MyFIA Chefs Network Charter.
The significance of this initiative goes beyond culinary celebration. It represents a growing recognition that the transformation of Africa’s food systems must also take place in our kitchens, restaurants, schools and everyday food choices. By bringing traditional African foods into contemporary culinary spaces, chefs can help challenge perceptions that equate imported and industrially processed foods with modernity, while demonstrating that African culinary heritage offers opportunities for creativity, innovation, livelihoods and entrepreneurship.
Healthy Food Begins with Healthy Soil
At the heart of the My Food Is African campaign is a principle that AFSA considers fundamental to Africa’s food future: what we eat cannot be separated from how our food is produced.
African food is deeply connected to the land, the seeds and the ecological knowledge that have sustained generations of farming communities. Its value cannot be measured by taste and cultural significance alone. It must also be understood through the health of the soil, the diversity of crops, the integrity of production systems and the well-being of the people who produce it.
AFSA therefore calls for a transition towards agroecological food systems that restore soil fertility, protect biodiversity, safeguard farmer-managed seed systems and strengthen resilience to climate change.
The campaign also draws attention to the growing public health concerns associated with unhealthy dietary transitions and the increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods. Reviving diverse African diets, including indigenous grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits and traditionally prepared foods, is an important part of promoting healthier food environments and protecting the continent’s nutritional heritage.
Healthy soil, healthy seeds, healthy food and healthy people are inseparable. Protecting African food therefore means protecting the ecological and cultural systems that make it possible.
Innovate Today, Nourish Tomorrow: Africa’s Knowledge Must Shape the Future
As the international community commemorates World Food Day under the 2026 theme, “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow,” AFSA emphasises that meaningful innovation must recognise and build upon the knowledge, practices and resources that African communities have developed over generations. The global theme highlights the importance of combining forward-looking solutions with traditional knowledge and inclusive approaches to ensure nutritious food for all while protecting the planet.
For Africa, innovation must begin by recognising the enormous potential already present in its food systems. Indigenous crops, farmer-managed seeds, traditional food preservation methods, agroecological farming practices and culinary knowledge offer opportunities to improve nutrition, strengthen local economies and respond to environmental challenges. These resources must be protected, developed and passed on to future generations.
AFSA believes that African chefs, particularly young culinary professionals and women food entrepreneurs, have an important role in this transformation. By combining traditional ingredients with contemporary culinary creativity, strengthening relationships with local farmers and bringing African cuisine into new markets, they can help create livelihoods while preserving the integrity and identity of African food.
But innovation must also extend beyond the kitchen. It requires supportive public policies, investment in agroecological enterprises, stronger territorial markets, greater recognition of women’s contributions and education systems that teach African children the value of their own food heritage.
A Call to Reclaim Africa’s Food Future
On this World Food Day, AFSA calls upon African governments and institutions to recognise food sovereignty as a foundation of sustainable development. This requires policies that protect farmer-managed seed systems, support smallholder food producers, promote agroecology and integrate indigenous African foods into national nutrition strategies, school curricula and public food procurement programmes.
AFSA also calls upon chefs, restaurants, culinary institutions and food entrepreneurs to become active champions of African food sovereignty by celebrating indigenous ingredients, sourcing from local agroecological producers, preserving traditional recipes and introducing younger generations to the extraordinary diversity of African cuisine.
To African citizens, particularly young people, the message is equally clear. Our food heritage deserves to be celebrated, protected and carried forward. Every traditional recipe preserved, every indigenous seed protected, every local farmer supported and every African meal prepared with pride contributes to a larger movement for healthier people, thriving communities and a more sovereign Africa.
My Food Is African is a declaration of identity, a commitment to ecological responsibility and a call for collective action. It reminds us that our food connects us to our ancestors, sustains our communities and carries the possibilities of our future. Reclaiming African food means reclaiming the knowledge, resources and choices that determine how Africa feeds itself.
As African chefs unite this World Food Day, AFSA reaffirms its commitment to building a continental movement that celebrates African culinary heritage, strengthens the relationship between farmers and consumers, and advances food systems rooted in justice, health, biodiversity and dignity.
Our food. Our heritage. Our health. Our future.
My Food Is African.
Grow with Nature. Eat with Pride. Live with Dignity.
Campaign: #MyFoodIsAfrican | #JeMangeAfricain | #WorldFoodDay2026
