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Do you remember Vine?
It changed the internet forever, and it vanished in its prime.
I'm Benedict Townsend, and this is Vine, six seconds that changed the world.
The untold story of genius, betrayal, and the app that died so that TikTok could thrive.
From overnight stars to the fall that no one saw coming, we're breaking down what made Vine iconic.
Listen to Vine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can go so much further.
The Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council have resources available for you at loveyourmindtoday .org.
I'm Chef Binta, originally from Sierra Leone, but I'm now based in Accra, Ghana.
I've been here for over nine years.
I'm the founder and executive chef at Fulani Kitchen.
Fulani Kitchen is a traditional nomadic pop -up restaurant, and our main goal is to promote fulani cuisine, but also preserve the culture.
So in a nutshell, what we've been doing is traveling across Africa documenting all the Fulani stories from different Fulani communities and hosting pop -ups around it inspired by all these different communities across Africa.
Welcome back to Point of Origin.
On today's episode, we're talking about Fulani foodways and cuisine with Chef Fatma Binta.
The Fula Fulani or Fulbe are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, dispersed across the region and inhabiting many countries.
They live mainly in West Africa and the northern parts of Central Africa, but also in South Sudan, Sudan, and regions near the Red Sea coast. Chef Binta is an indelible ambassador of Fulani food.
Born and raised in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to first -generation Sierra Leonean Fulanis of Ghanaian descent, Binta describes herself as a modern nomadic chef.
And as you'll hear in the episode, she's just doing what her people have done all along.
store so my love for it grew from there and I remember like I'll go to school come back home and my job was like the glorified steward for my grandmother I was washing pots that are so big I could probably fit into so that was my job so my love for it started here and studied international relations left Sierra Leone traveled came back and then I had an aha moment that this is what I love why not for us that's how my journey started and I went to culinary school in Nairobi worked in hotels and got bored at some point because I had this drive when it comes to like just sharing the food also my
worries is when it comes to the culture fading away, people not understanding the cuisine.
And I took a leap of faith to quit my stable hotel job and promote Fulani Kitchen and cuisine.
Through her Dine on a Mat dinner series, Chef Binta gives guests traditional nomadic dining experiences, highlighting Fulani culture and cuisine.
The dinners combine her nomadic Fulani roots fruits and formal training at the Kenyan Culinary Institute.
So that was it. And most of the Fulani communities, like the people there, they were really excited about it because these people have moved for years.
Some of them don't know how the food tastes like anymore.
Yeah. So me bringing all these ingredients and getting everyone on the mat and them having to, like, experience the food, It was very, it was like a déjà vu moment for most people.
Shoes are not allowed, and once guests have made their way to the mat, they are greeted with a welcoming drink, like watermelon and ginger beer.
The starter is based on the theme of the event and explains the context and history of the dish's ingredients.
The main dish, Chef Binta describes as bold, like goat testicles or fonio salad.
The evening ends with traditional tea and an opportunity to ask questions about the food and traditions of Fulani people.
Yeah, so moving to Guinea, having to be in a village where there is no electricity, very small village, and having to like fetch firewood, get food from the farm and prepare it.
Everything was done from scratch. So that's really shaped me as a chef and how also I tell my story because I got to experience all that when I was around my teenage years.
So that really influenced me as a chef, and my love also for fulani cuisine and pre -zapping it, because that is really hard to experience now.
now. Most of these villages are kind of disappearing because most of the young people don't go back and stay in the villages anymore and all our elders, grandmothers, just grandparents in general, most of them have passed away.
So it is really hard to go back and get the originality of Fulani cuisine and the storytelling in general.
We were colonised by the British, so it's mostly British partly Nigerian also okay so we have we have like one of the largest tribe in Sierra Leone they are originally from nigeria they are called the phobes and if you look back they're actually from the Yoruba tribe so there are so many similarities when it comes to the Nigerian food like things like something they call moi moi in nigeria we also have it we call it olele in the sierra leone so and our food is very small leafy and it goes with a lot of rice we try a lot in sierra leone so a bit of that but mostly my focus um has been fullani kissing i
grew up eating like sierra leone dishes and i have so much love for it something i enjoyed um i also go back to it sometimes and just take inspiration and create things and the beauty of infusing Fulani cuisine and Sierra Leonean cuisine is always easy for me because you know, Sierra Leone Guinea -Libre, we share borders.
And we share, also even our cuisine, we eat almost the same thing.
There's not much difference.
It's the same. Fulani food is mostly prepared using ingredients that are sun -dried and can be preserved for months.
The diet is mainly derived from cattle and includes dairy items like yogurt, milk, butter, and meat.
Ground nuts, starches like sorghum, corn, and fonio, a nutritious grain with a nutty taste and a pebble -like texture that's native to Africa, round out the diet.
like the black herdsmen or cowboys of the mid -19th century in texas the fulani people are nomadic and raised cattle primarily for the purposes of business most thing that people confuse is that they think we eat meat a lot i will start with that um we do it for business fulan is mostly focused on offals like we eat offals a lot so most times if a slaughter for example a cow who sell everything else and they will save the offers for the for like for cooking at home and they will sundry it also to our our food our dishes our ingredients in general is mostly sundried and that is because we are always
moving so that's our way of preserving our ingredients for the next migration and we eat corn a lot corn is a huge part of our diet things like for neo is a huge part of our diet and then also rice the local rice it's a huge part of our diets vegetables not much because we hardly eat things that are fresh so even when it comes to vegetable some dry them Things like okra, even root vegetables.
We actually have a dish that's really interesting.
We sun -dry different types of root vegetables and then cook that into one pot.
The other parts in Africa, they call them pot -o -pot -o.
But we make it one and then add salt and just dried chilies.
And we don't eat proteins that much. So it's mostly sun -dried.
that must be a very intensely flavored broth yes all the sun dried that sounds good so when you do the sun drying how does it work you like lay down a mat or something and then cut the vegetables in half and then let them stay out in the sun for how long so we don't use mats because um we believe that the mat is only meant for prayers or eating in the evenings with the family so it's almost like we respect the mat so much that's why you're not even allowed to like step foot with like slippers you're not allowed to bring any shoes or slippers on the mat and that's something i also practice when i'm
hosting events we have like a corner where everybody will leave their shoes so when it comes to where we'll sundry our things we normally use clay which we mix with it the cow's tongue and so we designed this space for sun drying so patterns really nice lay sticks around um create that space only for sun drying things or they will build racks using sticks even the homes because you know our homes also can be dismantled it's it's movable we create space inside like a pantry which where we hang our corn and then also just keep any other thing that's um related to food and cooking where does most
of the beef go that is raised or that the that the fulani are selling where does most of it go local to the market you know slaughter and sell and most of the during this peace thing i was doing i realized that sometimes even the cattle they are here in is not it doesn't belong to them they do it for like politicians who would.
Because they know how to do it, they know how to handle cattles.
So people would decide to do it as a business and then almost like outsource it to a fulani, local fulani, to handle it for them and then they will pay the person certain amount of wage to rear the cattle for them.
Wow, and that's very complex because then you have people who are in power who are actually encouraging Fulani to raise cattle, but then the neighbors are taking it out on the Fulani, but this is what they need to make a living.
Living and they are quiet about it because they can't even come and be a mediator because - Right, of course, of course.
It's very political.
wow so um what are you when you're in the midst of those um negotiations um what are you saying to people on either side it is difficult because one most of these Fulani people they don't even understand the local language and because they they don't respect borders i will say we don't We don't respect borders.
And they will come and settle.
So whenever there is a fight, the locals will just impose these laws on them.
For example, we are going to fine you if your cattle is invaded.
We are fining you this.
And they are forced to just do it.
And sometimes they can be stubborn also.
They are like, no, I'm not doing it.
And they will settle there.
They are not registered.
So it's very chaotic.
I always try to go there communicate so I'll talk to them what's the problem is they'll tell me in Fulani and then I'll explain to the locals which are like chiefs and all that so it's it's hard we'll end up settling it and then I'll come back to Accra focus on my work and then the next one week or two weeks they'll call you again for the same issue so I'm like you know what I think if you people are working together you you understand the importance of agriculture it will be easy you know when it comes to handling all this because they would also help in terms of protecting so if it's hard for them
to get like a green area for the cattle after and then they would want to move and one thing i've been also kind of trying to convince them is that this moving is very historic you don't even need to move your cows honestly when you think about it you can just create a ranch and keep them in and feed them but because of lack of education also or just understanding in general they believe because it has been for like how many years they just move move when you can actually just be in one place it's it's time we work smart that's one thing i've been trying to like um convince them on it's time to work
smart this moving is something that is very historic you You don't have to move anymore for you to, you know, feed your cattle.
The situation depicted by Chef Binta here is a tense one.
Fulani herdsmen are a nomadic group believed to be the largest of their kind in the world and found across West and Central Africa.
In search of abundant grass and water for cattle, herders inevitably will clash with farmers.
These disagreements have turned violent, and armed herdsmen claim to have been provoked from armed gangs in farming communities who are trying to steal their cattle.
As a warming planet diminishes grazing lands, Fulani herdsmen have gone further and further south, and so too has their conflict.
And, like many violent conflicts, it is based on the land.
But since herders are selling mostly to local markets, the same communities who are condemning them are also the ones that are keeping them in business.
Steps to expand and contain grazing areas are now being taken, and with these sometimes deadly conflicts as the backdrop, Chef Binta's work as a culinary ambassador is more of the the latter and less of the former.
So what happened at Chappaquiddick?
Well, it really depends on who you talk to.
There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond.
And left a woman behind to drown.
There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News.
It's, Teddy escapes, blonde drowns.
And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes.
Will Ted become president?
Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control.
And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal.
The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it.
So is there a curse?
Every week, we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.
Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever.
I'm Erica. And I'm Mila.
And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday.
Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened.
And all that stops here.
If you like witty women, then this is your tribe.
With guests like Corinne Stephens.
I've never seen so many women protect predatory men.
And then me too happened.
And then everybody else want to get pissed off because the wife said it was okay.
Problem. My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade, and I called to ask how I was doing.
She was like, oh, dad, all I was doing was talking about your thing in class.
I ruined my baby's first day of high school.
And slumflower. What turns me on is when a man sends me money.
Like, I feel the moisture between my legs when a man sends me money.
I'm like, oh, my God, it's go time.
You actually sent it?
Listen to the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday On the Black Effect Podcast Network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you go to find your podcasts.
Hi, everyone. It's Janae, a .k .a.
Cheeky's from Cheeky's and Chill Podcast. And I'm launching an all new mini podcast series called Sincerely Janae.
Sure, I'm a singer, author, businesswoman and podcaster.
But at the end of the day, I am human.
And that's why I'm sharing my ups and downs with you guys.
Hi, guys. I was sitting here recording episodes of Dear Cheeky's and Cheeky's and Chill.
And I just had to take a time out and purge my thoughts and feelings here on Sincerely Jenea.
Because I've been so emotional lately, you guys.
Whether I'm in my feels, I've just had a breakthrough with my therapist, or I've just had a really deep conversation with my siblings, or I'm in glam getting ready for an award show, I'm sharing my most intimate thoughts with you on the podcast. You guys know I always keep it real with you guys.
But this time, I'm taking it to the next level.
Listen to Cheeky's and Chill on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
In Fulani, fresh milk is termed kasom, and yogurt, pendidam.
A popular meal is fermented milk with corn couscous, which is referred to as lachchiri or dakare.
One question I've always wondered is, because we talk about, like, I know that folks, black folks, and really, the majority of the world has a hard time processing dairy.
Do our Fulani people, like, do y 'all have different stomachs or something?
Or do Do you not do you not eat dairy?
Like, is it a different experience?
Like, of course, I'm kidding.
But like what like where does dairy fit into the to the diet?
And is it something that just Phubani people are able to absorb somehow?
Listen, I've also wondered because when I was younger, I could handle it.
But now whenever I travel across Africa, I try it.
oh it's another story but i think it has to do with um your system in general that's what they know that's what they've they've eaten since day one because even as a baby they pasteurize the milk we even pasteurize our own milk we have like this god where we pour the milk and boil it for some time traditionally and then shake they have a way to hold it and dance and it's so ceremonious that it's not just about pasteurizing the milk.
They have a particular song they will sing while they are doing it.
They have a particular dance.
So it's not just about the food.
It's also about them portraying the culture, having this tradition around it.
So I think it's the system in general.
They are used to it.
Adaptation. That's so amazing to me.
I really wish I had a fulani stomach stomach. As much dairy as I eat, I just suffer.
You can try. You get used to it.
I know that you do a lot of work with fonio.
Chef Pierre Thomas is a big, big inspiration, a hero for me.
Can you talk a little bit about fonio and how that plays into your food as well?
okay so for me um my love for it goes all the way back during that civil war because i come from a huge family i'm talking over 100 cousins i am not joking wow so cause imagine my my mom comes from a very large family my dad and all of these people going into this small village during the civil war you have over 300 people in this village and the rice couldn't sustain us so it was really hard and the only thing that could really sustain us during that time was phonyo it's easy to grow and also it doesn't take much time 8 to 12 weeks you can harvest so it started there um and then i also learned
a lot of recipes when i was in the village so So after I started trending, reading about Chef Pierre Cham and seeing all the interesting things he was doing with Fonyo, I decided to jump on the wagon and promote it because it's something I ate all through growing up.
and then also have experienced firsthand how it can how healthy it is how also where it comes to sustainability in general so for me it was important to know like be a voice for it it was very important for me so it's actually a huge part of my menu I always try to share it's one of the starch we use it's the most we hardly use rice foneo is the biggest guess um is the is this is a huge part it's in a nutshell it's a huge part of my menu it's actually hard to process that's why because uh mostly like in the villages because i actually work with women we grow phonia in the north of ghana and in the beginning
they were only doing it its traditional way that's why i actually had to like step in in terms of working getting people involved in order to like help with machines and stuff it's really tedious and at the end of the the day after going through all that process sometimes you get so much sand in it um because also you know the grains are so tiny the same size of a sand so it's extremely tedious so um the reason why i started this movement when i was visiting for like inspiration and meeting these fulani women and some of them were complaining that um we're actually tired of staying home doing
the same thing and women are not allowed also to own land in Ghana, especially in the north so they wanted to like get involved in this, sharing like processing phoneo just so they keep themselves busy but the main challenge around this around it is processing it and these women do it on a daily basis because for them in the north that's like a huge part of their diet.
Our food is very plain and simple so mostly is dawa dawa, we use for like enhancing flavor, flavoring, and then we use the African birds eye pepper which is sun dried.
Our food is very plain and simple, very plain and simple.
i want to ask you about african cuisine broadly speaking it seems kind of like and we've kind of been saying i talked to a nigerian chef about this that african food is kind of having having a moment and that it is kind of, again, broadly speaking, the only cuisine that hasn't been culturally colonized, so to speak.
So, I want to know if you kind of agree that African food is having a moment, if you see that as true in a global context.
I think one, African cuisine is untouched.
It's actually untouched.
So I always tell people that we are more than jollof rice.
African cuisine is way more.
Actually, I don't consider jollof rice African.
done. In case you don't know, Jollof is the very popular and very contentious rice from West Africa popularized in countries like Nigeria and Gambia and Senegal.
And if you'd like to learn more about it and the beef behind it, you can listen to Point of Origin, episode 11, where Chef Yawande Komolafe breaks it down in detail.
Okay, back to Chef Minta.
i just think it's just traveled all over the place and everybody have their own version yeah so but it's a good thing because i think jollofrice brought some attention also to african cuisine um it has given us platforms also so i feel like we have so much it is rich we we have no idea it is there is so much because one thing i also have realized the more i explore the more curious i get when it comes to african cuisine the more adventurous i get i get to learn a lot and then i also tend to like see all these similarities um but i feel like sometimes it is not represented well in my opinion um
i remember going to an african restaurant in new york and i was expecting a particular dish which i i know how important that dish is to called that culture that part of the world and it was fused so i really feel like we tweak it sometimes it's it's they tweak it too much because if you're eating french cuisine it's french if you're eating chinese it is chinese if you're eating japanese food it is japanese food so i really hope that we can embrace it as it is all its flavors its spiciness the richness richness.
And if you want to make it look pretty, you can make it look pretty but the taste should be original.
So your view is that African cuisine is untouched meaning that the versions that we're seeing maybe like in restaurants this particularly in the u .s are such a small part yes this infinite everything that yeah this is this interesting thing that we have it's it is amazing so i always i think it's important for us to know the base before we play around with it it's okay to fuse use it's okay to recreate but understand the ingredients understand the flavor building understand the original dish itself before you you play around with it sometimes it's it's hard because there are days i just want to
stay 100 authentic um because if i'm trying to like preserve it so that's why i document a lot whenever i go to these fulani communities i document the authentic recipes that i'll learn from the grandmother um different things and then i'll document those and there are days also i try to fuse it because sometimes it can only be that appealing to someone who doesn't know this cuisine it can only be appealing if you fuse it because i and that's why i believe also um most other fulani chefs haven't haven't really invested their time in it because I'm Stephanie it can actually be in it takes passion it
takes passion to really do it love to share with you also because it has been like a learning process for me a year ago I started working with an NGO as an ambassador for peace between the Fulani's and the farmers because they've been fighting a lot and we've been working on that because we want to get the Fulani people involved in farming because they don't actually believe when it comes to like farming in general their focus more is on raising cattle and that has caused a lot of problem when comes to like the farmers and the the headsmen because the the cuttles will go and invade the farm and destroy
the farm and we we've been trying to like educate them yeah if they believe in farming they will help the farmers protect the farm but because they don't believe much on it that's why they leave the cuttles to go and invade and cattle invasion has caused a lot of problem across Africa so yeah that's one thing we've been focusing on that's what's very sensitive when you see heads men right right especially if there are Fulani farmers you mean exactly no just local farmers local farmers so because they will come in so don't move into a town and then they will settle and they always try to like stay
a bit outside of the town yeah it's almost like they hardly mingle with the locals so they'll create their space, stay there and then the people will go and invade these farms and destroy and that has caused like a lot of fights so most times I go into like negotiate between these two but it got to a point it was like you go you negotiate one week later they call you again or we're fighting again you have to go so we were thinking why if these people believe in farming if they are actually farming and they know the value because you cannot just sustain yourself with just offers and your small
ingredients that you're growing behind your backyard i think that would help in terms of settling all these issues across Africa i always want them to know that Fulani's are more than headsmen because i feel like the focus has has been only on that when you say Fulani, so almost someone is gonna panic in the room.
So, I really wanted to change that.
And also at least whoever comes to my match will leave us an ambassador for the Fulanis that, okay.
Apart from them being heads man and all the political thing that is going around the name Fulanis, but also their cuisine.
They have something.
I think their cuisine is rich, you know, their culture is interesting, stories and everything.
So what happened at Chappaquiddick?
Well, it really depends on who you talk to.
There are many versions of what happened in 1969 when a young Ted Kennedy drove a car into a pond.
And left a woman behind to drown.
There's a famous headline, I think, in the New York Daily News.
It's Teddy escapes, blonde drowns.
And in a strange way, right, that sort of tells you.
The story really became about Ted's political future, Ted's political hopes.
Will Ted become president?
Chappaquiddick is a story of a tragic death and how the Kennedy machine took control.
And he's not the only Kennedy to survive a scandal.
The Kennedys have lived through disgrace, affairs, violence, you name it.
So is there a curse?
Every week we go behind the headlines and beyond the drama of America's royal family.
Listen to United States of Kennedy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever.
I'm Erica. And I'm Mila.
And we're the hosts of the Good Moms Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday.
Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened.
And all that stops here.
If you like witty women, then this is your tribe.
With guests like Corinne Steffens.
I've never seen so many women protect predatory men.
And then me too happened.
And then everybody else wanted to get pissed off because the wife said it was okay.
Problem. My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade, and I called to ask how I was doing.
She was like, Oh dad, all they was doing was talking about your thing in class.
I ruined my baby's first day of high school.
And slumflower. What turns me on is when a man sends me money.
Like, I feel the moisture between my legs when a man sends me money.
I'm like, oh my God, it's go time.
You actually sent it?
Listen to the Good Moms, Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect podcast network, the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast. Hi everyone.
It's Janae, aka Cheekies, from Cheekies and Chill Podcast. And I'm launching an all new mini podcast series called Sincerely Janae.
Sure, I'm a singer, author, businesswoman, and podcaster, but at the end of the day, I am human.
And that's why I'm sharing my ups and downs with you guys.
Hi, guys. I was sitting here recording episodes of Dear Cheekies and Cheekies and Chill, and I just had to take a timeout and purge my thoughts and feelings here on Sincerely Jenae because I've been so emotional lately, you guys.
Whether I'm in my feels, I've just had a breakthrough with my therapist, or I've just had a really deep conversation with my siblings, or I'm in glam getting ready for an award show, I'm sharing my most intimate thoughts with you on the podcast. You guys know I always keep it real with you guys, but this time I'm taking it to the next level.
Listen to Cheekies and Chill on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Of the many interviews that I've done for this podcast, Chef Benta's is one that really stood out for me.
The nomenclature of culinary ambassador has been a catch -all term for chefs whose ethnic, racial, or sometimes just appropriative identities are meant to represent as a proxy for a larger group.
As a black man in the United States, especially one whose professional life is in predominantly white spaces, I am, whether or not I like it, a proxy for an entire racial group.
and when your identity is a threat it raises the stakes of the ambassadorship when you are an interpreter and ambassador in quotation marks in a deadly conflict as chef bento is it makes me think about the people that we've given the title to in the past and its generosity or in some cases its burden culinary ambassador ambassador.
Growing up in Sierra Leone's brutal civil war, Chef Binta understands very well food as a matter of survival, and the tension between what parts of our past are brought into the future.
As she says, for the Fulani people, given their nomadic customs, a meal is not just food on a plate.
I'd like to thank our guest today, Chef Fatmata Binta.
You can learn more about her work and Fulani foodways at wetstonemagazine .com and if you'd like to learn more about African foodways, you can check out episode 11 Naija, which examines Nigerian food and also systems of power with Tunde We Yawande Komolafe Fang and Chef Michael Elikvede.
We'd also like to thank our incredible podcast producer, Celine Glager.
Celine, you are the best. To our editor and Whetstone partner and director of video, David Alexander in London.
Appreciate you, Dave. Thanks to our Whetstone production intern, Quentin and LeBeau.
And last but not least, my business partner, Mel Shee, who makes all things at Whetstone possible.
Thank you, Mel. We'd also like to thank our partners in production at iHeartRadio, to Gabrielle Collins, our supervising producer, and executive producer, Christopher Haciotis.
We'll be back next week with more from the world of food worldwide.
Thank you.
