Want to watch Alain Mabanckou sing and Ato Quayson talk about his bracelet collection?

These were just two lively moments that occurred during “Thinnai Katcheri: It’s Cooking, Pays!,” a Facebook Live event held on January 15th as part of Le Thinnai Kreyol’s programming.

Le Thinnai Kreyol is a multi-lingual cultural platform cofounded by Ananya Jahanara Kabir, professor of English Literature at King’s College, London, and Ari Gautier, Francophone author from Pondicherry.

“It’s Cooking, Pays!“ was an intimate bilingual discussion between Ananya Kabir, Ari Gautier, Alain Mabanckou, and Ato Quayson about food in postcolonial African literature, music, and personal style as forms of creolization and everyday representation of African national cultures.

During the event, Alain Mabanckou performed a reading from his novel, Broken Glass (2005), and Ato Quayson reflected on culinary significance in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, and the power of the mundane to be found at ethnic food markets in the diaspora. As he observed:

The thing about the ethnic food store is that it is not exclusively placed for selling and buying food. It is also a kind of switchboard of nostalgias.

Click below to watch! For more videos of events hosted by Le Thinnai Kreyol, head to their YouTube channel.

P.S. Alain Mabanckou sings at 1:05:27 and 1:30:19, and Ato Quayson talks about his bracelet collection at 1:31:28.