Food is family, food is fuel, nourishment, cultural and fundamental. Connections made through food are an effective way to change minds, shift narratives, and amend policies to guard against food deprivation seen in many parts of Africa today. As explored in David Luke’s new book How Africa Eats, this diverse panel of tastemakers will explore the history of African cuisine; production and distribution, as well as considering the factors which may disrupt these; food security, food trade, and climate risks. 

Meet our speakers and chair

Adejoké "Joké" Bakare is a British Nigerian-born chef specialising in West African cuisine. Joké’s desire to work in food harked back to her university years as a student in Nigeria, where she studied biological sciences and ran a fish & chip cart in her spare time. Joké opened Chishuru in Brixton in September 2020 as a three month popup, after winning a Brixton Village competition. When Jay Rayner from the Observer came in and gave the restaurant a rave review, the popup became permanent. The Brixton site closed in October 2022 and Joké then operated popups at Quality Wines, Carousel, 180 The Strand and the Globe Tavern in Borough Market, before moving Chishuru to its permanent new home in Fitzrovia in September 2023. In February 2024, Michelin awarded Chishuru a Michelin star, making Joké the first black female Michelin-starred chef in the UK. Joké was named ‘Chef of the Year’ at the National Restaurant Awards 2024. 

Dipo Faloyin is a journalist and the author of Africa Is Not A Country. His writing on history, culture, race, identity and colonialism has featured in the Guardian, the New York Times, VICE, Esquire. He was born in Chicago, raised in Lagos and currently lives in London.

Edwini Kwame Kessie is Director of the Agriculture and Commodities Division at the World Trade Organization (WTO), which he joined in 1995. He has a Doctorate Degree in Law from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and is admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Courts of England & Wales, New South Wales, Australia and Ghana. Between 2012 and 2017, he was the Chief Trade Adviser of the Pacific Island Countries and Chief Executive Officer of the Office of the Chief Trade Adviser located in Port Vila, Vanuatu. In this capacity, he provided technical advice on a broad range of trade and investment issues to the Pacific Island countries and supported them in the free trade negotiations (PACER Plus) with Australia and New Zealand. He is a part-time lecturer at a number of universities, including the World Trade Institute, Berne, University of Pretoria and the University of Western Cape, South Africa. His principal areas of interest are regional integration, agriculture, trade and development and dispute settlement. 

David Luke is Professor in Practice and Strategic Director at the LSE Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa where he oversees a programme on African trade policy. He is a former director of the African Trade Policy Centre at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) where he led the technical work on the protocols that make up the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. His research interests include boosting intra-African trade; the AfCFTA initiative; Africa’s multilateral and bilateral trade relationships; and how trade policy intersects with industrialisation, structural transformation, inclusion, gender, public health, and climate change. He is a member of the Board of TradeMark Africa and of the Council of the Africa Trade Foundation. 

Laura Mann is Associate Professor in International Development in the Department of International Development at LSE. She is a sociologist whose research focuses on the political economy of development, knowledge and technology. Her regional focus is East Africa (Sudan, Kenya and Rwanda) but she has also worked on collaborative research on ICTs and BPO in Asia and has conducted fieldwork in North America as part of a project on digitisation within global agriculture.  

More about this event

This event is part of the LSE Festival: Visions for the Future running from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 June 2025, with a series of events exploring the threats and opportunities of the near and distant future, and what a better world could look like. Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 19 May.  

LSE Press is a publisher of high quality, open access research in the social sciences.
Based in the Library of the London School of Economics, LSE Press works with authors to develop and launch publications that reflect the LSE founding purpose and mission.

The Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (FLIA) focuses on engagement with Africa through cutting-edge research, teaching and public events, strengthening LSE’s long-term commitment to place Africa at the heart of understandings and debates on global issues.

Hashtag for this event: #LSEFestival