On Building Borderless Nations

One of the joys of my life has been the gathering of Afro diasporic folk in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has come to be affectionately known as Continental Dinner. The name was suggested by an old friend and was a play on continental breakfast. If you asked me where the story of continental dinners originated, I could not point to a specific moment in time. It draws inspiration from sharing a plate of food with my little brother and our cousins in Kanye as a young boy. It is fueled by grilled goat on a rooftop with one of my boys in San Jose about 4 years ago. Then nearly catches flight with the parties that almost carried a sub-community through the pandemic on Middlefield Street in Palo Alto. But where it really became an institution was this past New Year's Eve when a dinner for a fellow Motswana visiting the Bay turned into a community fiesta. 

I still remember at my farewell dinner in August, right before leaving for Los Angeles, when a few folks decided they were going to keep the dinners going. Most of the dinners up until that point had been hosted by me or with my input. But learning that the dinners  would outlive me was the greatest honor of my life. I would say it was my legacy, but the dinners were not my idea. They were a product of so many visionaries and dreamers. I call them—us, I suppose—nation builders. I was especially happy the dinner was becoming community owned. One of the reasons the earlier version of this community that we tried building in Palo Alto crashed and burned so hard, with so many broken hearts and trauma to last generations, was ego. There were some big egos and narcissistic tendencies where some people felt they were the bloodline of community. I have succeeded in helping foster a community of the people for the people by the people.

The drama notwithstanding, one of the things I learned from that failed version of community building was how logistically easy it was to put the dinners together. The biggest expense was meat because the rest of the food just came from my pantry. Libations were supplied by the community and the vibes were often, as they say, immaculate! The Bay Area continental dinners are continuing strong and the responsibility to host rotates among volunteers from within the community. Some choose to cook, others opt to cater extensively, or as simply as pizza. But the important thing is the community gets together. The Los Angeles chapter is also off to a promising start. It is not yet at a point where it is community owned but it is getting there. I hear the Houston chapter just had its pre-launch trial dinner.  

The continental dinner is more than just food, drinks, and community. It is a nation building exercise. We are the modern day Pan Africanists. The word Pan Africanist is a loaded term and can mean so many things, but I use it here to mean we are are nurturing community for the advancement of Afro diasporic individuals. Today we are starting small and the main benefit is kinship. But as we move and spread this humble idea to other cities, we are growing our community and influence. As we grow our community and advance as individuals, we collectively benefit from that access. One day in the not so distant future, the continental dinner will be a source of business opportunities, professional advancement, and strong community of supporters for our creative endeavors. Not just for our own little exclusive community, but—I hope—for black people everywhere. 

We are a diverse bunch. We come from affluence and we come from humble backgrounds. Our African ancestry varies from as recently as "just moved here a week ago" to those whose ancestors had to transcend the inhumanity of the white supremacist's violence. We are tech innovators, creatives, and everything imaginable. We drink $5 wine from the corner store and fancy bottles of cognac that are above my pay bracket. We jam to hip hop, afro beats, amapiano, and all the soulful music with rhythm. We are young and we are growing. So much beauty with our diversity, we are limitless!

Recognizing that in our daily lives we live in community with non-black folks, we are a very welcoming space. All allies are welcome, so long as they understand that the continental dinner is a sacred space intended to center and prioritize the advancement of the Afro diaspora: African, African-American, Afro-Latinx, and any other variant of Afro-X. We are building borderless nations. Beyond our national identities based on countries that were drawn by white colonialists at the Berlin conference, we are planting the seeds for a black nation spread across the globe. A black community that is internally consistent and transcends sexism, classism, ableism, ageism, and all the isms. I am sure it will not be a simple endeavor, but I am grateful to be a part of this.