“Home for me is global… I am a mother to so many.” Kombii Nanjalah
Mizizi (Roots): Down to the Roots
In 1987, Kombii Nanjalah began a deeply personal journey of working alongside economically-disadvantaged youth in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. She empowered the youth to build active lifestyles and healthy relationships within their communities through soccer. With the support of four colleagues, Kombii founded the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) 1987. Between then and 2006, MYSA had supported more than one million low-income youth struggling with substance abuse, homelessness, violent social environments and food insecurity. Noting MYSA’s commendable impact on low-income urban youth and their communities, President Daniel Arap Moi awarded Kombii Kenya’s prestigious Presidential Young People’s Award. Kombii later stepped down from her role in MYSA and moved to Kibera’s informal settlements, where she facilitated community empowerment programs, with a focus on supporting young women and girls.
In 2006, Kombii and some of her colleagues in Kibera were selected to participate in the World Urban Forum III in Vancouver, Canada. While in Vancouver, she also attended the International World Peace Forum, where she shared her story as a survivor of domestic abuse. Kombii was warmly received by fellow attendees of the Forum, particularly women. Having empathized with Kombii’s difficult story about the personal impacts of gender-based violence, some of the women extended their support to help Kombii begin her immigration and settlement process to Canada.
Utu (Humanity): Humans of Vancouver
Two weeks into her time in Vancouver, Kombii requested her new-found-friends to give her a tour of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side (DTES). Making her way through the DTES, Kombii was reminded of her time supporting families living on the streets of Nairobi. While majority of those forced to live on the streets in Nairobi were children and young mothers, Kombii observed that the population on the DTES was primarily composed of older adults. With her background in activism, social services, and a passion for cooking, she intentionally sought out how best she could be of service to folks in the DTES.
Kombii is an activist and a Black woman. Caring for the individuals and families living in the DTES, Kombii was motivated to work extra hours and save enough to purchase, cook and offer a free monthly meal service for un-housed folks at the corner of Columbia St. and East Hastings. With her children’s support, Kombii prepared hot dishes paired with maandazi (East African pastry), serving approximately 700 people per trip. To date, Kombii delivers meals to folks in several tent cities across Downtown Vancouver.
Ujenzi (Construction): Breaking Ground, Building Community
Following years of intentional community service across Vancouver, Kombii noted a significant gap in funding for after-school programs, particularly for students in K-12 living with learning and developmental challenges and children with refugee status. In an effort to re-direct funds towards supporting the said demographics, Kombii began campaigning for a seat as a School District Trustee with the Vancouver School Board. With 20,703 votes in the 2014 election, she did not win a seat. Nonetheless, she gained new relationships which, in a series of coincidences, catalyzed her into becoming an advocate for the formal recognition of Black presence in Vancouver.
In 2015, Kombii organized with colleagues to write a letter to the City of Vancouver detailing the historical significance of the Fountain Chapel for folks of African Descent in Metro Vancouver. Through relentless activism, Kombii and her colleagues succeeded with the planned demolition of the Georgia St. viaducts. In 2015, Black Vancouverites restored Fountain Chapel – where Kombii continues to serve meals on Sundays, inviting un-housed folks for free African dishes. With COVID-19 restrictions, they have been forced to pause on offering this service and hope to resume soon.
Maendeleo (Progress): Forming Futures through Food
While community care is one of the core principles in Kombii’s journey, food has been the vehicle and fuel that has enabled gathering. She cooks with love, infusing memories of her life in Kenya. At the Nora Hendrix Place, a modular housing development that is managed by Hogan’s Alley Society, Kombii cooks a variety of Kenyan dishes for Indigenous and Black residents who previously experienced homelessness. Through cooking traditional East African dishes and tending to a lush garden at the NHP, Kombii hopes to cultivate a sense of belonging and a sense of a community for those that have lost ties with their birthplaces, families, cultures, and languages. She hopes to offer adequate and relevant resources to refugee & at-risk youth, un-housed families, people with disabilities and gender-diverse folks through educational programming, arts and cultural fairs.
Pre-COVID-19 (before March 2020), Kombii delivered 114 plates of culturally appropriate food to the residents of NHP with funding from Red Cross, the City of Vancouver and Hogan’s Alley Society. In future, she hopes for a more stable schedule, to cook at NHP. Additionally, she hopes that the emergency funding will transition into sustainable funding, to help achieve food justice.
As I interviewed her, a bright smile comes across her face when she describes the vision she has for a ‘Cultural/Resource Centre’ for African immigrants. In this space, folks would share music, food, art, traditional games, etc. She hopes that it will feel like ‘home’, giving folks a glimpse of their ancestry, honouring the wisdom within – a space that invites wholeness, Ubuntu, Harambee, Kimikanda and Oneness – “I am Because You Are.” These African philosophies embrace the idea that humans cannot exist in isolation. We depend on connection, community, and mutual care. We need to create spaces for one another where we feel truly seen, where we can shout, laugh, cry, speak local languages and dance to the rhythms of our many homes.
The following are organizations and gatherings that Kombii has founded/established and managed:
Great Lakes Networking Society of BC
By Njoki Mburu
