A Holistic Approach to Community-Led Peacebuilding. Member Spotlight: Kehinde Micheal Osatuyi
Kehinde Micheal Osatuyi describes himself as “a socialist to the core,” enabling him to think about and approach change through a different lens. “People are looking for profit where I am not looking for profit. I’m looking for community impact, I’m looking for community growth.” Everywhere he goes, Osauyi looks for ways the system can change and serve the people better. Through his successes he began to ask “can we rethink our community around a sustainable model? And, of course, where to begin?”
The Muizenberg Community Kitchen
The COVID-19 pandemic affected us all in different ways. While some were home making sourdough and navigating zoom meetings, Osatuyi decided it was time for a career change. “I actually came from a background in medical sciences but I discovered that I need to cultivate my passion about people in the community, I need to involve myself in the community. I need to put smiles on peoples’ faces. The idea of food came to my head because I believe food can bring people together.”
In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Osatuyi co-founded the Muizenberg Community Kitchen with his fellow community members as an emergency response. The kitchen evolved beyond its initial emergency response as time went on. “It’s not just a soup kitchen. I did it as a community kitchen so that I can bring volunteers together, mentor the youth, cook,and eat together in peace and love.”
As restrictions began to loosen and people returned to their day-to-day lives, Osatuyi re-doubled his efforts. “Because of the passion I had for that community, I had to take it upon myself to keep it running. We made it successfully through the second year and third year and it is still running now.” Osatuyi realized The Muizenberg Community Kitchen had served over 30,000 meals, so he expanded and incorporated new bicycle oriented programs that include food delivery, compost collection that goes towards their community garden, and community cleanup and recycling collection.
2023 Innovator of the Year Award
In 2023, Osatuyi (along with Kate Ferguson and Kevin Kgara Rack) won the MBBI Innovator of the Year Award at MBBI’s 10th Annual International Peace Congress in Nairobi, Kenya. This award is given to MBBI’s program alumni for their use of innovative techniques and unique projects for peacebuilding. The Muizenberg Community Kitchen, in addition to the food support above, offers restorative mediation circles and carrying out conflict mapping processes to holistically support the community.
Osatuyi, Ferguson, and Rack are all alumni of the Africa Rotary Community Mediation (ARCoM) Training Program, which provides a platform to establish a conflict prevention community mediation initiative which involves Rotarians and Non-Rotarians to deepen peacebuilding work within and between communities. In 2023, MBBI hosted an in-person graduation ceremony from the four cohorts that have completed the ARCoM program. Here is a video of the ARCoM Alumni sharing their projects online on the projects, which features Osatuyi and the Muizenberg Community Kitchen.
The Intersection of Food and Peacebuilding
Osatuyi believes food and food security are essential for community building because of its ability to help people transform their environment and their outlook. Through the Muiz Kitchen, Osatuyi created a program where people could “clean their environment and they would be handed a coin which you could exchange for food,” inspiring people to take action to make their community better. Moreover, Osatuyi worked with people to give them the skills they need to find work as chefs and baristas as well as people who have disabilities and helped them learn to “cook for their families, they are able to cook, for me that is transformation.”
By adapting to each community they enter, the Muizenberg Community Kitchen created unity. Osatuyi brought people of all backgrounds into a shared space and had them work towards a common goal. “Whether you are colored, you are black, you are white, we work in the same environment, we connect together, we do things together, there is no space for racism… we bring unity together.” Osatuyi has successfully applied this methodology to unite communities divided by race, religion, and other conflicts. According to Osatuyin “we just need your pure heart so we can work together for the betterment of the community.”
Next Steps for Micheal
When Osatuyi saw that Muizenberg Community Kitchen could continue without him, he looked for new opportunities to learn more in order to make a greater impact and make his vision a reality. He moved to the United States as a mediator and became associated with Mediators Beyond Borders International. From the US, Ostauyi moved to Eswatini to continue his rural community projects with Kudvumisa Foundation. Although Ostauyi is trying to create jobs, skill training, and stimulate economic development broadly, his focus is “getting people to believe in peace and love in a holistic manner.”
Osatuyi’s goal is to create lasting change, “leave a footprint behind.” In Eswatini he is working for the Kudvumisa Foundation to meet the needs of community members throughout the country, however; he regularly faces a different kind of challenge. “I face a lot of challenges as a foreigner in another country. Some say this, and some say that, but I feed the heat by working as a non-citizen with citizens to try and create change.” Through collaboration and his conflict resolution skills, Kehinde Micheal Osatuyi has always overcome and found ways to leave his mark.
Osatuyi takes a different approach in Eswatini than he did during his time at the Muizenberg Community Kitchen kitchen. “A lot of people only focus on the people living in the streets, whereas there’s a lot of people inside the house that also need help. When I got here, I started making visits to these homes that are in poverty, that are in crisis, that have been abused, where people and kids are disabled and find ways to care for them.” Ostauyi connects with local leaders to resolve conflict within the communities – especially in schools – and provides healthcare and other resources through a local clinic that he manages.
As Kehinde Micheal Osatuyi looks forward, he is always looking for ways to expand and help build communities throughout Africa. Osatuyi will be receiving more leadership training in Zambia before he acts as a delegate of peacebuilding at the Global Peace Summit in New York City in December 2024. But Osatuyi says none of those personal accomplishments stand above “seeing people smiling, bringing happiness to peoples’ lives. That is my greatest achievement.”
Article by Kieran Blunnie, MBBI Writer