Today we’d like to introduce you to Ona Zene Yeshitela.
Hi Ona Zene, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Uhuru Bakery & Cafe is part of the Black Power Blueprint, a suite of institutions along West Florissant Avenue in North St. Louis that are collectively revitalizing and rebuilding a thriving, independent Black community economy.
It is the thousands of people who have bought our food and pies, volunteered to bake and sell, and donated money to the Black Power Blueprint who have helped bring us to this point. Their support has enabled us to purchase LRA properties—government-managed public land—that we have renovated into thriving community-based enterprises.
We have operated food enterprises for decades. We ran Uhuru Bakery & Cafe in Oakland, California and have operated booths at street fairs since the 1980s. Today, we also sell Uhuru Pies at the Soulard Farmers Market in St. Louis on most weekends.
All of the work we have done to develop and test our recipes, combined with thousands of volunteer hours and decades of experience, has brought us to the point where we know how to make—and serve—great food.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
In short, no—it has not been a smooth road, not even for a day. Our community as a whole struggles with food insecurity, job insecurity, housing insecurity, and much more.
As an organization representing our African community and following in the footsteps of Marcus Garvey—who built the largest Black organization for economic independence, including grocery stores, laundries, restaurants, factories and a steamship line—we have had to overcome tremendous obstacles.
One of those challenges has been raising the money to purchase the properties that now make up the Black Power Blueprint’s suite of institutions. We built a movement of supporters who have donated the lion’s share of the funds. Many of our supporters in the white community of South St. Louis and beyond see their contributions as a form of reparations and take pride in participating in repairing some of the damage our community has experienced.
And then there have been battles with the city. It took two hearings to gain a conditional use permit to open the bakery. We gathered approximately 300 petition signatures, hired a lawyer, and won more than 100 supporters to attend the final hearing. It took a period of 10 months just to convince the City’s zoning and planning department to grant the African People’s Education & Defense Fund a permit for a building that had been a restaurant for more than 20 years!
Yes, this is the kind of struggle we have endured in the process of opening all of the Black Power Blueprint programs. It is not unique to Uhuru Bakery & Cafe or to the Black Power Blueprint. The struggle for life and self-determination is something our African communities know well.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Uhuru Bakery & Cafe, the menu is a mix of healthy, nutritious homestyle recipes representing Black working-class food traditions, with a focus on fresh, garden-grown, homemade and vegan options, accompanied by Uhuru’s signature baked goods. We sell jerk chicken sandwiches and hand pies, breakfast bowls, lunch and weekend brunches. Try our seasoned home fries, coleslaw, spicy potato salad, Ginger “Beer” and Jamaican Hibiscus drinks. Of course our famous seasonal Uhuru pies with flavors ranging from apple, lemon chess, cherry and chocolate bourbon pecan to our signature sweet potato, are a hit all year ŕound.
But what really sets us apart is that we are so much more than just a café. Uhuru Bakery & Café is a project of the Black Power Blueprint, itself a project of the non-profit, African People´s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF), is part of revitalizing North St. Louis, by and for our community.
Along with Shamba La Uhuru Freedom Farm and the One Africa! One Nation! Farmers Market, Uhuru Bakery & Café is part of the Black Power Blueprint’s strategy to end “food apartheid”: grow the food, prepare the food, and bring it to the community.
The Black Power Blueprint demonstrates what our community can accomplish with access to limited resources but a powerful determination to build a future for our children. The Uhuru Vanguards Basketball Court, along with the growing number of houses we have purchased and renovated for rental or home-ownership through our Reparations Investment Company (RIC) program, are all part of an effort to strengthen our community and help keep it together.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Lessons learned (this was the question asked when I first reviewed the questions. I prepared an answer to this question with Ona Zene. I am not prepared to answer the question re her childhood memory:):
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
ANSWER:
We have learned time and time again that each of us can not accomplish much by ourselves, but together as a community, we are strong enough to make a difference. From all the folks who signed a petition, to the volunteer who built our pie cabinets; from the neighbors who keep watch on all the properties to the youth who sweep their basketball court to YOU, our next pie eating customer or investor, we are building a collective future! Together we are making it happen. We have also learned that despite the odds, when we fight, we win. If we had given up when faced with any of the challenges, we would not be celebrating our Uhuru Bakery & Cafe Grand Opening on August 15th!.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://UhuruPies.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uhurubakeryandcafestl/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UhuruBakeryandCafeSTL/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/african-people’s-education-and-defense-fund-apedf-/posts/?feedView=all
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BlackPowerBlueprint
