CULTURAL RESISTANCE: Zayaan Khan, cultivating food justice through seeds, art and activism

Nestled under a staircase in Bertha House, Mowbray in Cape Town, is Seed Biblioteek (seed library). Seed Biblioteek was founded in 2015 by researcher, artist and activist Zayaan Khan. It is here where the 42-year-old told Daily Maverick about how food is deeply rooted in all her work from her library to her art.

Food justice in an unjust food system

When asked about what she considers her origin as a food justice activist, Khan at first mentions her work with the non-governmental organisation Surplus People Project where she was involved from 2011 to 2016.

At the Surplus People Project, Khan was a researcher and advocate for agrarian reform and food sovereignty. As an in-field horticulturist she supported small-scale farmers with agroecological training and farming methods.

But she is quick to explain that her origins truly lie in her awareness around hunger. After working as a food systems researcher, hunger all along the food chain is undeniable, Khan says, noting the extent of hunger – even farmers and fishers are hungry.

“I think food should be a collective engagement, and I don’t think we need to struggle when we have the land. Except all the land is held up by people who stole it. It’s not fair. And the system is designed to be that way, so it’s easy to slot people into it,” Khan says.

Khan firmly believes that there is no reason anyone should go hungry in SA, an agricultural country where large amounts of food is produced and wasted. She also believes that nobody should have to pay for food.

“So systemically... the issues are obvious from a distance, but it’s such an embedded system that’s taken many hundreds of years to build,” Khan says on SA’s food systems.

Connecting with like-minded individuals

From 2013 to 2016, Khan was a co-ordinator at the Slow Food Youth Network South Africa, which she helped establish.

The Slow Food Youth Network was a network of young people who connected and collaborated based on their belief that the food movement is a place of connection and a place of health and wealth, according to Khan.

Khan recalls her favourite part of the network as being the exposure it gave her to different people and projects.

She was able to travel to Italy to attend the biennial Terra Madre Salone del Gusto festival during her time at the network. The international festival hosts events such as conferences dedicated to good, clean and fair food and food politics.

She highlights that it was beautiful being able to witness indigenous people from all around the world coming together to discuss their struggles and solutions and to witness the happiness that the event brought.

Starting the seed library

During her time at the Slow Food Youth Network South Africa, it used to collaborate with non-profit urban agriculture organisation Tyisa Nabanye.

The organisation was based on a farm on the slopes of Signal Hill in Tamboerskloof, Cape Town. Residents of the area including Tyisa Nabanye members were always at risk of being forcibly removed, because the land, although abandoned, officially belonged to the military, says Khan.

In protest, Tyisa Nabanye held a market where the Slow Food Youth Network South Africa had a stall where seeds could be exchanged. The market highlighted the need for a seed library, as people from all over Cape Town had come to exchange seeds, Khan says.

In 2015, she then opened Seed Biblioteek at Bertha House in Mowbray. In 2025, Seed Biblioteek opened its second library at the Muizenberg Commons.

At Seed Biblioteek the public can donate seeds, compost or publications on seed in exchange for other seeds, Khan says.

Seed Biblioteek also hosts events such as workshops, film screenings, zine making and seed festivals.

“I think it’s vital. I think we are in an era of reconnection, and the diversity of people who love seeds is so beautiful to witness and be a part of. And libraries are a community space, they’re a connection space,” says Khan on the importance of seed libraries in SA.

She adds that seed libraries are important due to the nature of SA’s seed laws.

In SA, farmers’ rights are implicated through laws that lacked public consultation, she says.

“There are many laws, many treaties. It’s draconian. It’s a disaster,” Khan says.

Seed libraries keep seeds and the culture of seeds accessible, she adds. Khan says that this includes activities such as beading and music making, which are a big part of seed culture outside of gardening or farming.

Khan says seed laws should come from the people of the country, not the state. Seed is deeply embedded in South African cultures, yet indigenous and traditional farming practices are not valued.

Khan says that agroecological practices and black ecology practices are very diverse and knowledgeable and carry lots of identity, and should hence should be something celebrated. Indigenous and traditional practices should be the norm, as opposed to the current standardised system.

Binding art and food

Khan creates art of various kinds like sculptures, prints and illustrations.

Currently, her art explores what she calls “in life and death”, in which she seeks to understand the spectrum of death, she says. Seeds are an important part of her art as they represent both life and death.

Khan gains her artistic inspiration from the collective heritage of everyone who lives in the same space and place, from microbes to insects to the spiritual world.

She is inspired by grief and love, whether it is her own, ours or even the grief of the land, she says.

Recently, her art has been centred on polycrisis, specifically representing global crises through the lens of food.

In October Khan completed an installation of an edible Pan-African graveyard for the Maputo Fast Forward Festival. She explains that the installation sought to address xenophobia and honour Mozambicans who were killed in South Africa.

“My art sometimes can be a print, or an illustration, or a sculpture. Sometimes it’s a story. But oftentimes it’s a plate of food, or a dressing of food on a table,” Khan says. DM