The smell of chapati and sizzling samosas drifted across the Pedestrian Mall as people lined up for a taste of Kenya at the African Arts Festival held Saturday. Behind the table, smiling through the heat and chatting with customers, stood Jane Mwanthi, serving traditional food from her home country.

For Mwanthi, the festival isn’t just about cooking, it’s about sharing the culture and flavors.

“Anybody that comes in my house, that is what I make,” she said. “That is what I cook in my house.”

Mwanthi was born and raised in eastern Kenya, where her parents were farmers. She attended Kenya Polytechnic College before immigrating to the U.S. in 1998 with her two children. After a short stay in Milwaukee, she found her way to Iowa City and decided to stay.

“It was a small city, basically quiet,” she said. “I liked it because it was a good place to raise a family.”

Over 25 years later, she still cooks the same dishes she grew up with: chapati, ugali, mandazi, and samosas, now in a Midwestern kitchen. This year’s African Arts Festival held in the Ped Mall Saturday gave her the chance to share those flavors.

“People can come and taste Kenyan food,” she said. “And not only Kenyan food, I will prepare dishes that are only made by my tribe.”

Her favorite dish is ugali, a simple cornmeal dough often eaten with vegetables or meat. She also prepares muthokoi and ngunza, foods from her tribe, the Akamba.

“Ugali is Kenyan. Chapati is Kenyan,” she said. “But my tribe has foods like muthokoi, that’s our special dish.”

Building the celebration

The African Arts Festival is still new to Iowa City. Its first year was 2024, and it’s already doubled in size.

Brady G’sell, vice chair of the planning committee, said the idea came from a community meeting where residents expressed interest in creating a festival to celebrate African culture in Iowa.

“For a long time, the community wanted a festival that celebrates African culture,” G’sell said. “Nobody had spearheaded it until 2024.”

There are roughly 30,000 African-born Iowans, with about 4,000 living in Iowa City, many of whom have been here for decades, G’sell said.

Last year’s event brought about 2,500 people and 30 vendors. This year, attendance nearly doubled, with 50 vendors and 12 food booths, including Mwanthi’s, G’sell said.

“The food vendors took a chance last year,” G’sell said. “But we sold out of food by 4 p.m.”

To handle the growth, organizers built a full food-court area decorated with African fabrics and long banquet tables.

“I wanted everyone to eat together,” G’sell said. “It’s really like traveling without a passport.”

The day also featured music, a Parade of Nations representing 54 countries, and art vendors from the Iowa City area.

Finding home in Iowa

For Mwanthi, Iowa City has become more than a college town.  It’s a place where she’s built a life that still feels connected to Kenya. She said cooking and creating things by hand keep her grounded in who she is.

“My mom used to weave baskets, and so did my grandmother,” she said. “I learned from watching her, waiting for her to walk away from her work, and then I’d try to copy it.”

That creative drive never left her. Even though she wasn’t selling her crocheted items this year, Mwanthi said she still makes them at home whenever she can.

“Whenever I start something, it just flows in my head,” she said. “I don’t read patterns — I create my own.”

While she sometimes misses the landscapes and rhythm of daily life in Kenya, she finds comfort in the small ways she can recreate them here: cooking, gardening, and spending time with her community.

At the African Arts Festival, surrounded by laughter, live music, and the smell of spices, Mwanthi said she feels both proud and grateful – proud to represent her culture and grateful that Iowa City makes space for it.

“It was such a beautiful thing,” she said. “Not just the Africans, but it was all of us. We were there. And that made my day.”

As the crowd thinned and the afternoon heat began to fade, the same warmth lingered in the air, the kind that comes from sharing food, stories, and a little bit of home.

“The best part of Africa Fest,” G’sell said, “is Africa.”