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Anansi sure knows how to make an entrance.

The second of American Gods, “The Secret of Spoons,” kicks off with one of the most memorable character introductions in ages. It’s one of the show’s “coming to America” vignettes, set aboard a Dutch slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean in 1697, and it highlights that not everyone who arrived in America with their gods came of their own free will. A man named Okoye, shackled and scared, called out to Anansi for help and offered gifts if his prayers were answered.

“Let me tell you a story,” Anansi started softly. “Once upon a time, a man got fucked. Now how’s that for a story? ‘Cause that’s the story of black people in America!”

For the next few minutes, the men on the ship (and some of the audience at home) are given a rude awakening. It’s a blunt and candid summation of what black people in America have waiting for them after reaching those shores for the next few hundred years. Although the men on that ship might have no idea what Anansi means when he tells them what will happen, the audience knows exactly what he’s talking about.

Anansi is an expert storyteller, and in the hands of Orlando Jones—who grew up hearing stories of Anansi long before he read American Gods—he’s absolutely captivating. He can enthrall and spin webs, rile up those who listen, or calm them down if he needed to. (In this case, he pulls absolutely zero punches.)

“I was blown away,” Jones told reporters last month during an American Gods press junket. “I joked when I first read it, I was like, ‘Man I didn’t know these guys [showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green] were Black Panthers.’”

“It’s a brutally honest accounting of obviously the historical elements that come to play,” Jones continued. “It’s in the same way that I think we’re responding to all of our dialogue as the characters in that way that there’s a core resonating through it that we recognize as completely truthful, and you’re almost like, ‘Are they gonna let us say this?’”

They do that and more as Anansi convinces the men on the ship to kill all of the “Dutch motherfuckers” and burn down the ship, which will certainly kill them in the process. And Anansi has a message for them, one that might end up resonating with audiences after the show.

“Angry is good,” he said. “Angry gets. Shit. Done.” [x]

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White People buy up India’s superfoods, as Indigenous go hungry

India’s Indigenous people are increasingly having to turn to low nutritional foods as the price of superfoods — the traditional base of their diet — is driven up by the global health and wellness food industry.

According to a report by Quartz, the Scheduled [Nations] — the name given to the over 300 Indigenous communities in India — are struggling to compete for the growing demand in forest foods.

Phallus rubicundus, known as pihiri, a wild edible mushroom high in antioxidants and minerals, is just one of the many forest foods that have become fashionable with the urban elite.

Traditionally gathered by the Baigas, a marginalized Indigenous community, the wild mushroom now sells in cities for Rs25 per bundle.

This is threatening the food security of the Baigas who have begun to collect the mushrooms — not to consume or use as medicine as per tradition — but to sell to local traders.

Given that these superfoods can be gathered freely from the forest, the Baigas often sell the produce at low prices or trade for soap and oil.

And it is not just pihiri. The herb Alpinia nigra, locally known as tara, has also become a hot commodity for the health and wellness food industry.

For generations, the Karabis, the Indigenous peoples of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council in Assam, have foraged the forest for the superfood.

But today, the stem pith of tara sells for Rs15 to Rs20 a bundle in Diphu, encouraging the Karabis to sell the nutrient-rich food to urban markets.

This is having a devastating effect on both the diet and traditions of India’s Scheduled [Nations], Quartz reported.

In the case of the Baigas, poverty and market demand has induced the Indigenous community to swap the nutrient-rich pihiri for government-subsidized white rice, increasing the health risks of the marginalized community.

As well as health risks, there is also the risk that outsiders will begin to encroach upon forests to extract the sought-after superfoods.

While India’s 2006 Forest Rights Act recognizes the land rights of forest living peoples, there is growing concern big multinationals will elbow in on the profitable market.

That picture on the left was take on January 14th of this year.