KAYDARA AGROECOLOGY FARM-SCHOOL, SENEGAL by Nobuko Miyamoto
Recently, my husband, Tarabu, and I took a two-week journey to Senegal to see our 18-year-old grandson, Ahmed, who has been attending school there for 5 years. Traversing the dusty landscape with uncomfortable temperatures, Global Warming seemed more apparent there. Guided by our son, Kamau, we went to KAYDARA FARM a highlight of our visit. Located in the midst of a dry savannah, KAYDARA FARM has a canopy of coconut, mango, moringa, and papaya trees, creating a lush micro forest. Diverse crops flourish with companion planting, watered by wells, wasting nothing, and constantly renewed. We met Kaydara’s founder, Gora Ndiaye, a former history teacher, who, together with the local community, created this agroecology farm 25 years ago to teach younger generations, who often seek their future in the cities or overseas. They return to their own villages, promoting sustainable practices, and are part of a bigger vision that Africa’s development can be driven by rural change.
“Salaam Alaikum”… “peace” is the greeting said to everyone we met at KAYDARA. Peace is what I felt there, and hope, and a generosity of spirit that made us feel like family. On our last day, we each planted a coconut tree. Kamau then presented the founder with a gift of seeds sent by Freedom Growers, a Detroit farm collective, along with a letter in French. As the letter was translated to us in English, tears rose. We were part of a kind of Seed Diplomacy. Mr. Ndiaye then told us he would soon be attending a convening of sustainable farmers from all over Africa and would share these seeds with them. More seeds will be saved from these crops, and they will continue to connect us.
My grandson was happy and comfortable at Kaydara. He said he could see himself farming. It didn’t seem like a bad idea considering the chaotic world we live in. I also felt comfortable being there with activists/farmers who were trying to change their world. The fact is, people are planting seeds of good in Detroit, in LA, everywhere around us. Whether by agroecology in Senegal or building affordable housing in LA, or sharing environmental traditions via FandangObon. Seeds of change are being planted, and in time, will grow. Salaam Alaikum…Peace.
For more info on Permaculture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture
The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or implemented by those who hold power, and the reason is obvious and simple: allowing people to arrange their own food, energy, and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems, or governments to help us and devise ways to help ourselves. - Bill Mollison[28]
Waste nothing…integrate rather than segregate….diversity….small and slow solutions….value the marginal, the border between things (the border crossed people).
