#ovambo

[folkfashion]

Ovambo woman, Namibia, by George Bush Center

[american-noire]

Ovambo (Ogandjera) woman of the Bantu peoples, 1936.

[foodjusticeisus]

African Indigenous Agricultural Practices

Increasing Soil Fertility Using Raised Beds

Figure: Ovambo People.

The Ovambo people are indigenous to Namibia and Southern Angola. They hold the belief that soil quality is not necessarily an inherent quality of nature, but rather something acquired through careful nurture, such as mounding, digging, and application of OM. When their land was colonized, they were forced into other lands with less soil fertility than what they had cultivated in their soils over generations. As a result, the Ovambo people were forced to start afresh and apply the traditional techniques that nourished the soils that they originally owned. In doing so, they created raised beds by setting the desired boundaries, clearing the brush within those boundaries, and building raised rectangular mounds. The pathways between these mounds doubled as irrigation ditches. Within the mounds, farmers add all kinds of OM to increase fertility, such as cattle urine, muck from wetlands, termite earth, and manure; this aerates and concentrates fertile topsoil, as well as prevents water logging. The Ovambo farmers also integrate a rotating fallow after harvesting millet for a few seasons. During this fallow, livestock such as cattle and goats will graze the brush of the resting crop, excreting manure and urine that plant nutrients into the soil and increase fertilization. Additionally, the practice of crop rotation, in this instance, including a fallow on a rotational basis, is one that is practiced by Indigenous groups across the world, as was briefly mentioned in the post about American Indigenous subsistence practices.

Terracing

In addition to crop rotation, terracing is another agricultural practice that is done by Indigenous communities across the world. In East Africa, this practice is called fanya-juu, which means “throw it upward.” What these farmers “throw upward” is soil from the bottom of slopes, which is then thrown to create terraces and thus revive degraded lands. As a result, SOM levels can be increased by 35% or higher than is found on conventional farms. Additionally, this practice sequesters CO2 , which helps mitigate climate change.

The Benefit of Trees in Agriculture

Figure: Yacouba Sawadogo of Burkina Faso. 

Silvopasture is an agricultural method that uses the various benefits provided by trees on livestock farms. In Burkina Faso, this is called zai, or tassa. Traditionally, pits were dug before the growing season started to catch water and concentrate organic matter. This practice was revived and built upon by Yacouba Sawadogo, who sought to revive his family farm when others were fleeing the Sahel due to the severe drought. Sawadogo dug the pits, as traditionally done, and filled them with manure and compost in order to attract termites, which would create tunnels that helped to further decompose OM by exposing it to air. This led to an increase in grain yield, and native trees began growing out of his field, which anchored the soil, buffered the wind, and helped retain soil moisture (insert here, an ode to the ability of native plants to supply our ecosystems with all the features and resources they need. Thank you native plants!). The trees also provided mulch for crops, and fodder for livestock (in addition to wind protection, this is a reason why many agroecologists promote zai/tassa/silvopasture). Other folks who stayed in the Sahel employed the same techniques as Sawadogo, and as a consequence, water tables in the region began to rise for the first time in decades. Sawadogo’s work is steadily transforming the Sahel into a green landscape again.

Figure: Sahel Desert.

Market Susus and Their Benefit for Market Women

A traditional market system that is believed to have originated in Nigeria is the susu. This system is an alternative economic system that consists of 15-20 members on average, and is led by a trusted elder in the community, the susu ma, or susu mother. In a susu group, money is collected from each member on a periodic basis, whether it be daily, weekly, or monthly. After a specified amount of periods, the lump sum of collected cash, held on by the susu ma, is distributed to one person, and the cycle begins again. This occurs repeatedly until every member of the susu has received a disbursement. Members are also able to double or triple their input to receive a proportional return, and these collections, calculations and distributions are taken care of by the susu ma. How does this benefit market women specifically? Starting a business requires a large amount of capital at once, something that can be difficult for women to obtain in certain places due to economic customs or certain situations such as ones where women have to be the primary breadwinner for multiple people. A susu group is supportive to these women because it allows them to accumulate a large amount of capital at once, which can be used to jumpstart or upgrade their business. 

I wanted to highlight this African Indigenous market strategy because the United States’ main economic system is capitalism. This system seeks the endless accumulation of capital, that is, the acquisition of mass amounts of wealth achieved through minimized costs and thus maximization of profits. By minimizing profits, you are incentivized to engage in exploitation, of people for their labor, or the environment for its resources--and don’t even get me started on how advertisements are used to exploit people for their interests, pleasures, fears, dreams, ideologies, and financial ability. Capitalism was the driving force behind chattel slavery (which sought to maintain white supremacy), commodifying African bodies, wiping away their humanity to position them as property. After all, what greater way to minimize the cost of labor than by forcing hundreds of thousands of human beings to work for free, with minimal food, covering, and health care to barely keep them going? This exploitative economic system still hurts Black people, Indigenous Americans, People of Color, women, and poor people today. It also causes devastation to the environment, as is being increasingly talked about. The minerals used in our phones, tablets, and computers are often acquired through trafficked labor and blown off mountaintops, mainly in the Congo. Capitalism just can’t keep its hands off of the African continent, even 400 years later. As folks are coming to recognize the empty promises of economic tokenization of its most oppressed groups, the women and young girls cheated by cost cutting tactics, and the plants, animals, and resources that are impacted by direct and repeated environmental exploitation, reimaginations of our economic systems are happening. With the more recent attention on Indigenous practices, and Black people and POC seeking a veneration of their ancestral knowledge, we have the opportunity to take a page from the book of the Nigerian susu as a way to support small businesses, market women, and build community interdependence and connectedness.

Remediation of Eroded Hillsides Through Soil Fortifying Plants

*While not indigenous to Africa, I want to include this erosion remediation story to highlight its regenerative nature and the efforts and successes of Haitian farmers.*

Erosion occurs when water from storms or wave action comes into repeated contact with a substance, and, over time, diminishes the substance by breaking its components down to be washed into the water source. The country of Haiti, once a colonized nation by the Spanish and French, saw its hillsides experience such great erosion that much of it fell into the ocean. This occurred due to deforestation for sugar plantations and coffee, indigo, and tobacco crops, which caused the earth to give way, as there were no tree roots to hold the soil in place. As such, farmers in Haiti have organized to find solutions to this colonial issue. Their efforts have, thus far, resulted in forests covering 30% of land area, slowly replenishing these necessary oxygen-producing, carbon-sequestering, sometimes fruit-bearing organisms that are a vital component of our natural ecosystems and environment. The ways Haitian farmers have been able to remediate their eroded hillsides was by planting vetiver, a densely-rooted perennial grass, in contour strips along the hillside. Due to the dense branching of vetiver roots, soil was held in place so that farmers could plant trees with thinner stems such as cherry, moringa, or mango trees. This is a way that the farmers could progressively fortify their soil, first using the grass, vetiver, to make way for lighter trees like moringa trees, which then make way for larger trees with thicker and more extensive roots, which has even greater potential to hold soil in place. Haitian farmers also dug meter deep trenches at 20 foot intervals in order to catch soil and runoff that would wash down the hillside during heavy rains. The trenches were dug out repeatedly, and the soil caught would be returned to the hillsides to manage erosion. The combination of vegetation in contour strips along with trench digging worked to increase water infiltration and maintain soil health.

Figure: Vetiver Grass.

Figure: Contour Strips.

Figure: Moringa Tree.

Source: Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman

[logi1974]

The north of Namibia is not only home to the world famous Etosha National Park, but is also blessed with many other highlights. To the north of the country, is the Caprivi, which with its extensive river system is also often referred to as Namibia’s Okavango Delta, the solitary Kaokoland, the hostile Skeleton Coast, the beautiful Damaraland characterized by the many rock paintings and engravings, the historic and relatively densely populated Ovamboland and the distinctive Waterberg.

Der Norden Namibias ist nicht nur Heimat des weltberühmten Etosha National Parks, sondern wartet mit vielen weiteren Highlights darauf entdeckt zu werden. Zum Norden des Landes zählen ebenfalls der Caprivi mit seinen ausgedehnten Flusssystemen, auch die “feuchte Nase” Namibias genannt, das wenig erschlossene Kaokoveld, die lebensfeindliche Skeleton Coast, das wunderschöne und von Felsbildern charakterisierte Damaraland, das historische und relativ dicht bevölkerte Ovamboland sowie der markante Waterberg.

[amazing-planet-amazing-planet]

Ovambo traditional dress

The Ovambo are a people group from Southern Africa, the largest ethnic group in Namibia (50%) and a minority group in Southern Angola (~2). They number at around 1.6 million people overall. The most commonly practiced faith is Christianity.

[folkfashion]

Ovambo woman, Namibia, by Eric Lafforgue

[ethicallyethnic]

Owambo - Pre-colonial.

[oiroegbu]

African Proverbs 8 What do you make of this Ovambo saying? A Parasite can not live alone.