A farmer looks out over his field. Although he has spent his life working this farm and making it a viable source of income, soon he may never see the fruition of his years of hard work again. Meanwhile, a group of poor, unemployed locals anticipate the prospect of owning their own land and producing a profitable business. After 46 years of oppression, they will be given a chance to start over. Click for more
The mid-morning sun danced with the sparkle of sequences on Jane Mohale’s worn skirt. She looked off into the distance, thinking. Her worn hands the color of Mother Earth fiddled with her blue cap. She looked over at the translator and gave a quiet answer in Zulu.
“What I would love to do, I can’t do,” she said.
Maria Mehlape stood stoically in front of her four empty chicken houses. The handful of remaining chickens pecked at the ground in front of her house. People took the chickens in 2006; they promised to pay for them later, but never returned.
She would like to continue raising broilers (male chickens used as meat), but does not have the necessary chickens nor electricity. In order to raise chickens, she needs to be able to heat the houses. She is currently waiting for a government fund to pay for electricity that was used to produce the last flock of broilers. In order to survive, she has been renting out her land to a local cattle farmer. Click for more
Cattle in South Africa are traditionally symbolic of a man’s wealth and status. Cattle’s cultural significance is equal to or worth more than their economic and agricultural value. In Zulu culture, cattle were given as gifts from a groom’s family to the family of his bride, called the lobola. The custom was more than just a dowry, but an act of bonding kinship relations between two conjoining families. Cattle have also been seen as an intermediary between people and the spirit world; they are often slaughtered at weddings, funerals, and other significant events to bring the ancestral shades closer to the living. Click for more
Two decades ago, the problem was apartheid. Now, South Africa’s citizens face the challenge of its failing educational system with much of the population having no more than a 7th grade education.
As its apartheid regime pushed blacks into lives as laborers and servants, South Africa’s black population with a high school diploma barely reaches 14% despite a new age of growth and democracy.
This education void is most obvious within the black farming community. Emerging black farmers, most of who obtained their land in the past decade through redistribution programs, are struggling to become engaged in agriculture. Yet these subsidence farmers have little or no experience in commercial agriculture. Click for more