The revival of an old gardening practice in Grahamstown may just help to slowly defeat poverty and get people back in touch with their roots.
The revival of an old gardening practice in Grahamstown may just help to slowly defeat poverty and get people back in touch with their roots.
Composting, or ututhwini, was once recognised as essential in Xhosa homes. Food waste was allocated to a specific space near the homestead where it would decompose into fertile soil. The seeds of these discarded vegetables would naturally take root and could be harvested for food.
Ututhwini also allowed a family's gogo (grandmother) to teach children the stages at which wild foods could be harvested. This valuable heritage of knowledge was lost in the early 20th century when communities were ordered to stop dumping their food because of suspected related plague outbreaks.
Although the diseases were actually the result of overcrowding rather than composting, ututhwini was blamed and an important economic and social privilege was lost. However, there are a few who still remember the benefits of the old ways.
Among these are members of Inqaba Yegolide, a Makana based youth co-operative working with the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University, who aim to reintroduce a modified ututhwini system that addresses the current needs of the community.
Through this cleaning and greening initiative, its members clean the gardens of five residents every weekend. These youths then install composters made of cast-off iron, which turn food scraps into soil in an aerobic way similar to that of the ututhwini.
The aerobic decomposing avoids the harmful by-production of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, which is what generally occurs when organic waste is sent to the dump instead. Inqaba Yegolide member Monwabisi Kilani recalls how her grandfather "used to garden and teach that growing one’s own food was the way things should be done. Young kids now with TV and electronic toys don’t know about gardening”.
But Kilani and the other youth are bringing back this vital cultural and economical practice and their motive is simple — they want to start doing something to help the community. By showing residents that solutions to their troubles may lie in their roots and their culture, the youth are giving the community a sense of pride and empowerment.
“People don’t have to rely on government money to buy food. They can save money by growing the food that they would otherwise have to buy,” Kilani said.
In addition to personal savings, growing your own food also has health benefits. It ensures that no unnatural chemicals from pesticides enter the body. The only thing that goes into this soil is compost made of natural materials like grass clippings and vegetable scraps.
After a few weeks, this organic waste turns into mature nutrient-rich fertiliser that can then be used for planting. So far Inqaba Yegolide has installed over 30 composters and the community is already seeing the impact. Yards are more organised and many young vegetables are sprouting healthy leaves – much like they did in the past – and like they could do well into the future.
