From Daily Maverick · Nazeer Sonday · · 2m
Why Africa’s agricultural crisis is a matter of race, class and epistemicide
Africa’s agricultural crisis stems from colonialism, land inequality, and the erasure of indigenous knowledge systems.
In brief
Africa’s agricultural crisis stems from colonialism, land inequality, and the erasure of indigenous knowledge systems. Africa’s agricultural crisis reflects systemic racism, land inequality, and the loss of indigenous knowledge, requiring a shift to regenerative land practices. Originally reported by Daily Maverick.
Africa’s agricultural crisis roots
Africa’s reliance on industrial agriculture reflects colonialism, inequality, and the erasure of indigenous knowledge systems.
Industrial agriculture’s failures
Industrial farming consumes 2% of global energy and generates 1.5% of carbon emissions through ammonia synthesis.
Soil degradation impact
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Two billion hectares of farmland abandoned globally due to soil degradation over the last 200 years.
Nutritional depletion
Monocultures of rice, maize, and wheat provide 60% of human dietary energy but cause nutrient starvation.
Public health risks
Synthetic pesticides cause elevated cancer rates, reproductive anomalies, and developmental delays in children.
Epistemicide in action
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Colonial discourses erased African agricultural knowledge, devaluing indigenous practices as primitive folklore.
Bokoni terraces
Pre-colonial South Africa’s Bokoni civilization built stone-walled terraces for mixed farming systems between the 1500s and 1820s.
Amílcar Cabral’s agronomy
Amílcar Cabral surveyed soils across Guinea-Bissau with 2,200 peasant farmers decades before modern climate science.
Philippi Horticultural Area
Nazeer Sonday, a smallholder farmer, chairs the PHA Food & Farming Campaign protecting Cape Town’s 3,000-hectare Philippi Horticultural Area.
Industrial farming collapse
Nazeer’s hydroponic tomato farm imploded within two years due to rising costs and low farmgate prices.
South African land crisis
South Africa’s land reform favors politically connected elites, white farmers, and corporate agribusinesses over smallholders.
Child malnutrition crisis
23% to 28.8% of South African children under five suffer severe food poverty and chronic stunting.
Landculture solution
Vegkop Polyculture Farm uses indigenous regenerative strategies to restore soil health and recharge the Cape Flats Aquifer.
Soil health as sovereignty
True agricultural sovereignty requires restoring land to people, honoring indigenous ecological science, and dismantling corporate monopolies.
The big picture
Africa’s agricultural crisis reflects systemic racism, land inequality, and the loss of indigenous knowledge, requiring a shift to regenerative land practices.
