The Cat in the Kitchen

It is hard to describe farming as a vital part of the economy around here, because there really is no economy. However, to be a Xhosa is to be a farmer, and around here, farming is not a job as much as it is a way of life. Cattle graze freely and are not marked (for farmers can recognize their own cows and do not need to protect against theft), goats and sheep are not fenced in and nearly everyone relies on community gardens for produce.


Over the past few days we have visited some of these garden projects. When we tell you that we have traveled "beyond the beaten path", that is not merely a figure of speech...we have really traveled beyond the beaten path. We were taken by our guide and translator, Sanele, to a remote valley somewhere inside the lush hills of Coffee Bay. A kilometer from anything resembling a road, we had to remove our shoes and roll up our pants to cross a stream or two. This everyday trek through the water that seemed so effortless to the farmers caused enough trouble for us that we attracted a small crowd of local children who were giggling and watching to see if we would fall in (we did not).


The farms looked like any farm you would see in any poor farming village. They have tried to set up a simple irrigation system, but the pump has been broken for some time and the streams around here don't always stay wet. They rely on the woman who work on the gardens (Often 50 years or older) to carry buckets of water balanced on their heads up and down hills that would make a 20 year old huff and puff. Each garden has about a dozen workers, mostly woman, and they cannot manage more than an acre at a time. Most of the food goes to the families living in the small section of the village where they work, but they try to sell their food to the local hotels, backpackers, and to passers-by on the roads.


They grow cabbage, spinach, peppers, carrots and corn. Although we have only seen a few, it seems that they all grow the same produce forcing prices to bottom out well below any market value price. We asked several people why they don't grow fruit and nobody had a concrete answer. Many fruits can grow easily in the area such as peaches, citrus and grapes, and are a great source of vitamins that are generally lacking around here. Since there are little if any fruit farmers here, it could help balance out the variety of crops and could easily sell. People here grow what they have always grown. Things like "Market Value" and "Crop Diversity" are not concepts that subsistence farmers have ever had to deal with.


The Farmers here are in need of some very basic things. They need more tools, water pumps, a central market to sell their produce, and some transportation to get them there. Walking a few kilometers through muddy trails, fields, and streams to sell a bucket of peppers for pennies is not enough to get this community out of poverty.



The name of one of the farms we saw was Susi Kati Eziko which translates into remove the cat from the kitchen, it is a local saying around here that symbolizes a community trying to fight against poverty.