Page 22 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 33

Community
There was no shortage of snakes (one even got
into our bedroom and I also had to kill a few
who got too close for comfort), centipedes,
all manner of insects, hornbills, monkeys,
baboons, monitor lizards, and a lot of other
animals.
Unsurprisingly, the forest is their home, and
they are free to roam.
Because we loved the idea of staying off-grid
in a forest or somewhere secluded from noise,
it was exciting getting to live in the area. Also,
I took my morning walk on the beach which is
just five minutes away from the house.
How we got there
For a while now, my wife and I have
been advocating for the safety of Africa’s
indigenous seeds and plant varieties,
especially in the face of GMO invasion of
indigenous farming practices in Africa. One
of the many discussions we constantly have
with our audiences (magazine and YouTube)
is for people to plant, eat, and save organic
indigenous seeds.
So, moving to this indigenous forest was very
exciting. We had room to plant crops and also
save seeds. Well, that was the plan.
I cleared a small place just next to the building
and planted some melons, amaranth, okra,
bananas, passion fruits, and a few other crops. feeling that I needed to harvest the okra, but
The melons did not do well because the
monkeys and baboons “made footballs out
of them”. Those wild guys just plucked the
young melons, bit a piece from the corner,
and scattered the rest everywhere. For me,
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each time they did that, it always looked like
an act of rebellion against us planting in their
domain. They wouldn’t eat the melons; they
would just destroy them and leave.
However, it was so beautiful watching the
other plants grow. I loved to watch my two-
year-old son walk barefoot in the garden.
It was beautiful.
Our target was to harvest the crops and get
seeds for storage, especially the okra seeds.
So, we knew we were not going to be eating
whatever we harvested from the garden. Then
the monkeys and baboons invaded…again.
Since we lived in the forest, we were very
much aware that the wild animals around us,
especially the monkeys and baboons, would
be interested in what we planted. We just
hoped they wouldn’t finish everything and at
least allow some to grow to harvest time.
Some of the crops did grow very well.
The okra was amazing, beautiful, and very
eatable each time I looked at it. And because
the okra seeds we planted were sourced from
Nigeria (brought by a brother), it was such
an amazing sight to see them grow very well
in Kenya. One of the okra varieties came
out with this nice purple color. Then disaster
happened, and it happened so fast.
On this particular morning, I woke up with the
I told myself I would do it later in the day. At
this point, the okra was mature but I wanted
them to dry on their stalk. It’s easier to harvest
and store the seeds that way.