There are many reasons why people are drawn
to the homesteading lifestyle; there is the lure of living simply and
sustainably off the land, the satisfaction of eating home grown food,
the possibility of a better life quality or for the support of the
green living movement. These are all romantic ideologies and to those
dreaming about the possibility of changing their lifestyle, it is
important to reexamine exactly where their motivation lies. I had to
figure out why it was that I felt the need to homestead and what I
discovered was that I had gone full circle. My desire to live off the
land was rooted in my cultural upbringing in East Africa; in how
Africans deal with rising unemployment rates and increased food
prices. It had to do with me being a generation removed from Africans
that lived and thrived successfully in homesteads.
Growing up in Nairobi, Kenya was where my
journey began. One would think that living in the suburbs of a
capital city would mean that my gardening skills are lacking but just
the opposite. I grew up in atmosphere that nurtured the importance of
living off the land. I understood that well tended gardening plots
can help stave off hunger; I understood that Mother Nature was
unpredictable, denying crops rain when they need it the most; and
because of our reliance on the environment for our food security, I
learned how to collect rainwater for irrigation, and the importance of
recycling nutrients through composting and manure usage for healthier
crops. These lessons when put together become my most important first
lesson; when given a chance nature provides.
The City Did Not Take Over the
Farmlands… the Farmers Took Over the City
I grew up in
Nairobi, which at the time was a good example of a developing city in
the third world. It was there within the city limits that I learned
about homesteading. At the time I didn’t know what my family
practiced was homesteading, I understood it as a part of life. The
words used to describe our agricultural lifestyle were “urban
agriculture”. Urban agriculture is defined as a type of agriculture
(crops and livestock) within the boundaries of a city. It is a common
practice within the city limits in developing countries. This type of
subsistence sustainable agriculture is practiced by a large percent of
city dwellers. It produces a substantial amount of food, subsidizing
store bought food. In some cases poorer or entrepreneur urban farmers
sell their produce for profit. The cultivated plots can be found all
over the city; not only in back yards but also on public lands, along
roadways, in the roundabouts, in empty lots downtown and along river
banks. Urban agriculture does not only include growing produce but
also the raising of domesticated animals such as chickens, goats,
ducks, sheep and cows.
Urban Sustainable Agriculture as a Lifestyle
To understand
the urban agriculture phenomenon in developing countries, it is
important to understand some of the cultural and traditional
background of the urban dwellers. Kenya was at one time a British
colony; it was the British that built the cities and brought their
societal ideologies to the Kenyans. In order to obtain goods and
services, Kenyans, who had maintained generations on subsistence
farming in rural homesteads were forced to move to urban centers to
seek employment and better opportunities in the changing and
developing world. My parents were first generation city dwellers;
both grew up in rural communities where farming was paramount. My
mother’s father was a commercial farmer growing maize and other cash
crops, while my father’s father was a subsistence farmer producing
barely enough for his family. In both cases the only farming
practices they used were environmentally friendly methods. Culture
and lack of industrialized farming aids mandated it.
When the
immigrants moved to the city, they carried with them hopes of a new
life; a life of high wages that did not include the daily toiling of
the land. However, that was not what happened. It turned out that
urban life was uncertain. With rapid urbanization the city’s
population soared and with those changes came inflation along with
unemployment, decreased food availability and distribution problems.
Soon the majority of the city dwellers started finding themselves
unable to feed their families and it became imperative for them to
find ways to subsidize their earnings and provide for their families.
Gradually the new immigrants to the city quickly realized that they
could turn to farming; after all there was a lot of available land.
Those living in poverty who did not have land, planted crops on public
lands, while those who were better off planted crops in their back
yards.
