The earth is grateful: David, Goliath, Cassava, the Imbokodo, and some women’s seed banks near Mtubatuba

Abstract

This essay uses the genre of creative nonfiction to reflect on some powerful examples of ruralwomen’s environmentalism in the Mtubatuba region of KwaZulu Natal. Written as anautoethnographic journey narrative, it describes visiting the region over a few days. I beginby meeting three women whose practice of agroecology and prioritising local varieties offarmer-saved seed constitutes both a radical act of resistance to massive seed companies likeMonsanto and a forward-looking preparation for climate resilience. I then spend a day withwomen farmers living near the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game park, who have been drawn intoactivism by the ruthless encroachment of the Tendele coal mine on their ancestral land. Here,the term ‘environmental justice,’ a US import which was taken up in South Africa as anextension of the anti-apartheid struggle into the environmental sphere, has become part of thelanguage of rural people. In each case, the farmers’ heart-filled encounter with themultinational giants of monoculture and mining seems microcosmic of our global predicament.