We discuss the uniqueness of the bambara bean (Vigna subterranea), an indigenous West African seed, in the role it can play in mitigating the impact of climate change and malnutrition.
This episode features Samuel Sarr, founder and executive director of Kailend. He founded Kailend in 2013 and its subsidiaries came later in 2018 (Kailand Farm and Kailekka food company) Kailend is a dynamic thinking social enterprise and we engage in sustainable agriculture and production to provide scholarship and skills training possibilities for low income earning women and youth.
More resources:
Adopting Africa's Neglected Indigenous Crops to Combat Malnutrition
Urgent Overhaul of Outdated School Curricula Needed to Achieve Zero Hunger
E-Agriculture: How Digital Innovations Can Transform The Sector
Household Biogas Digesters: A Potential Solution To Africa's Energy Deficiency
We discuss how nature comes together in communion to create fabrics with designs. Specifically, looking at the bōgōlanfini, a traditional Mandinga dying technique of cotton. Its iconic patterns that hold cultural significance, sometimes black, are made using a mélange of clay and gum arabic tree or bagana, in Bambana (Acacia nilotica). Other plants, such as: ngalama (Anogeissu leiocarpus) and npeku (Lannea microcarpa) join to make the process possible.
This episode features two prominent Malian stewards, Boubacar Doumbia (founder of Ndomo) and Nene Thiam Dagnoko (co-founder of le groupe bogolan KASOBANE). They played a role in preserving the value of the technique both within Mali and beyond its borders.
This episode is an ode to Africa day (May 25) but it is also an exploration of the name change of Acacia, an emblematic genus that was previously shared by Africa, Australia, Americas, and Asia.
This episode is a stepping stone for the upcoming episodes on a tree that was part was part of this genus.
Relevant link:
"How to write about Africa" - Binyavanga Wainaina
Part 2/2 of this episode is on African rice (Oryza glaberrima) domesticated in the flood plains of the Niger River and carried across the Atlantic.
Dr. Tinde van Andel and Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black both highlight the importance that a plant can hold in a culture. Together, we explore the challenges of using interdisciplinary methods when retelling history. We unravel the gender dynamics and technology that was present in West Africa to establish African rice cultivation in Suriname and North America.
Welcome to the first episode of nàfolo.
Part 1/2 of this episode is on African rice (Oryza glaberrima) domesticated in the flood plains of the Niger River.
Dr. Tinde van Andel and Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black both highlight the importance that a plant can hold in a culture. Together, we explore the challenges of using interdisciplinary methods when retelling history. We unravel the gender dynamics and technology that was present in West Africa to establish African rice cultivation during pre-colonial times.