Chikukwa Then and Now – African farmer to speak at Grange

The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Daily Acts and the Sebastopol Grange have teamed up to bring Juilious Piti, a Mozambiquan native who has transformed his part of the world to speak Thursday July 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Grange Hall.

A teenage refugee during the Mozambique civil war, Piti escaped to Zimbabwe to Chikukwa which is at the border of the two African nations.

There people tried to survive raising cash crops that deforested the land and caused erosion. Most were malnourished, diseased  and even starving.  Using permaculture techniques, now 80 percent of the people grow enough food they have a surplus to share. In order to accomplish this they had to overcome old beliefs and conflicts. Piti has written a book about it called “The Three Circles of Knowledge; How to Build Constructive Community Relations by Understanding Conflicts in Rural African Communities”. This was done with very little outside help. In 2009 Piti was hired by an NGO, Global Resource Alliance, to help with a permaculture project for a village of 5000 on the shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania which was documented in the film “From the Mara Soil.”

Piti formed CELUCT (Chikukwa Ecological Land Trust) which has helped other parts of Africa repeat the success of Chicukwa.

The cost of the evening is $5 to $10 on a sliding scale and all proceeds, except for a modest hall fee, will go to CELUCT.