War in times of Corona (part 2)
Peace Crops is an NGO of a 2019 kanthari graduate from Cameroon. In his 10-minute kanthari Dream speech, he describes a life beyond peace.
It was on July 12, 1998 that Joshua Njeke drove home with his father and younger brother. They had watched the football World Cup final and celebrated the result. France beat Brasil and Njeke’s favorite footballer Zinedine Zidane scored 3 goals! Life couldn’t be better. But then… The car was stopped, a man ordered the father to give money, and when he hastily reached for his wallet, his dad was shot dead in front of his children. Joshua was just 9 years old.
He then grew up in an orphanage, experienced hunger, violence, and finally civil war. Joshua believes that war and violence arise from hunger and poverty. He found his personal way out of this vicious circle through agriculture. He learned everything about organic vegetable and grain cultivation and upon return from kanthari in Dec 2019 he continued to expand his agricultural activities. Now he teaches young orphans in sustainable vegetable cultivation.
In his speech Joshua shows how one and the same tool, a hoe, can be used both for war and for maintaining peace.
And what does he think about Corona in Cameroon?
The rate of the infected is still manageable. He wants to avoid a new period of hunger by prepare his community through local and sustainable agriculture.
Limbi, a 2018 kanthari graduate and founder of Eco Balances, is currently in the process of securing the future of women in Cameroon through sustainable forestry.
During the weeks in which the virus circled the world, she and her team planted 3000 trees to create a Miyawaki Forest on a 1000 square meters plot. Mainly fruit and nut trees, but also those whose leaves and bark can be used to make herbal medicines. It is important that people focus on “non-timber products” and not on wood processing as they did in the past.
Cameroon, shaken by war, people and nature are now taking a little respite. We can all look forward to what the world will learn from it.