PERMACULTURE! (Part One)

Last week, Matt and I finally got to meet Lieza Swennen, a permaculture specialist from Namibia who lives about 20 or 30km from Karonga. She has been working for the government, training different people in permaculture and developing permaculture gardens at primary schools throughout the northern region of Malawi. She has been living in Malawi for about 12 years and lives with her family on a permaculture oasis that she has developed to use as a model to show others the power potential of permaculture.

She met Matt and I here at our house where we showed her the land we have to work with, the layout and terrain of Chaminade, and discussed her work, our hopes, and how the two will hopefully come together.

After getting us all excited about permaculture by describing her experiences here in Malawi, she took us to two different primary schools a short distance north of Karonga. At those two schools she introduced us to Kenneth and Dennis, two local Malawians who she has trained as permaculture specialists and who she considers to be two “role model” permaculturalists.

Kenneth and Dennis will be our two main advisors for our project here at Chaminade. But before we take on the major task of bringing permaculture to Chaminade, we must first get a strong feel for it in our own backyard.

Since permaculture is a different philosophy of farming than traditional agriculture, it requires a good deal of sensitization. Many people have never heard of permaculture, and in many ways, it contradicts and conflicts with traditional agriculture. Since in most parts of the world, including Malawi, traditional agriculture has taken deep roots, permaculture can often be met with resistance. Educating people on the philosophy of permaculture and gaining their support in its somewhat radical approach is absolutely critical for any permaculture program to succeed. This sensitization is our first task in order to reach our goal of developing permaculture gardens at Chaminade. And in order to achieve that task, Matt and I are going to first focus on developing a functioning permaculture garden at our own house. Lieza argued that the best way to win people over is to show them exactly how effective permaculture can be by doing it yourself. Showing them a living and thriving permaculture garden will do the work of winning their interest. And once you have the interest, everything else will come much more easily.