{"id":52315,"date":"2022-09-21T08:06:23","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T08:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/?p=52315"},"modified":"2025-08-25T13:07:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T13:07:39","slug":"3-african-activists-protecting-food-rights-against-big-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/blog\/52315\/3-african-activists-protecting-food-rights-against-big-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"3 African activists protecting food rights against Big Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News of smallholder farmers<\/a> across Kenya standing up to unconstitutional laws prohibiting them from sharing, exchanging or selling uncertified and unregistered seeds is but the latest legal battle on the African continent aiming to protect the rights of local communities and customs. <\/p>\n\n

This is a prime example of agricultural legislation which punishes ordinary citizens and smallholder farmers, and favours big multinational corporations. As the cost of living skyrockets, greedy corporations are profiting from hunger<\/a>. The global food system is broken. But, activists and local communities are not taking it laying down  \u2013 not in Kenya, nor elsewhere on the continent. <\/p>\n\n

Here are three African activists who are pushing back to protect the right of African communities to continue our culture and traditions around food, as well as our right to food security.<\/p>\n\n

Claire Nasike Akello \u2013 Nairobi, Kenya<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Nasike is an environmental scientist who campaigns mainly on food and seed sovereignty within the African region. She currently leads the Seed is Sovereign campaign at Greenpeace Africa, a project  that seeks to safeguard  farming communities from  exploitation by exposing  neo-colonialist attempts that threaten seed sovereignty, local livelihoods and food sovereignty. The campaign is currently supporting  smallholder farmers who have taken Kenya\u2019s government to court for passing a punitive seed law<\/a> that criminalises farmers from selling and sharing seeds that are unregistered and uncertified. This legislation<\/a>, punishes offenders with a prison sentence of up to a maximum of 2 years or a fine of up to KES 1,000,000.<\/p>\n\n

\"Claire
Claire Nasike Akello – Environmental Scientist and campaigner, Greenpeace Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Keep up with Claire Nasike on <\/strong><\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u201cI firmly believe that communities need to be protected from exploitation by Multinational companies and profit seeking individuals. Local communities have always lived in unison with nature and so have been the practices they have implemented. In the case of farming and seed saving, they have bred, saved, shared and exchanged Indigenous seeds since time immemorial. And so, Indigenous seeds form the culture of many communities. Passing laws to criminalise their use of Indigenous seeds seeks to break the cycle of self sufficiency, create poverty, enhance hunger and have local farming communities controlled by multinational seed companies seeking to make profit,\u201d Nasike says. <\/p>\n\n

Darcise Dolor\u00e8s Mache Ngassing  \u2013 Yaound\u00e9, Cameroon<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Darcise Dolor\u00e8s is an award-winning Environmental Law student from Soa, Center Region, Cameroon. She is also an active member of the Greenpeace Africa volunteer group in Yaound\u00e9, the nation\u2019s capital. Based at the University of Yaound\u00e9 II, her studies draw on the landmark South African rooibos case<\/a> on access and benefit sharing, which proved Indigenous Peoples\u2019 ownership over their native plant wherever the plant or product made up of the plant is found. She hopes to use this legal victory to protect the access and benefit sharing of palm oil; essential to Indigenous Peoples\u2019 culture in Cameroon, used in traditional dishes and ceremonies, as well as medicinally.<\/p>\n\n

\"Darcise
Law student Darcise Dolor\u00e8s Mache Ngassing wants to protect local communities\u2019 access to palm oil \u00a9 Greenpeace Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Keep up with Darcise Dolor\u00e8s Mache Ngassing on <\/strong><\/em>Twitter<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u201cI decided to study this field because I am concerned with the economic, social, cultural and environmental value of genetic resources and Traditional Knowledge Associated to genetic resources. Usually, multinationals make huge sums of money without sharing the benefit with local communities where those resources are found, and that is where the problem lies. My study attempts to provide solutions to the rights of local people, as well as reduce the gap between Global South countries and Global North in terms of access and benefit sharing,\u201d Darcise Dolor\u00e8s says.<\/p>\n\n

Delwyn Pillay \u2013 Durban, South Africa<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Delwyn is a well-known social justice activist based in Durban, South Africa. He has worked closely with Greenpeace Africa<\/a> for many years, coordinating the organisation\u2019s volunteer base in his city. The Environmental Management graduate also founded the Food Connect Durban<\/a> campaign. Food Connect is all about connecting communities around sustainable food that is grown locally for a healthy body and mind, a healthy planet, and a healthy future for all \u2013 from the seed to the plate. The project seeks to maintain varieties of seeds, by collecting and saving heirloom seeds, for use in growing systems for the direct benefit of a community. It is aligned to that of the \u2018Global Movement for Seed Freedom<\/a>\u201d and the \u201cClimate Justice Charter Movement<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n\n

\"Delwyn
Social justice activist Delwyn Pillay aims to protect biodiversity and food security \u00a9 Greenpeace Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Keep up with Delwyn Pillay on <\/strong><\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u201cMy passion for volunteer work stems from my grandmother. My fondest memories from my childhood were helping my grandmother in the soup kitchen. My job was to help collect all the discarded fruit and vegetables from the supermarkets. I could not believe how much good food got wasted. We managed to feed so many people. Delwyn teaches seed banking as a crucial tool local people can use to preserve their organic seeds and take back control of their food system. The seed bank aims to protect biodiversity and food security by defending the freedom of the seed to evolve in integrity, self-organisation, and diversity,\u201d Delwyn says.<\/p>\n\n

Angelo C. Louw<\/a> is a Content Editor at Greenpeace International based in Johannesburg, South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News of smallholder farmers\u00a0across Kenya standing up to unconstitutional laws prohibiting them from sharing, exchanging or selling uncertified and unregistered seeds is but the latest legal battle on the African continent aiming to protect the rights of local communities and customs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":52316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[27,64],"p4-page-type":[126],"class_list":["post-52315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-changemycommunity","tag-farming","tag-kenya","p4-page-type-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52318,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52315\/revisions\/52318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52315"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=52315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}