We just completed a five-day deliberation on the strategy for the next five years. What an amazing experience. It is always stimulating to spend time with intelligent and passionate African leaders, reflecting on the past and dreaming about the future.
As Africans, we are still living in the aftermath of colonialism. Colonialism altered our relationship with our land, creating millions of landless people, reorienting our agriculture to cash crops, mostly for their own purposes, initiating the process of land degradation and biodiversity loss, concentrating infrastructure solely on export lines, forcing us to rely on external inputs for food production and consumption, eroding our knowledge of food systems, and entangling us in global trade, where we are still in debt to be the main actors. Millions of Africans continue to suffer as a result of international financial institutions, bilateral agreements, trade rules, and other factors. The question is how we can stop complaining and do something about it. We've been lamenting for years, but now is the time to take action.
That is why the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) collectively advocates for #agroecology and #foodsovereignty.Both concepts are built on our people's years of skill and culture, and recognise the need to produce more nutritious and healthy food to feed our people. This has led us to assure resilience to crises, including climate and biodiversity loss, as well as the right to food and culturally appropriate foods.
That is why we have decided to focus in our new strategy on mobilising the base, which now numbers over 200 million Africans, increasing knowledge through research and other means, improving our agricultural practices, reaching out to billions around the world through effective communication, and sharpening our advocacy for better policies, legislation, and programmes. We need to collaborate with other actors to do this. We recognise that we are part of a larger group and humbly believe that we are a part of the wave rather than the wave itself. You are all invited to join in our mission to break free from the shackles of external influences and internal bad habits and create a brighter future. Let us battle with both ends of the scissors so that they do not cut us into small pieces for their greed and avarice.
I am pleased to serve this very committed and motivated group. They chose me as their coordinator, and I have accepted and served the network for the past 10 years. I live every day as if it were an adventure, where my work life and my dream are inextricably linked.
