Ikhaya Garden (Ikhaya Kulture) is a registered non-profit organization. This school-based community project does not focus solely on gardening but also on creating other positive effects for the community, forging relationships with the school while giving platforms and opportunities to young people. Ikhaya is a Xhosa and Zulu word that means “home.” The initiative was started in 2013 by a group of young people from Khayelitsha with the idea of making gardening more appealing, and they identified a piece of land at Isikhokelo Primary School in the Site C area to use for creating a food garden.
The garden has now become a venue for all kinds of Slow Food events like Eat-Ins, Disco Soups, Funky Food Vegetable Festivals, seed-saving workshops and Khayelitsha’s one and only healthy food market, Impilo Yabantu Market.
Khayelitsha is a deprived community and suffers from a lack of knowledge and access to information about food, health and the environment. Started in 1985, it has become one of the biggest townships in the world. There is a high rate of social problems among the younger generations, and little information or awareness about climate change. It is easy for a young person to lose their way and go astray in such a community, which is why the garden is using a connection with the earth to revive and redefine people’s lives as sons and daughters of the soil. The project encourages self-love, self-reliance and self-awareness. As a wise man, Marcus Garvey, once said, “a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” He also said: “If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.” The project’s aim for the future is to create eco-friendly communities that can shape our psychology positively.
The project believes that in order to change the world we must change the composition of the soil, and it has taken on the challenge of transforming sandy soil into loam soil, showing everything is possible through the power of nature. Activities include gardening, upcycling, hiking, baking and organizing events.
They say: “Over the past three years we have given young people hope, changing the mindset of kids who thought food comes from the shelves. Together we have planted a Food Forest and a Biodiversity Garden. Our garden is only 700 square meters but we have planted a large number of plants including fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and wild and indigenous edible plants. We have learned about microorganisms, created a habitat for bees, butterflies and birds and set up a worm farm. Most of these things we grew up only seeing on TV and in magazines. For us it’s not about the space, it’s about knowledge and skills. This is an educational garden that also supports home gardening, encouraging people to use whatever they have available to grow food—in old buckets, vertically or on rooftops. The idea is to equip people with knowledge and skills so that when they do have access to land they know what to do. Our ambition is to reverse migration and inspire people to go back to the villages to use the land to grow crops and raise livestock. We have created a platform through which young people can fly overseas and participate in high-profile food conferences and events. We are also involved in philanthropic township tourism, in partnership with Uthando S.A, Livingston Safaris, Jacada and Mount Nelson Hotel.”
The Ikhaya Garden serves as a model for a school gardening hub that connects the community. “We all need a sense of belonging, we are at the Southern Part of the continent, right there at the bottom of the heart, and home is where the heart is. We shall continue to grow like the tree of life.”
Area
Khayelitsha, Cape Town
Coordinator
Xolisa Bangani