Zimbabwean Farmer train Nigerian youths

[BUTEMBO21]

Originally Posted by owo9ja

too late. the land was given to them through loans and grants. 250k loans and 250k grants. farmers lost their entire heritage in on fell swoop. they now work for the zimbabwean farmers and lost their birth right. read the article from the days leading up to the decision. imagine a bunch of european landowners being told to get off their land, some refugees from Sudan need it. aand guys don't worrk, you will be trained to work for the sudanese. if that doesnt strike you as absurd i don't know what would.

wait a minute; they got 250k loans and 250k in grants? or your just playing.

[Matthias Offodile]

thats right matt, run. running is part of your dna anyway. you run from part of your heritage, logic and common sense

you know absolutely nothing about me!

You are truly more numb-minded than I originally thought. Nobody could be more of a realist than me when it comes to Africa in particular, and inwardly you know that I am right what I say about it...but keep on dreaming! it is more soothing, maybe your mommy will sing a lullaby for you.

[owo9ja]

Originally Posted by BUTEMBO21

wait a minute; they got 250k loans and 250k in grants? or your just playing.

it's true.

this is a long article, published in April 2005 when the whole thing went down. I wish I could put certain portions in bold


Saturday, April 16, 2005

In Kwara, Hopes And Fears Over White Farmers

The government of Kwara State recently signed a memorandum of
understanding (Mou) with some white Zimbabwean farmers who were not
too long ago dispossessed of their farm lands by the Zimbabwean
Government under its controversial land redistribution programme. The
commercial farmers are being settled in Shonga communities in Edu
Local Council of Kwara State.
DEBO OLADIMEJI spoke with the inhabitants of the affected communities
on their expectations and fears.

THEY call them commercial white farmers from Zimbabwe. They are
literally on the run from their naturalised fatherland where the
government of Robert Mugabe, in an attempt to redistribute land whose
ownership in the former white ruled country was disproportionately
tilted in favour of the whites, took some of their lands and gave to
the native population. But they have found succour in Nigeria where
the government of Bukola Saraki in Kwara State has provided large
extracts of farmland for them to peddle their trade: commercial
farming.



In the Shonga communities where they have been settled, they are to be
found in Dedening, Mokwagi, Faigi, Tsaduko, Gnagi Cella Miyaki, Cetta
Buro, Cetta Kanshi, Sancitegi Ndakanasa, Todo, Gumbayi, Ogudu, Part of
Shonga, Kanko, Gboros, Tsakpata, Tsunfereti and Dumagi.

Dumagi community, for instance, is a plain land with Guinea Savannah
vegetation. The place is fertile and is suitable for all kinds of
crops except cash crops. They have only one source of water in Dumagi
and that is River Bodo, for drainage. Throughout the year, they have
water in the Bodo river.

Dumagi is like elder brother to all the communities aforementioned.
Mohammed Dumagi, interpreting for Mohammed Jubril Abubakar the head of
Dumagi, a.k.a the Kpafyen, informed that all other communities whose
lands are to be used by the white farmers are off-shoots of Dumagi;
that the entire land belongs to Dumabi.

Explaining how Dumagi and all the other Shonga communities came to act
as a settlement for the white farmers, Mohammed Dumagi told The
Guardian that the Emir of Shonga summoned all the district heads in
the communities recently and informed them that the government of
Kwara State wanted to survey their land. The Emir told them that the
state government "would want to know how big our land is, so that we
could start benefiting from the programme of the State Government like
distribution of fertiliser and giving tractor to the farmers etc,"
Dumagi recalled.

According to him, the Kwara State Government used to give tractors,
insecticides, fertiliser to the people in Lafiaji area but over the
years, his people have not been given such assistance. So, when the
Emir said the state government would like to take a survey of their
land for proper distribution of the above mentioned benefits, they
gladly accepted the whole idea without a whimper of protest. But a fly
soon fell into the ointment when the communities got to know that the
survey was meant for a different purpose altogether.

Dumagi continued: "We were later informed that the State Government
would be interested in making use of the land in Apazihi and Kuse
communities. We gave the Emir the go ahead but before we could say
Jack Robinson, the state government had decided to take over our land
for the benefit of the white farmers because the Emir promised them
that he had vacant land for the white farmers from Zimbabwe to
settle."
"But we have said it plainly that in this area, there is no vacant
land. Even the land we have is not enough for us. We sometimes quarrel
over this land to the extent that, it often leads to deaths," he
stressed.

He added: "The people in these communities have no other profession.
We are all peasant farmers. That is to say that more than 100% of the
people are peasant farmers. I say this because, some women are also
farmers. Though they have no right to own land but they are given land
by their husbands or brothers or uncles to farm. By the time our land
is taken away from us what do we do?"
Dumagi averred that the communities' lands are their health and
religion, their sole means of survival. As such they are not prepared
to yield an inch to anybody, not to the government or the white
farmers. "If we die, then they can use our land in our absence,"
Dumagi asserted. "We are saying this because, we want to negotiate in
a peaceful way before it gets tough. It is our belief that if we
negotiate, we may have peace. But the government said that there is no
going back because they have invested so much. They say that they will
give us some percentage but we don't want any incentive, we don't want
any condition either by lease or any other means."
Dumagi fears that the white farmers are trying to displace the black
farmers. "The only difference is in the system of farming. The former
uses mechanised farming, because that is what is convenient for them.
The latter uses traditional system of farming to get what they want,"
he philosophised.

He said the communities were baffled baffle when the Emir said there
was no going back on the plan to give their lands to the Zimbabwean
farmers. "He said they must do it and that there is no going back,"
Dumagi agonised. "They want the land of their people to be taken over
by foreigners. We want to assure the world that we are not going to
give them an inch of our land. If they do so, then it means they have
robbed us of our land and God will take care of it," he said.

But why are the communities so vehemently opposed to the farmers?
Can't they see the advantages derivable from the presence of the white
farmers whose success story in commercial farming in Zimbabwe is well
known?
Dumagi said they are rejecting the foreign farmers for the same reason
they were rejected in rejecting the Zimbabwe. "The place where they
are coming from, why did they leave the place?" he queried. "We are
saying that it is what made the people there reject them that is part
of our reason for rejecting them. We shall continue to struggle and
maintain our stand. If a thief comes to steal your goods, what do you
do? Would you not fight? In the process of struggling with him, you
may kill him but you will not be called a murderer. But if he kills
you, you are going to paradise," the community spokesman noted.

"That is to say that we have nothing to lose, if we defeat them in
this battle and if we are defeated equally we have nothing to lose.
This is a Jihad for us and we have nothing to lose. How would you feel
if somebody suddenly takes over your land in your village?"
He is angry that the communities were not part of the transaction ."It
was basically between the Emir and the state government," he said.
"The Emir told the white farmers that there was a vacant land for them
but we told him that we didn't have a vacant land."
Umaru Mohammed a youth leader, for his part, said: " Since the
controversy started, we have been living in a deplorable situation. We
are now living in confusion because ordinarily, we should have started
clearing our land for preparation for the rainy season, but as it is
now, we cannot because we don't know where to start clearing as the
Zimbabwean farmers are marking everywhere. They have started
construction even in some areas that people are farming already."
He noted distressingly: "We have extended family. It is from the money
we make from farming that we make ends meet. In terms of sending our
children to school and all that, by the time there is no farm land
what do we do? Where everybody is poor what can be gained? Our people
are not used to the white man's method of farming.".

Mohammed enjoined the government not to bring politics into the whole
thing. "This is not a political issue," he argued, adding: "Politics
and land are two different things. The issue of land is not political.
Politics come and go but land will remain. No money can serve as a
compensation to us. If it is a flour mill or an assembly plant, there
is no problem but seizing our land from us, is not a joke."
He noted: "The Emir is saying that it is going to be for only 25 years
but that cannot be true. We know that once the government takes over a
particular land, that is the end of it. The Bacita Sugar Company
belongs to our people but even after the State Government stopped the
production of Sugar, they won't give back the land to us."
"We even said that they should divide the land 50/50 since what we
practise here is shifting cultivation. So, there is no fallow land. We
leave our land to fallow for sometime before we continue with farming
on the land. We don't use fertilizer because our land is very
fertile," Mohammed declared.

He complained about government's plan to move people from one
community to the other, saying: "There is no virgin land in this
community. From one inch to the other, our people are farming there.
Within one year or two, we all meet ourselves at the centre. We have
no monthly salary and it is from our farms that we get money to eat.
Our farm is our office. It is better they come here and destroy us
with bombs than for them to take over our land. We are going to fight
with tooth and nail to see that they make us beggars in our own land."
Mohammed Sani Dumagi is another spokesman for the Shonga communities.
He said: "There is nobody in this community who is not a farmer. Even
the unborn children are all farmers. We are not ready to take anything
as compensation. No amount of money can compensate us for our land. We
have been living without light or water for a long time. Is it now
that they want to take over our land that they are going to provide
all these things?"
Another community Dugbangi is about 10 kilometres away from Dumagi.
According to Mr. Amos Dugbangi, the government and the white farmers
came to inspect their land but discovered that their land was not
fertile enough for the kind of farming activities the white farmers
wanted to engage in, but only good for melon and groundnut. "So we are
not affected but other communities like Faigi are affected," he
enthused. "We are not affected in this area. We are contented with
what we have. For the past 20 years, we have been trying to provide
electricity on our own; if the government now wants to do anything to
help us, we don't mind."
The Kpafyen of Faigi Mohammed Jubril Abubakar, informed through an
interpreter that the community had been living without light, water
and good roads for a long time without complaints.

"We have three good wells that serve the entire community and the
water they bring forth tastes good," he said. "It is not that we are
against the coming of the white farmers but the problem is that our
farmlands are not enough even for us to farm. The governor was here
and we told him clearly our mind."
However, in Tsaduko the indigenes are receptive of the white farmers.
Mohammed Sese a spokesman for the community explained that the people
would abide by whatever the Emir said with regard to the presence of
the white farmers in the community. Already, some indigenes
have taken up employment with the white farmers.

Similarly, the people of Sancitagi said the Zimbabweans were welcome
in their land. Alhaji Usman Baba Sancitagi who spoke through an
interpreter for the head of the community, Abubakar Esunpa said: "We
are happy that the white men are coming here to farm. But we want them
to provide employment for our children who are jobless graduates. We
in this community are hungry because we don't have any other job
except farming. We also want to benefit from the white farmers. Our
town here is very big- we are up to five hundred people. We want the
whitemen to provide light for us. That is the first thing. We have
been struggling to provide electricity on our own in the past, all to
no avail."
Sancitagi continued: "We thank God for the white men and the Emir of
Shonga. We want them to build our school for us. Then we want them to
give us contract, so that we can also benefit. Some of our children
also are well trained in art work, like tractor drivers, but they are
jobless. So, we want them to provide job for them. There is no money
here and we are suffering. We want them to build a new mosque for us."
But although the people welcome the new development initiative by the
state government, they would not want to be resettled anywhere outside
of their immediate environment. "Our land is fertile for crops like
groundnut, yam, cassava, maize, guinea corn, beans, rice cashew,
mangoes, banana. But we don't have market in this place, so we take
them to Shonga or Share. If the white man can do all these things they
are welcome. We don't want to have any problems with the Emir of
Shonga," said Sancitagi.

According to the memorandum of understanding between the Kwara state
government and the Zimbabwe farmers, a lease of Agricultural land of
approximately one thousand (1000)Hectares will be given to each of the
thirty-five farmers for the purpose of undertaking the project.

The state government anticipates that the project will enhance food
production in Nigeria, encourage skills and technological transfer,
generate export earnings employment and stimulate local agro-allied
industries.

The Zimbabweans farmers were promised full protection, since by virtue
of the Land Use Act 1978, the State Government is vested with all land
within the state for the benefit of the people.The government will
also provide each of the Zimbabweans farmers the sum of $250,000USD
and a guarantee for a private sector loan in the sum of $250,000 USD
to each farmer on terms to be agreed upon by the parties and the
financiers.

The white farmers promised among others, "to provide the technological
know-how necessary for the efficient utilisation of the irrigation
system in respect of the project and to patronise local suppliers
where reasonably possible in Kwara State.

[BUTEMBO21]

Originally Posted by owo9ja

it's true.

this is a long article, published in April 2005 when the whole thing went down. I wish I could put certain portions in bold


Saturday, April 16, 2005

In Kwara, Hopes And Fears Over White Farmers

The government of Kwara State recently signed a memorandum of
understanding (Mou) with some white Zimbabwean farmers who were not
too long ago dispossessed of their farm lands by the Zimbabwean
Government under its controversial land redistribution programme. The
commercial farmers are being settled in Shonga communities in Edu
Local Council of Kwara State.
DEBO OLADIMEJI spoke with the inhabitants of the affected communities
on their expectations and fears.

THEY call them commercial white farmers from Zimbabwe. They are
literally on the run from their naturalised fatherland where the
government of Robert Mugabe, in an attempt to redistribute land whose
ownership in the former white ruled country was disproportionately
tilted in favour of the whites, took some of their lands and gave to
the native population. But they have found succour in Nigeria where
the government of Bukola Saraki in Kwara State has provided large
extracts of farmland for them to peddle their trade: commercial
farming.



In the Shonga communities where they have been settled, they are to be
found in Dedening, Mokwagi, Faigi, Tsaduko, Gnagi Cella Miyaki, Cetta
Buro, Cetta Kanshi, Sancitegi Ndakanasa, Todo, Gumbayi, Ogudu, Part of
Shonga, Kanko, Gboros, Tsakpata, Tsunfereti and Dumagi.

Dumagi community, for instance, is a plain land with Guinea Savannah
vegetation. The place is fertile and is suitable for all kinds of
crops except cash crops. They have only one source of water in Dumagi
and that is River Bodo, for drainage. Throughout the year, they have
water in the Bodo river.

Dumagi is like elder brother to all the communities aforementioned.
Mohammed Dumagi, interpreting for Mohammed Jubril Abubakar the head of
Dumagi, a.k.a the Kpafyen, informed that all other communities whose
lands are to be used by the white farmers are off-shoots of Dumagi;
that the entire land belongs to Dumabi.

Explaining how Dumagi and all the other Shonga communities came to act
as a settlement for the white farmers, Mohammed Dumagi told The
Guardian that the Emir of Shonga summoned all the district heads in
the communities recently and informed them that the government of
Kwara State wanted to survey their land. The Emir told them that the
state government "would want to know how big our land is, so that we
could start benefiting from the programme of the State Government like
distribution of fertiliser and giving tractor to the farmers etc,"
Dumagi recalled.

According to him, the Kwara State Government used to give tractors,
insecticides, fertiliser to the people in Lafiaji area but over the
years, his people have not been given such assistance. So, when the
Emir said the state government would like to take a survey of their
land for proper distribution of the above mentioned benefits, they
gladly accepted the whole idea without a whimper of protest. But a fly
soon fell into the ointment when the communities got to know that the
survey was meant for a different purpose altogether.

Dumagi continued: "We were later informed that the State Government
would be interested in making use of the land in Apazihi and Kuse
communities. We gave the Emir the go ahead but before we could say
Jack Robinson, the state government had decided to take over our land
for the benefit of the white farmers because the Emir promised them
that he had vacant land for the white farmers from Zimbabwe to
settle."
"But we have said it plainly that in this area, there is no vacant
land. Even the land we have is not enough for us. We sometimes quarrel
over this land to the extent that, it often leads to deaths," he
stressed.

He added: "The people in these communities have no other profession.
We are all peasant farmers. That is to say that more than 100% of the
people are peasant farmers. I say this because, some women are also
farmers. Though they have no right to own land but they are given land
by their husbands or brothers or uncles to farm. By the time our land
is taken away from us what do we do?"
Dumagi averred that the communities' lands are their health and
religion, their sole means of survival. As such they are not prepared
to yield an inch to anybody, not to the government or the white
farmers. "If we die, then they can use our land in our absence,"
Dumagi asserted. "We are saying this because, we want to negotiate in
a peaceful way before it gets tough. It is our belief that if we
negotiate, we may have peace. But the government said that there is no
going back because they have invested so much. They say that they will
give us some percentage but we don't want any incentive, we don't want
any condition either by lease or any other means."
Dumagi fears that the white farmers are trying to displace the black
farmers. "The only difference is in the system of farming. The former
uses mechanised farming, because that is what is convenient for them.
The latter uses traditional system of farming to get what they want,"
he philosophised.

He said the communities were baffled baffle when the Emir said there
was no going back on the plan to give their lands to the Zimbabwean
farmers. "He said they must do it and that there is no going back,"
Dumagi agonised. "They want the land of their people to be taken over
by foreigners. We want to assure the world that we are not going to
give them an inch of our land. If they do so, then it means they have
robbed us of our land and God will take care of it," he said.

But why are the communities so vehemently opposed to the farmers?
Can't they see the advantages derivable from the presence of the white
farmers whose success story in commercial farming in Zimbabwe is well
known?
Dumagi said they are rejecting the foreign farmers for the same reason
they were rejected in rejecting the Zimbabwe. "The place where they
are coming from, why did they leave the place?" he queried. "We are
saying that it is what made the people there reject them that is part
of our reason for rejecting them. We shall continue to struggle and
maintain our stand. If a thief comes to steal your goods, what do you
do? Would you not fight? In the process of struggling with him, you
may kill him but you will not be called a murderer. But if he kills
you, you are going to paradise," the community spokesman noted.

"That is to say that we have nothing to lose, if we defeat them in
this battle and if we are defeated equally we have nothing to lose.
This is a Jihad for us and we have nothing to lose. How would you feel
if somebody suddenly takes over your land in your village?"
He is angry that the communities were not part of the transaction ."It
was basically between the Emir and the state government," he said.
"The Emir told the white farmers that there was a vacant land for them
but we told him that we didn't have a vacant land."
Umaru Mohammed a youth leader, for his part, said: " Since the
controversy started, we have been living in a deplorable situation. We
are now living in confusion because ordinarily, we should have started
clearing our land for preparation for the rainy season, but as it is
now, we cannot because we don't know where to start clearing as the
Zimbabwean farmers are marking everywhere. They have started
construction even in some areas that people are farming already."
He noted distressingly: "We have extended family. It is from the money
we make from farming that we make ends meet. In terms of sending our
children to school and all that, by the time there is no farm land
what do we do? Where everybody is poor what can be gained? Our people
are not used to the white man's method of farming.".

Mohammed enjoined the government not to bring politics into the whole
thing. "This is not a political issue," he argued, adding: "Politics
and land are two different things. The issue of land is not political.
Politics come and go but land will remain. No money can serve as a
compensation to us. If it is a flour mill or an assembly plant, there
is no problem but seizing our land from us, is not a joke."
He noted: "The Emir is saying that it is going to be for only 25 years
but that cannot be true. We know that once the government takes over a
particular land, that is the end of it. The Bacita Sugar Company
belongs to our people but even after the State Government stopped the
production of Sugar, they won't give back the land to us."
"We even said that they should divide the land 50/50 since what we
practise here is shifting cultivation. So, there is no fallow land. We
leave our land to fallow for sometime before we continue with farming
on the land. We don't use fertilizer because our land is very
fertile," Mohammed declared.

He complained about government's plan to move people from one
community to the other, saying: "There is no virgin land in this
community. From one inch to the other, our people are farming there.
Within one year or two, we all meet ourselves at the centre. We have
no monthly salary and it is from our farms that we get money to eat.
Our farm is our office. It is better they come here and destroy us
with bombs than for them to take over our land. We are going to fight
with tooth and nail to see that they make us beggars in our own land."
Mohammed Sani Dumagi is another spokesman for the Shonga communities.
He said: "There is nobody in this community who is not a farmer. Even
the unborn children are all farmers. We are not ready to take anything
as compensation. No amount of money can compensate us for our land. We
have been living without light or water for a long time. Is it now
that they want to take over our land that they are going to provide
all these things?"
Another community Dugbangi is about 10 kilometres away from Dumagi.
According to Mr. Amos Dugbangi, the government and the white farmers
came to inspect their land but discovered that their land was not
fertile enough for the kind of farming activities the white farmers
wanted to engage in, but only good for melon and groundnut. "So we are
not affected but other communities like Faigi are affected," he
enthused. "We are not affected in this area. We are contented with
what we have. For the past 20 years, we have been trying to provide
electricity on our own; if the government now wants to do anything to
help us, we don't mind."
The Kpafyen of Faigi Mohammed Jubril Abubakar, informed through an
interpreter that the community had been living without light, water
and good roads for a long time without complaints.

"We have three good wells that serve the entire community and the
water they bring forth tastes good," he said. "It is not that we are
against the coming of the white farmers but the problem is that our
farmlands are not enough even for us to farm. The governor was here
and we told him clearly our mind."
However, in Tsaduko the indigenes are receptive of the white farmers.
Mohammed Sese a spokesman for the community explained that the people
would abide by whatever the Emir said with regard to the presence of
the white farmers in the community. Already, some indigenes
have taken up employment with the white farmers.

Similarly, the people of Sancitagi said the Zimbabweans were welcome
in their land. Alhaji Usman Baba Sancitagi who spoke through an
interpreter for the head of the community, Abubakar Esunpa said: "We
are happy that the white men are coming here to farm. But we want them
to provide employment for our children who are jobless graduates. We
in this community are hungry because we don't have any other job
except farming. We also want to benefit from the white farmers. Our
town here is very big- we are up to five hundred people. We want the
whitemen to provide light for us. That is the first thing. We have
been struggling to provide electricity on our own in the past, all to
no avail."
Sancitagi continued: "We thank God for the white men and the Emir of
Shonga. We want them to build our school for us. Then we want them to
give us contract, so that we can also benefit. Some of our children
also are well trained in art work, like tractor drivers, but they are
jobless. So, we want them to provide job for them. There is no money
here and we are suffering. We want them to build a new mosque for us."
But although the people welcome the new development initiative by the
state government, they would not want to be resettled anywhere outside
of their immediate environment. "Our land is fertile for crops like
groundnut, yam, cassava, maize, guinea corn, beans, rice cashew,
mangoes, banana. But we don't have market in this place, so we take
them to Shonga or Share. If the white man can do all these things they
are welcome. We don't want to have any problems with the Emir of
Shonga," said Sancitagi.

According to the memorandum of understanding between the Kwara state
government and the Zimbabwe farmers, a lease of Agricultural land of
approximately one thousand (1000)Hectares will be given to each of the
thirty-five farmers for the purpose of undertaking the project.

The state government anticipates that the project will enhance food
production in Nigeria, encourage skills and technological transfer,
generate export earnings employment and stimulate local agro-allied
industries.

The Zimbabweans farmers were promised full protection, since by virtue
of the Land Use Act 1978, the State Government is vested with all land
within the state for the benefit of the people.The government will
also provide each of the Zimbabweans farmers the sum of $250,000USD
and a guarantee for a private sector loan in the sum of $250,000 USD
to each farmer on terms to be agreed upon by the parties and the
financiers.

The white farmers promised among others, "to provide the technological
know-how necessary for the efficient utilisation of the irrigation
system in respect of the project and to patronise local suppliers
where reasonably possible in Kwara State.

They could have spend that money on buying tractors to give to locals [ and have the State Agriculture department responsible for maintaining them]. buy them fertizers, seeds and other equipments.

many african farmers suffer mostly from lack of founding[ Subsidies] and very bad infrastructures just to be successful.

but the stupid governor is subsidizing foreigners instead

How do we get a dummy like this running things is always puzzling me.

[JoHaN 15]

Originally Posted by owo9ja

it's true.

this is a long article, published in April 2005 when the whole thing went down. I wish I could put certain portions in bold


Saturday, April 16, 2005

In Kwara, Hopes And Fears Over White Farmers

The government of Kwara State recently signed a memorandum of
understanding (Mou) with some white Zimbabwean farmers who were not
too long ago dispossessed of their farm lands by the Zimbabwean
Government under its controversial land redistribution programme. The
commercial farmers are being settled in Shonga communities in Edu
Local Council of Kwara State.
DEBO OLADIMEJI spoke with the inhabitants of the affected communities
on their expectations and fears.

THEY call them commercial white farmers from Zimbabwe. They are
literally on the run from their naturalised fatherland where the
government of Robert Mugabe, in an attempt to redistribute land whose
ownership in the former white ruled country was disproportionately
tilted in favour of the whites, took some of their lands and gave to
the native population. But they have found succour in Nigeria where
the government of Bukola Saraki in Kwara State has provided large
extracts of farmland for them to peddle their trade: commercial
farming.



In the Shonga communities where they have been settled, they are to be
found in Dedening, Mokwagi, Faigi, Tsaduko, Gnagi Cella Miyaki, Cetta
Buro, Cetta Kanshi, Sancitegi Ndakanasa, Todo, Gumbayi, Ogudu, Part of
Shonga, Kanko, Gboros, Tsakpata, Tsunfereti and Dumagi.

Dumagi community, for instance, is a plain land with Guinea Savannah
vegetation. The place is fertile and is suitable for all kinds of
crops except cash crops. They have only one source of water in Dumagi
and that is River Bodo, for drainage. Throughout the year, they have
water in the Bodo river.

Dumagi is like elder brother to all the communities aforementioned.
Mohammed Dumagi, interpreting for Mohammed Jubril Abubakar the head of
Dumagi, a.k.a the Kpafyen, informed that all other communities whose
lands are to be used by the white farmers are off-shoots of Dumagi;
that the entire land belongs to Dumabi.

Explaining how Dumagi and all the other Shonga communities came to act
as a settlement for the white farmers, Mohammed Dumagi told The
Guardian that the Emir of Shonga summoned all the district heads in
the communities recently and informed them that the government of
Kwara State wanted to survey their land. The Emir told them that the
state government "would want to know how big our land is, so that we
could start benefiting from the programme of the State Government like
distribution of fertiliser and giving tractor to the farmers etc,"
Dumagi recalled.

According to him, the Kwara State Government used to give tractors,
insecticides, fertiliser to the people in Lafiaji area but over the
years, his people have not been given such assistance. So, when the
Emir said the state government would like to take a survey of their
land for proper distribution of the above mentioned benefits, they
gladly accepted the whole idea without a whimper of protest. But a fly
soon fell into the ointment when the communities got to know that the
survey was meant for a different purpose altogether.

Dumagi continued: "We were later informed that the State Government
would be interested in making use of the land in Apazihi and Kuse
communities. We gave the Emir the go ahead but before we could say
Jack Robinson, the state government had decided to take over our land
for the benefit of the white farmers because the Emir promised them
that he had vacant land for the white farmers from Zimbabwe to
settle."
"But we have said it plainly that in this area, there is no vacant
land. Even the land we have is not enough for us. We sometimes quarrel
over this land to the extent that, it often leads to deaths," he
stressed.

He added: "The people in these communities have no other profession.
We are all peasant farmers. That is to say that more than 100% of the
people are peasant farmers. I say this because, some women are also
farmers. Though they have no right to own land but they are given land
by their husbands or brothers or uncles to farm. By the time our land
is taken away from us what do we do?"
Dumagi averred that the communities' lands are their health and
religion, their sole means of survival. As such they are not prepared
to yield an inch to anybody, not to the government or the white
farmers. "If we die, then they can use our land in our absence,"
Dumagi asserted. "We are saying this because, we want to negotiate in
a peaceful way before it gets tough. It is our belief that if we
negotiate, we may have peace. But the government said that there is no
going back because they have invested so much. They say that they will
give us some percentage but we don't want any incentive, we don't want
any condition either by lease or any other means."
Dumagi fears that the white farmers are trying to displace the black
farmers. "The only difference is in the system of farming. The former
uses mechanised farming, because that is what is convenient for them.
The latter uses traditional system of farming to get what they want,"
he philosophised.

He said the communities were baffled baffle when the Emir said there
was no going back on the plan to give their lands to the Zimbabwean
farmers. "He said they must do it and that there is no going back,"
Dumagi agonised. "They want the land of their people to be taken over
by foreigners. We want to assure the world that we are not going to
give them an inch of our land. If they do so, then it means they have
robbed us of our land and God will take care of it," he said.

But why are the communities so vehemently opposed to the farmers?
Can't they see the advantages derivable from the presence of the white
farmers whose success story in commercial farming in Zimbabwe is well
known?
Dumagi said they are rejecting the foreign farmers for the same reason
they were rejected in rejecting the Zimbabwe. "The place where they
are coming from, why did they leave the place?" he queried. "We are
saying that it is what made the people there reject them that is part
of our reason for rejecting them. We shall continue to struggle and
maintain our stand. If a thief comes to steal your goods, what do you
do? Would you not fight? In the process of struggling with him, you
may kill him but you will not be called a murderer. But if he kills
you, you are going to paradise," the community spokesman noted.

"That is to say that we have nothing to lose, if we defeat them in
this battle and if we are defeated equally we have nothing to lose.
This is a Jihad for us and we have nothing to lose. How would you feel
if somebody suddenly takes over your land in your village?"
He is angry that the communities were not part of the transaction ."It
was basically between the Emir and the state government," he said.
"The Emir told the white farmers that there was a vacant land for them
but we told him that we didn't have a vacant land."
Umaru Mohammed a youth leader, for his part, said: " Since the
controversy started, we have been living in a deplorable situation. We
are now living in confusion because ordinarily, we should have started
clearing our land for preparation for the rainy season, but as it is
now, we cannot because we don't know where to start clearing as the
Zimbabwean farmers are marking everywhere. They have started
construction even in some areas that people are farming already."
He noted distressingly: "We have extended family. It is from the money
we make from farming that we make ends meet. In terms of sending our
children to school and all that, by the time there is no farm land
what do we do? Where everybody is poor what can be gained? Our people
are not used to the white man's method of farming.".

Mohammed enjoined the government not to bring politics into the whole
thing. "This is not a political issue," he argued, adding: "Politics
and land are two different things. The issue of land is not political.
Politics come and go but land will remain. No money can serve as a
compensation to us. If it is a flour mill or an assembly plant, there
is no problem but seizing our land from us, is not a joke."
He noted: "The Emir is saying that it is going to be for only 25 years
but that cannot be true. We know that once the government takes over a
particular land, that is the end of it. The Bacita Sugar Company
belongs to our people but even after the State Government stopped the
production of Sugar, they won't give back the land to us."
"We even said that they should divide the land 50/50 since what we
practise here is shifting cultivation. So, there is no fallow land. We
leave our land to fallow for sometime before we continue with farming
on the land. We don't use fertilizer because our land is very
fertile," Mohammed declared.

He complained about government's plan to move people from one
community to the other, saying: "There is no virgin land in this
community. From one inch to the other, our people are farming there.
Within one year or two, we all meet ourselves at the centre. We have
no monthly salary and it is from our farms that we get money to eat.
Our farm is our office. It is better they come here and destroy us
with bombs than for them to take over our land. We are going to fight
with tooth and nail to see that they make us beggars in our own land."
Mohammed Sani Dumagi is another spokesman for the Shonga communities.
He said: "There is nobody in this community who is not a farmer. Even
the unborn children are all farmers. We are not ready to take anything
as compensation. No amount of money can compensate us for our land. We
have been living without light or water for a long time. Is it now
that they want to take over our land that they are going to provide
all these things?"
Another community Dugbangi is about 10 kilometres away from Dumagi.
According to Mr. Amos Dugbangi, the government and the white farmers
came to inspect their land but discovered that their land was not
fertile enough for the kind of farming activities the white farmers
wanted to engage in, but only good for melon and groundnut. "So we are
not affected but other communities like Faigi are affected," he
enthused. "We are not affected in this area. We are contented with
what we have. For the past 20 years, we have been trying to provide
electricity on our own; if the government now wants to do anything to
help us, we don't mind."
The Kpafyen of Faigi Mohammed Jubril Abubakar, informed through an
interpreter that the community had been living without light, water
and good roads for a long time without complaints.

"We have three good wells that serve the entire community and the
water they bring forth tastes good," he said. "It is not that we are
against the coming of the white farmers but the problem is that our
farmlands are not enough even for us to farm. The governor was here
and we told him clearly our mind."
However, in Tsaduko the indigenes are receptive of the white farmers.
Mohammed Sese a spokesman for the community explained that the people
would abide by whatever the Emir said with regard to the presence of
the white farmers in the community. Already, some indigenes
have taken up employment with the white farmers.

Similarly, the people of Sancitagi said the Zimbabweans were welcome
in their land. Alhaji Usman Baba Sancitagi who spoke through an
interpreter for the head of the community, Abubakar Esunpa said: "We
are happy that the white men are coming here to farm. But we want them
to provide employment for our children who are jobless graduates. We
in this community are hungry because we don't have any other job
except farming. We also want to benefit from the white farmers. Our
town here is very big- we are up to five hundred people. We want the
whitemen to provide light for us. That is the first thing. We have
been struggling to provide electricity on our own in the past, all to
no avail."
Sancitagi continued: "We thank God for the white men and the Emir of
Shonga. We want them to build our school for us. Then we want them to
give us contract, so that we can also benefit. Some of our children
also are well trained in art work, like tractor drivers, but they are
jobless. So, we want them to provide job for them. There is no money
here and we are suffering. We want them to build a new mosque for us."
But although the people welcome the new development initiative by the
state government, they would not want to be resettled anywhere outside
of their immediate environment. "Our land is fertile for crops like
groundnut, yam, cassava, maize, guinea corn, beans, rice cashew,
mangoes, banana. But we don't have market in this place, so we take
them to Shonga or Share. If the white man can do all these things they
are welcome. We don't want to have any problems with the Emir of
Shonga," said Sancitagi.

According to the memorandum of understanding between the Kwara state
government and the Zimbabwe farmers, a lease of Agricultural land of
approximately one thousand (1000)Hectares will be given to each of the
thirty-five farmers for the purpose of undertaking the project.

The state government anticipates that the project will enhance food
production in Nigeria, encourage skills and technological transfer,
generate export earnings employment and stimulate local agro-allied
industries.

The Zimbabweans farmers were promised full protection, since by virtue
of the Land Use Act 1978, the State Government is vested with all land
within the state for the benefit of the people.The government will
also provide each of the Zimbabweans farmers the sum of $250,000USD
and a guarantee for a private sector loan in the sum of $250,000 USD
to each farmer on terms to be agreed upon by the parties and the
financiers.

The white farmers promised among others, "to provide the technological
know-how necessary for the efficient utilisation of the irrigation
system in respect of the project and to patronise local suppliers
where reasonably possible in Kwara State.

it's true.

this is a long article, published in April 2005 when the whole thing went down. I wish I could put certain portions in bold


Saturday, April 16, 2005

In Kwara, Hopes And Fears Over White Farmers

The government of Kwara State recently signed a memorandum of
understanding (Mou) with some white Zimbabwean farmers who were not
too long ago dispossessed of their farm lands by the Zimbabwean
Government under its controversial land redistribution programme. The
commercial farmers are being settled in Shonga communities in Edu
Local Council of Kwara State.
DEBO OLADIMEJI spoke with the inhabitants of the affected communities
on their expectations and fears.

THEY call them commercial white farmers from Zimbabwe. They are
literally on the run from their naturalised fatherland where the
government of Robert Mugabe, in an attempt to redistribute land whose
ownership in the former white ruled country was disproportionately
tilted in favour of the whites, took some of their lands and gave to
the native population. But they have found succour in Nigeria where
the government of Bukola Saraki in Kwara State has provided large
extracts of farmland for them to peddle their trade: commercial
farming.



In the Shonga communities where they have been settled, they are to be
found in Dedening, Mokwagi, Faigi, Tsaduko, Gnagi Cella Miyaki, Cetta
Buro, Cetta Kanshi, Sancitegi Ndakanasa, Todo, Gumbayi, Ogudu, Part of
Shonga, Kanko, Gboros, Tsakpata, Tsunfereti and Dumagi.

Dumagi community, for instance, is a plain land with Guinea Savannah
vegetation. The place is fertile and is suitable for all kinds of
crops except cash crops. They have only one source of water in Dumagi
and that is River Bodo, for drainage. Throughout the year, they have
water in the Bodo river.

Dumagi is like elder brother to all the communities aforementioned.
Mohammed Dumagi, interpreting for Mohammed Jubril Abubakar the head of
Dumagi, a.k.a the Kpafyen, informed that all other communities whose
lands are to be used by the white farmers are off-shoots of Dumagi;
that the entire land belongs to Dumabi.

Explaining how Dumagi and all the other Shonga communities came to act
as a settlement for the white farmers, Mohammed Dumagi told The
Guardian that the Emir of Shonga summoned all the district heads in
the communities recently and informed them that the government of
Kwara State wanted to survey their land. The Emir told them that the
state government "would want to know how big our land is, so that we
could start benefiting from the programme of the State Government like
distribution of fertiliser and giving tractor to the farmers etc,"
Dumagi recalled.

According to him, the Kwara State Government used to give tractors,
insecticides, fertiliser to the people in Lafiaji area but over the
years, his people have not been given such assistance. So, when the
Emir said the state government would like to take a survey of their
land for proper distribution of the above mentioned benefits, they
gladly accepted the whole idea without a whimper of protest. But a fly
soon fell into the ointment when the communities got to know that the
survey was meant for a different purpose altogether.

Dumagi continued: "We were later informed that the State Government
would be interested in making use of the land in Apazihi and Kuse
communities. We gave the Emir the go ahead but before we could say
Jack Robinson, the state government had decided to take over our land
for the benefit of the white farmers because the Emir promised them
that he had vacant land for the white farmers from Zimbabwe to
settle."
"But we have said it plainly that in this area, there is no vacant
land. Even the land we have is not enough for us. We sometimes quarrel
over this land to the extent that, it often leads to deaths," he
stressed.

He added: "The people in these communities have no other profession.
We are all peasant farmers. That is to say that more than 100% of the
people are peasant farmers. I say this because, some women are also
farmers. Though they have no right to own land but they are given land
by their husbands or brothers or uncles to farm. By the time our land
is taken away from us what do we do?"
Dumagi averred that the communities' lands are their health and
religion, their sole means of survival. As such they are not prepared
to yield an inch to anybody, not to the government or the white
farmers. "If we die, then they can use our land in our absence,"
Dumagi asserted. "We are saying this because, we want to negotiate in
a peaceful way before it gets tough. It is our belief that if we
negotiate, we may have peace. But the government said that there is no
going back because they have invested so much. They say that they will
give us some percentage but we don't want any incentive, we don't want
any condition either by lease or any other means."
Dumagi fears that the white farmers are trying to displace the black
farmers. "The only difference is in the system of farming. The former
uses mechanised farming, because that is what is convenient for them.
The latter uses traditional system of farming to get what they want,"
he philosophised.

He said the communities were baffled baffle when the Emir said there
was no going back on the plan to give their lands to the Zimbabwean
farmers. "He said they must do it and that there is no going back,"
Dumagi agonised. "They want the land of their people to be taken over
by foreigners. We want to assure the world that we are not going to
give them an inch of our land. If they do so, then it means they have
robbed us of our land and God will take care of it," he said.

But why are the communities so vehemently opposed to the farmers?
Can't they see the advantages derivable from the presence of the white
farmers whose success story in commercial farming in Zimbabwe is well
known?
Dumagi said they are rejecting the foreign farmers for the same reason
they were rejected in rejecting the Zimbabwe. "The place where they
are coming from, why did they leave the place?" he queried. "We are
saying that it is what made the people there reject them that is part
of our reason for rejecting them. We shall continue to struggle and
maintain our stand. If a thief comes to steal your goods, what do you
do? Would you not fight? In the process of struggling with him, you
may kill him but you will not be called a murderer. But if he kills
you, you are going to paradise," the community spokesman noted.

"That is to say that we have nothing to lose, if we defeat them in
this battle and if we are defeated equally we have nothing to lose.
This is a Jihad for us and we have nothing to lose. How would you feel
if somebody suddenly takes over your land in your village?"
He is angry that the communities were not part of the transaction ."It
was basically between the Emir and the state government," he said.
"The Emir told the white farmers that there was a vacant land for them
but we told him that we didn't have a vacant land."
Umaru Mohammed a youth leader, for his part, said: " Since the
controversy started, we have been living in a deplorable situation. We
are now living in confusion because ordinarily, we should have started
clearing our land for preparation for the rainy season, but as it is
now, we cannot because we don't know where to start clearing as the
Zimbabwean farmers are marking everywhere. They have started
construction even in some areas that people are farming already."
He noted distressingly: "We have extended family. It is from the money
we make from farming that we make ends meet. In terms of sending our
children to school and all that, by the time there is no farm land
what do we do? Where everybody is poor what can be gained? Our people
are not used to the white man's method of farming.".

Mohammed enjoined the government not to bring politics into the whole
thing. "This is not a political issue," he argued, adding: "Politics
and land are two different things. The issue of land is not political.
Politics come and go but land will remain. No money can serve as a
compensation to us. If it is a flour mill or an assembly plant, there
is no problem but seizing our land from us, is not a joke."
He noted: "The Emir is saying that it is going to be for only 25 years
but that cannot be true. We know that once the government takes over a
particular land, that is the end of it. The Bacita Sugar Company
belongs to our people but even after the State Government stopped the
production of Sugar, they won't give back the land to us."
"We even said that they should divide the land 50/50 since what we
practise here is shifting cultivation. So, there is no fallow land. We
leave our land to fallow for sometime before we continue with farming
on the land. We don't use fertilizer because our land is very
fertile," Mohammed declared.

He complained about government's plan to move people from one
community to the other, saying: "There is no virgin land in this
community. From one inch to the other, our people are farming there.
Within one year or two, we all meet ourselves at the centre. We have
no monthly salary and it is from our farms that we get money to eat.
Our farm is our office. It is better they come here and destroy us
with bombs than for them to take over our land. We are going to fight
with tooth and nail to see that they make us beggars in our own land."
Mohammed Sani Dumagi is another spokesman for the Shonga communities.
He said: "There is nobody in this community who is not a farmer. Even
the unborn children are all farmers. We are not ready to take anything
as compensation. No amount of money can compensate us for our land. We
have been living without light or water for a long time. Is it now
that they want to take over our land that they are going to provide
all these things?"
Another community Dugbangi is about 10 kilometres away from Dumagi.
According to Mr. Amos Dugbangi, the government and the white farmers
came to inspect their land but discovered that their land was not
fertile enough for the kind of farming activities the white farmers
wanted to engage in, but only good for melon and groundnut. "So we are
not affected but other communities like Faigi are affected," he
enthused. "We are not affected in this area. We are contented with
what we have. For the past 20 years, we have been trying to provide
electricity on our own; if the government now wants to do anything to
help us, we don't mind."
The Kpafyen of Faigi Mohammed Jubril Abubakar, informed through an
interpreter that the community had been living without light, water
and good roads for a long time without complaints.

"We have three good wells that serve the entire community and the
water they bring forth tastes good," he said. "It is not that we are
against the coming of the white farmers but the problem is that our
farmlands are not enough even for us to farm. The governor was here
and we told him clearly our mind."
However, in Tsaduko the indigenes are receptive of the white farmers.
Mohammed Sese a spokesman for the community explained that the people
would abide by whatever the Emir said with regard to the presence of
the white farmers in the community. Already, some indigenes
have taken up employment with the white farmers.

Similarly, the people of Sancitagi said the Zimbabweans were welcome
in their land. Alhaji Usman Baba Sancitagi who spoke through an
interpreter for the head of the community, Abubakar Esunpa said: "We
are happy that the white men are coming here to farm. But we want them
to provide employment for our children who are jobless graduates. We
in this community are hungry because we don't have any other job
except farming. We also want to benefit from the white farmers. Our
town here is very big- we are up to five hundred people. We want the
whitemen to provide light for us. That is the first thing. We have
been struggling to provide electricity on our own in the past, all to
no avail."
Sancitagi continued: "We thank God for the white men and the Emir of
Shonga. We want them to build our school for us. Then we want them to
give us contract, so that we can also benefit. Some of our children
also are well trained in art work, like tractor drivers, but they are
jobless. So, we want them to provide job for them. There is no money
here and we are suffering. We want them to build a new mosque for us."
But although the people welcome the new development initiative by the
state government, they would not want to be resettled anywhere outside
of their immediate environment. "Our land is fertile for crops like
groundnut, yam, cassava, maize, guinea corn, beans, rice cashew,
mangoes, banana. But we don't have market in this place, so we take
them to Shonga or Share. If the white man can do all these things they
are welcome. We don't want to have any problems with the Emir of
Shonga," said Sancitagi.

According to the memorandum of understanding between the Kwara state
government and the Zimbabwe farmers, a lease of Agricultural land of
approximately one thousand (1000)Hectares will be given to each of the
thirty-five farmers for the purpose of undertaking the project.

The state government anticipates that the project will enhance food
production in Nigeria, encourage skills and technological transfer,
generate export earnings employment and stimulate local agro-allied
industries.

The Zimbabweans farmers were promised full protection, since by virtue
of the Land Use Act 1978, the State Government is vested with all land
within the state for the benefit of the people.The government will
also provide each of the Zimbabweans farmers the sum of $250,000USD
and a guarantee for a private sector loan in the sum of $250,000 USD
to each farmer on terms to be agreed upon by the parties and the
financiers.

The white farmers promised among others, "to provide the technological
know-how necessary for the efficient utilisation of the irrigation
system in respect of the project and to patronise local suppliers
where reasonably possible in Kwara State.

;__;

[popa1980]

Here we go. Flame thread.

[owo9ja]

Originally Posted by Matthias Offodile

you know absolutely nothing about me!

You are truly more numb-minded than I originally thought. Nobody could be more of a realist than me when it comes to Africa in particular, and inwardly you know that I am right what I say about it...but keep on dreaming! it is more soothing, maybe your mommy will sing a lullaby for you.

i thought you ignored me/?

[owo9ja]

Originally Posted by BUTEMBO21

They could have spend that money on buying tractors to give to locals [ and have the State Agriculture department responsible for maintaining them]. buy them fertizers, seeds and other equipments.

many african farmers suffer mostly from lack of founding[ Subsidies] and very bad infrastructures just to be successful.

but the stupid governor is subsidizing foreigners instead

How do we get a dummy like this running things is always puzzling me.

exactly. the money could go to training these farmers. 500k could build a school that would teach these farmers more than the zim farmers would and they would keep their land. my guess is the uK bribed the nigerian 'leaders' and they sold these people out

[BUTEMBO21]

Originally Posted by owo9ja

exactly. the money could go to training these farmers. 500k could build a school that would teach these farmers more than the zim farmers would and they would keep their land. my guess is the uK bribed the nigerian 'leaders' and they sold these people out

i have been thinking. and that money [ most likely from the UK].

[owo9ja]

Originally Posted by BUTEMBO21

i have been thinking. and that money [ most likely from the UK].

yep

[Forza Kimono]

Sometimes I have problems with the posts some people make here. They make callous statements that if a white person made would be deemed racist and rightly so. And these same people are always scream racism at the slightest thing


With regards to this topic, I think its a very welcome idea and more Zimbabwean farmers should be gotten IF it will mechanize farming in Nigeria. The govt should give them long term leases and demand productivity as an incentive. They should also have to train locals to expand mechanized farming in Naija.

[Matthias Offodile]

i thought you ignored me/?

Now we are quit!

[Matthias Offodile]

Whats wrong with some people????
Sometimes I have problems with the posts some people make here. They make callous statements that if a white person made would be deemed racist and rightly so. And these same people are always scream racism at the slightest thing


With regards to this topic, I think its a very welcome idea and more Zimbabwean farmers should be gotten IF it will mechanize farming in Nigeria. The govt should give them long term leases and demand productivity as an incentive. They should also have to train locals to expand mechanized farming in Naija.

Finally someone with a clear mind. I couldn´t agree more with what you said.

These are Zim farmers, hence Africans , what can be more positive to a country than Africans employing Africans and working for Africa???

Zim farmers are brilliant experts that lack across Africa.

The fact is that the majority here hate white people and coloured people, especially people coming form certain mentally non-liberal African countries, for them only pure "non-infested" 100% black Africans are "true Africans"...they are no better than the far right wing parties across Europe. IT IS A SHAME IN 21st CENTURY.

[popa1980]

The truth is there are plenty of rich black Africans who have the money to go into large mechanisized farming but choose not too so rather than complaining about white farmers you should complain why rich black Africans have failed to invest in agriculture. They look at farming as a "poor mans" job. This attitude HAS to change.

[desert burner]

Originally Posted by popa1980

The truth is there are plenty of rich black Africans who have the money to go into large mechanisized farming but choose not too so rather than complaining about white farmers you should complain why rich black Africans have failed to invest in agriculture. They look at farming as a "poor mans" job. This attitude HAS to change.

exactly, when Dr kwame popa throws his stethoscope and rolls up his sleeves and starting farming somewhere kumasi than hunger will be history in Africa

[popa1980]

Originally Posted by desert burner

exactly, when Dr kwame popa throws his stethoscope and rolls up his sleeves and starting farming somewhere kumasi than hunger will be history in Africa

1)My family already farms large tracts of land in Ghana so no need.

2) Im actually born and raised in UK so it should be up to actual Ghanaians to invest in farming.

3) Lastly, contrary to popular belief, doctors arent millionaires. I dont have anywhere near the finances to start and operate a large farm- but many businessmen in Accra and Lagos do.

[desert burner]

Originally Posted by popa1980

1)My family already farms large tracts of land in Ghana so no need.

2) Im actually born and raised in UK so it should be up to actual Ghanaians to invest in farming.

3) Lastly, contrary to popular belief, doctors arent millionaires. I dont have anywhere near the finances to start and operate a large farm- but many businessmen in Accra and Lagos do.

thanks for the clarification

[popa1980]

Originally Posted by desert burner

thanks for the clarification

You're welcome.