Send Taylor to Tanzania
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Much can be understood about a people by understanding the condition of the land on which they live. Here in the West, the United States specifically, much of the land is occupied with city-scapes, factory farms brutalizing livestock, monoculture farms impoverishing the soil, fast food complexes leaving populations malnourished, malls carrying clothing made by exploited factory workers overseas, department and grocery stores housing our food and living supplies, pharmacies and hospitals handling our medicines and employing our healers, these systems and industries, almost always showing as unsustainable. One may look at our particular landscape and understand just how estranged we are from it, having replaced a meaningful, reciprocal relationship to the ground, with a system of convenience, all made possible at the expense of an oppressed and impoverished “other”. It feels safe to say that the convenience of it all, of being a people that are fed, medicated and otherwise provided for by post-colonial, systematic and institutionalized means, has left us, if we consider it honestly, without dignity and otherwise disabled--having no knowledge of how to teach, nourish, heal or clothe ourselves without the aid of such a system.
Most of us have been reared disassociated from the land, learning about it in context of dualistic language and practices, being conditioned to see the land as simply the crust of the earth, the ground on which we walk. Yet, land carries with it much more significance, as it is not simply our birthplace or the venue in which we experience our lives, but it is the very dirt from which we are fed, healed, the birthplace of ritual, culture and community. Indeed, we have been assimilated into a way of life that is situated around capital, industry, profit; being taught to estrange ourselves from the land, the non-humans we share it with and finding it all to be inferior, object and untrustworthy. When once our cultures and rituals centered around our natural, interdependent and fundamental relationship with the earth, we now ritualize our new provider, not explicitly the earth itself, but the capitalist system that exploits it and the humans and non-humans who inhabit it.
Winona LaDuke, Native activist, writer, environmentalist and economist, quotes her father in many of her lectures as saying, "Winona, I don't want to hear your philosophy if you can't grow corn." In one of her talks, she goes onto say, “Isn't that an interesting thing to say? But he's right. You can talk about talking about it. But let us hope that we can do something good.” It is easy for me to sit from my computer and talk about decolonizing myself, yet what is more difficult is putting it into action and still, it is my hope.
I lived in intentional community for a year in Fifth Ward, Houston Texas. There, with my six housemates, I shared an intimacy and a commonality that I had never experienced elsewhere. I doubted that such an experience would happen outside of that community, yet upon my arrival back to the Carolina's, I was surprised by having found another meaningful and sacred community; this time, with two like minds who had a vision of working with coffee farmers in Tanzania to bring about, “a new form of sourcing that moves beyond the trade of coffee and toward reconciliation between farmers, roasters, coffee, and the land, through practices of solidarity and sustainability." Our way of being in the U.S., has not only touched us in the west, but has touched the lands of many unseen others, that is to the consumer’s eye. A fundamental idea rampant in such a system as ours--that the land is simply an object to exploit, to rape--is essential to gathering the commodities enjoyed by the west, many of which come from overseas. Stephanie and Steven Berbec, the creators of After Trade, have been living in Moshi, Tanzania, and getting their work off the ground with learning the language, learning the culture, getting to know their neighbors, getting to know the land and building relationships with coffee farmers for nearly a year now. I am seeing their work as a “Jubilee” of sorts, of not simply asking for forgiveness in being part of a system that has taken away such sacred and essential things such as land, but taking responsibility for, shall we say, the “sins” of the west and being present in the process of people being reconciled back to their land and all that life and relationship with the land entails.
I have come to a place where this work seems to pull me, summon me, it feels fitting for me, and thus I have begun to pursue it. My hope is to move to Tanzania with Stephanie and Steven and begin working with After Trade for a year, at minimum, as I continue re-learning a relationship with the land through practicing permaculture, being in relation with my neighbor, learning from the indigenous foods, medicinal plants and peoples of Tanzania, all the while, living in sacred, beloved community with friends.
This hope is a much more trying endeavor to consider in terms of finances, as I simply do not have the funds to fly myself to Tanzania. I believe in the generosity of others, however, of like minds and folks who also believe in such a way of life, however that may look to them. My goal is to leave the country and head to Moshi in January of 2016, March at the latest, however, my main concern is funding my plane ticket, which can round up to roughly 2,000.00 round-trip, depending on the time of year I purchase. If you choose to donate, I will be using that money to purchase a round-trip plane ticket to Tanzania so that I may begin working with After Trade and living into a way of life that I feel is innate. Any extra money raised will go towards extra and unforeseen moving costs, or donated specifically to After Trade.
Most of us have been reared disassociated from the land, learning about it in context of dualistic language and practices, being conditioned to see the land as simply the crust of the earth, the ground on which we walk. Yet, land carries with it much more significance, as it is not simply our birthplace or the venue in which we experience our lives, but it is the very dirt from which we are fed, healed, the birthplace of ritual, culture and community. Indeed, we have been assimilated into a way of life that is situated around capital, industry, profit; being taught to estrange ourselves from the land, the non-humans we share it with and finding it all to be inferior, object and untrustworthy. When once our cultures and rituals centered around our natural, interdependent and fundamental relationship with the earth, we now ritualize our new provider, not explicitly the earth itself, but the capitalist system that exploits it and the humans and non-humans who inhabit it.
Winona LaDuke, Native activist, writer, environmentalist and economist, quotes her father in many of her lectures as saying, "Winona, I don't want to hear your philosophy if you can't grow corn." In one of her talks, she goes onto say, “Isn't that an interesting thing to say? But he's right. You can talk about talking about it. But let us hope that we can do something good.” It is easy for me to sit from my computer and talk about decolonizing myself, yet what is more difficult is putting it into action and still, it is my hope.
I lived in intentional community for a year in Fifth Ward, Houston Texas. There, with my six housemates, I shared an intimacy and a commonality that I had never experienced elsewhere. I doubted that such an experience would happen outside of that community, yet upon my arrival back to the Carolina's, I was surprised by having found another meaningful and sacred community; this time, with two like minds who had a vision of working with coffee farmers in Tanzania to bring about, “a new form of sourcing that moves beyond the trade of coffee and toward reconciliation between farmers, roasters, coffee, and the land, through practices of solidarity and sustainability." Our way of being in the U.S., has not only touched us in the west, but has touched the lands of many unseen others, that is to the consumer’s eye. A fundamental idea rampant in such a system as ours--that the land is simply an object to exploit, to rape--is essential to gathering the commodities enjoyed by the west, many of which come from overseas. Stephanie and Steven Berbec, the creators of After Trade, have been living in Moshi, Tanzania, and getting their work off the ground with learning the language, learning the culture, getting to know their neighbors, getting to know the land and building relationships with coffee farmers for nearly a year now. I am seeing their work as a “Jubilee” of sorts, of not simply asking for forgiveness in being part of a system that has taken away such sacred and essential things such as land, but taking responsibility for, shall we say, the “sins” of the west and being present in the process of people being reconciled back to their land and all that life and relationship with the land entails.
I have come to a place where this work seems to pull me, summon me, it feels fitting for me, and thus I have begun to pursue it. My hope is to move to Tanzania with Stephanie and Steven and begin working with After Trade for a year, at minimum, as I continue re-learning a relationship with the land through practicing permaculture, being in relation with my neighbor, learning from the indigenous foods, medicinal plants and peoples of Tanzania, all the while, living in sacred, beloved community with friends.
This hope is a much more trying endeavor to consider in terms of finances, as I simply do not have the funds to fly myself to Tanzania. I believe in the generosity of others, however, of like minds and folks who also believe in such a way of life, however that may look to them. My goal is to leave the country and head to Moshi in January of 2016, March at the latest, however, my main concern is funding my plane ticket, which can round up to roughly 2,000.00 round-trip, depending on the time of year I purchase. If you choose to donate, I will be using that money to purchase a round-trip plane ticket to Tanzania so that I may begin working with After Trade and living into a way of life that I feel is innate. Any extra money raised will go towards extra and unforeseen moving costs, or donated specifically to After Trade.
Organizer
Taylor Appalachia
Organizer
Shelby, NC
