In Soto, South Africa, the women and children are dancing and clapping. It is planting time, and they have land and seeds. Sometime in May, there will be cabbage, spinach, beets, onions, broccoli and corn to put on the table, with leftovers to sell. What a blessing that will be! That is why they are dancing and clapping and praying in a worship service known as the Blessing of Seeds.
The people pour spoonfuls of seeds into paper cones and celebrate. Then they sow the seeds in family gardens. Every one in the village has learned how to raise crops without needing to bring in fertilizer or ways of farming that come from somewhere else.
The Reverend Welile Sigabi is a Methodist pastor in Soto. He is one of the leaders of a network called Together Let Us Fight Hunger.
“Many people are not working,” he says," so we try to encourage people to plant vegetables and feed themselves.”
The land here isn’t the best. In fact, most of Soto’s residents are squatters here. During the time of apartheid they were pushed off land somewhere else so that white people could farm it.
As apartheid was ending, the South African government agreed to get land for millions of black South Africans who had no land. Now the government sometimes gives farmland back to the black farmers it was stolen from. Other times they try to get new land for them. But this is taking a long time, and only a few farmers have gotten land so far. In Soto, people will probably stay right where they are, farming on 50x50 plots of earth.
The Joining Hands Against Hunger Network in South Africa is also working in other parts of the country to help people in South Africa who do not have land. Rev. Sigabi is often called to teach people how to irrigate dry land. He teaches them to build cisterns to hold water. He shows them how to build fences to protect the tender new crops. And he shows them how to raise nutritious crops that can feed not only one child, but a whole village.
Together Let Us Fight Hunger is trying to get the government to pay attention to smaller farms, like these in Soto. Often the government overlooks these small farms. They pay more attention to big farms that will export food out of South Africa to other countries.
What people want in Soto is food on the table.
“When the harvest comes, the village will gather at the church for another event. This time, a thanksgiving,” says Sigabi.
Pray for the Reverend Welile Sigabi and the other leaders of Together Let Us Fight Hunger. Pray that the people of Soto will have a good harvest.
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