Afrocolombian Homegardens in the Choco Tropical Rainforest

1
Afrocolombian Homegardens in the Choco Tropical
Rainforest

• Juana Camacho

2
Contested Context

• Coastal villages, Choco, Colombia
• Biological diversity
• Cultural diversity
• Conservation, development, autonomy

3
What can small scale agricultural feminine
practices inform about the importance of
homegardens for biodiversity conservation and
cultural affirmation?
4
Homegardens

• Sites of in situ conservation and experimentation
• Repositories of traditional environmental
  knowledge
• Deeply tied to womens identity
• Afrocolombian territorial claims
• Key for reconstruction after displacement

5
Homegardens and homeplace-making

• Homeplace (hooks 1990)
• Physical and symbolic marginal places that
  enabled the reconstitution of the black family
  and the social fabric
• Womens material and cultural
• practices and social interactions
• to turn space into place

6
Homegardens
7
Poliactivity and complementarity in time and
space

• Economies based on a multiple, flexible, and
  seasonal exploitation of the different ecosystems
  (forests, rivers, mangroves, estuaries, coasts)
  for hunting, gathering, mining, fishing, swidden
  agriculture, and wage labor.

8
Use spaces

• Monte bravo mountain, forest, wild, dangerous,
  spirits, hunting, gathering,masculine
• Monte biche secondary growth forest, tamed,
  agriculture, hunting, gathering, masculine and
  feminine
• Mangrove fishing, hunting, gathering, firewood,
  masculine and feminine
• River transportation, fishing, collecting crabs,
  shrimp, washing, bathing, masculine and feminine
• Sea transportation, fishing, dangerous,
  masculine
• Beach transportation, gathering, collecting
  mollusks, hojarasca, feminine, masculine
• Village work, socialization, education,
  communication, feminine, masculine
• Home cooking, processing, storing, washing,
  garden cultivation, socialization, feminine

9
Socio-ecological relations
Monte Bravo
Finca
Pueblo Mercado
Zotea
Longos
Manglar
Mar
Homegardens synthesize social, economic and
ecological relationships of Afrocolombians with
their environment (espacios de uso).
10
Complementarity between homegarden and fields,
and monte
WILD PLANTS HOMEGARDEN PLANTS
Sporadic use Daily use
Specialists (doctors, witches) Home remedies
Shade plants Sun tolerant plants
No management Intensive management, constant rotation
Stronger, bitter Less strong, less bitter
FINCA HOMEGARDEN
Food plants (rice, corn, fruit trees, roots) Medicine, protection, aromatic
Fewer varieties in more quantities Many species
Crop management Individual management
11
Homegarden spatial arrangement plant use and
habit
JARDIN (front) PATIO (back) ZOTEA (raised garden)
Bushy, herbaceous Trees, bushes, herbaceous Herbaceous
Luxury, protection Fruit, food, shade, fodder, medicine, crafts, fences Aromatic, medicinal, fruit tree seedlings
Least diverse Most diverse Diverse
12
Emplaced knowledge

• Cultivation practices based on agronomic and
  cultural principles related to soils, water, and
  plants
• In situ conservation of native and introduced
  species
• Soil management in patios
• Seed improvement and plant enhancement in zoteas

13
Womens identity

• We care for plants as
• we care for our families
• A well swept patio, well cleaned, is like a woman
  with a house that is organized or well treated,
  that is, that is well dressed, well combed

14
Afrocolombian territorial rights

• autonomous place for the reproduction of a
  distinct culture (PCN 1996-1998)
• where the social matrix is woven generation
  after generation (Network of Black Women of the
  Pacific 2002)
• The ensemble of relations and practices between
  the natural and the social worlds at the level of
  body, home, habitat, and community, where nature
  and culture, women and environment, ethnicity and
  ecology converge (Escobar, Rocheleau, and Kothari
  200229)

15
Deterritorialization and terror displacing
homeplace

• From 1 to 2 million internally displaced
• 17.7 of the total displaced population, are
  blacks and 47 are women (RSS 2002)
• Loss of the collectivity and the territory
• Loss of physical and symbolic homeplace
• Ecological and cultural erosion

16
Returning communities

• Homegardens sites for re-membering
• Seeds of resistance food security, social
  networks of exchange, revaluing local knowledge
  and practices
• Restitute the value of the margin as a site of
  resistance, creativity, recovery, and power
  (hooks 1990)

17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)