A cow for grade twelve
My gift for passing grade twelve, back in the early 2000s, was a cow. I did not appreciate it at first. I had been expecting a video game, or clothes and shoes, or money to spend. It took years before I understood what my father had actually given me. That cow set the direction. Through university I kept buying and selling cattle, and the herd grew slowly and steadily.
My father always grew something
For as far back as I can remember, he was growing something. Maize, vegetables, tomatoes, in the small backyard of the house in Kabwe where we lived. Later he and his siblings got farmland in Kabwe and kept cattle there, growing mainly maize and cotton.
When we moved to Lusaka he carried on. We had a small piece at 22 Miles in the Kamaila area, and we would go out there on Sundays, and more intensely during school holidays. He would promise us chicken and chips to get us excited about giving up a Sunday with our friends.
We kept Brahman cattle at 22 Miles. When we moved on, a cousin was left there to manage the place, and most of those animals died from poor care. It is the reason we are careful now about who is on the ground and what they know.
Monze, 2006
When the family moved to Monze the farming continued, on a bigger scale this time because he had bigger land. He also kept doing the thing he had always done, which was to pull other people up the ladder as he climbed it. Two oxen for one relative, a piece of land for another, a cow for someone else.
Monze today is mainly a ranch. It grows maize for our own use and vegetables that supply the surrounding community. We still keep our presence there.
Why crops as well as cattle
The operation had to be complete enough to sustain itself, so that we can feed ourselves first. That was the practical reason.
The other reason is that watching crops grow teaches you things. You see them come up with vibrancy. You see them struggle when there is not enough nutrition, or when water is short. Resilience, growth, playing your part, producing fruit. Those are potent lessons and they do not stop being useful once you leave the field.
Watching a crop grow is a reminder that there is a power bigger than ourselves.
Kantupu, 2022
Those formative years were important for me, and I began to dream of owning a farm, keeping cattle and growing crops. In 2022 I took the search for a good sized piece of land seriously, and found it deep in the rural part of Kantupu, Kapiri District.
It was bush. The villagers used it as grazing land and cut some of the trees for the seasonal charcoal business. We had to clear it. Having found it, we settled, and we are proud to call it the home of Makomena Farms Limited.
