Sowing of a grandmother’s legacy

A young Kavango East farmer is continuing her grandmother’s four-decade-old vegetable growing legacy, despite water shortages and ageing infrastructure threatening production.

For Magdalena Jose (30), farming is about more than just growing vegetables.

It is about continuing the work her grandmother, Joakina Andreas, started more than 40 years ago.

Every day, Jose heads to a one-hectare vegetable plot on the outskirts of Kaisosi in the Kavango East region, where she farms alongside Andreas.

Andreas has worked the land since 1985 after the late Sambyu Traditional Authority leader, Maria Mwengere, allocated it to the Kaisosi community so families could support themselves.

“I think my love for agriculture started at a young age. I used to help my mother in the garden at home. Then, when I moved to my grandmother’s house, I started accompanying her to the garden,” says Jose.