retriever and bearer of indigenous Afrikan lifeways and practices
I interviewed a most inspiring gentleman I met on my Permaculture Design Course in Laikipia for my 4th blogpost for the Transition Network. James Kagwe was both inspired and challenged by a question from the late Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner and badass activist from Kenya: who will do it tomorrow? Thus began his quest to go one step further with fixing the waste problem in Naivasha town. What…
I spent two and a half months working alongside various initiatives that were part of a larger Transition Brasilândia network while in São Paulo, Brazil. Brasilândia is located in the North East of the city, and a 2 hour and multiple bus ride away from the centre of São Paulo. It is also the only Transition Initative located in a low-income neighbourhood. These 25 images exemplify some of the amazing…
Read the version in Portuguese here Issa lives in Granja Viana and is one of the representatives of Transition Granja Viana, an initiative of the worldwide Transition Town movement. According to her, the Swap Fair, also known as the Ecofair, is the biggest success of the Transition GV Group. She told me this while we were driving to her house one Saturday afternoon so we could catch a potluck supper…
Read the English version here A Issa mora em Granja Viana e é uma das representantes do Transition Granja Viana. Ela acha que a feira de troca é o mais grande sucesso do grupo Transition. Ela me contou isso quando estávamos dirigindo pra casa dela num sábado para aproveitar este evento, nomeado Eco Feira, bem cedo na amanhã do domingo. Granja Viana faz parte do metropolitano de São Paulo na…
“But bartering has been around, even if only on a micro-level for a while too. In my travels on a fellowship studying forms of engagement with environmental issues in low-income urban areas, I encountered this sharing- what I call a ‘culture of exchange’- in various forms. It was in the swap fairs and eco-fairs in various transition movements in São Paulo for example. On a Saturday or Sunday every month…
A few weeks ago I visited Huehuecoyotl Ecovillage in Morelos, Mexico. The idea to begin the ecobarrios project in Santo Domingo and other parts of Coyoacan began here with one of the founders, Alberto Ruz Buenfil, while he worked in the Delegacion of Coyoacán. Here’s a video that shows the vision they had- it is titled from ecovillages to econeighbourhoods. This was some years back. Since then however, there were…
In Mexico City, I am working with Proyecto Ecobarrios Santo Domingo (Eco-neighbourhoods). Santo Domingo is a Colonia in Los Pedregales de Coyoacán- the stony place of the coyotes. It is a colonia for the fact that families occupied this area on the 1st of September 1971- and it is in the Pedregales because this area was/is a lava spill. When the invasion (la invación) happened, the families that settled here…
Banco do Brasil’s messengers carry their missives in these yellow cotton bags marked with the bank’s black logo. When they get old and/or sufficiently dirty, the bank donates them to the women’s group O Grupo Brasilianas that uses recycled material to make bags. These yellow oddly sized bags provide the material for some of the chicest bags these women make. The bags are received every month and are first dismantled…
In this article, I will be reflecting on my summer internship with Transition Brasilândia and Oficina da Sustentabilidade in São Paulo, Brazil and thinking about how Transition Brasilândia functions as a community development model. I wrote a personal reflection piece on working in the different groups and projects of Transition here while this one employs an analytical lens to frame the aspects of Transition Brasilândia that make it a successful…
‘A periferia se cansou de esperar a oportunidade que nunca chegava, e que viria de fora, do centro’ (Hermano Vianna) Periferia em Movimento (The periphery got tired of waiting for opportunites that were never coming, and which were to come from outside, from the central city.) I first learnt of Transition Brasilândia as I looked for organisations or social movements that embodied the vision of the environment that…