South Africa: Garden brings life to Joburg concrete jungle
A woman in the Johannesburg inner city has dedicated her life to farming. When Covid-19 and its lockdowns took hold and led to hunger, food from her garden helped feed many.
By Ihsaan Haffejee
New Frame
9 Feb 2021
Excerpt:
Refiloe Molefe, 61, moves through her farm with the delicate swiftness of someone half her age. She works with a calming efficiency, shifting from harvesting her potatoes to watering cabbages, then to the planting of seedlings, followed by the backbreaking work of harvesting fresh carrots.
Even though this work is strenuous, and the summer sun unrelenting, Molefe tackles these tasks with the unbridled joy and enthusiasm of a child playing their favourite game. She does not think of her farming preoccupations as work. To her, it is play. She speaks of “playing” with the plants and “massaging” the soil.
“This is my gym and my supermarket,” says Molefe, gesturing to the farm as she wipes away beads of sweat from her forehead. “I get lots of exercise and food working on the farm. When I’m playing with the soil I feel alive. This is where my life is.”
It is as if her deep connection with the land has kept her soul forever young. Molefe is like Peter Pan and the farm is her Neverland. Founded by Molefe in 2006, the Bertrams Inner City Farm is now in its 16th year of operation.
