Norma’s Letter from Jos – 2 March 2011

Vegetable orders for Wednesday 9th March

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 12:17 PM

From: Norma, Zamani Farms

Hello customers,

The weather in Jos continues to be quite warm (although by no means as hot as in Abuja). As we noted last week, some of our veggies like the hot weather, but for others the heat is just a bit too much. The lettuces and cabbage family in particular like cooler weather, and we have to do our best to keep them at their peak during this time of year.

We were able to get a lot of work done on the farm last week. We are clearing the grape field, and trying to revive our passion fruit vines. Both of these were seriously affected by the fire we had on the farm in December. We have set a series of traps for the rabbits in the bean field, but so far haven't managed to catch even a single rabbit. We are also planting out a lot of lettuce, new courgettes, cucumbers, butternut squash, and other nice things for you.

Unfortunately our farm workers and other residents were again traumatised by another attack on a settlement not far from the farm, along the main road to Abuja, near the Kuru Science School. A family of five were all killed in a night raid. Unlike some other attacks of this type in the recent past, no cattle were involved. (Many of the attacks seem to be mainly for cattle rustling). Some people are guessing that this particular attack was a reprisal for the attacks on Kuru Jenta (the village near our farm)  last January (2010) when almost 300 people were killed and the community virtually wiped out. It is said that some of the people who came to kill the citizens of Kuru Jenta came from the community that was attacked on Sunday. If you go deeply into the pattern of attacks in the rural areas, you usually find that there is some history behind them. The attacks are not random, but are tied to incidents of the past, even as far back as the crisis of 2001 and before. People have long memories and the horrors of the past have not been laid to rest This is because through all of the crises we have experienced since 2001 in the rural areas around Jos, no one has ever been punished for all of the crimes that have been committed. Since there has been no justice, I suppose we can't really expect peace.

Anyhow, we are doing our best to keep the farm running, even though sometimes it feels like we are in a Bermuda triangle of violence.