“I am because we are.” This is Ubuntu – the African philosophy that emphasizes interacting with both people and the Earth in ways that demonstrate mutual respect, kindness, dignity, and compassion. Respect towards the Earth is inherent in permaculture – a practice of creating self-sustaining ecosystems that reflect nature's rhythms and minimize waste, prevent pollution, and enhance biodiversity.
“A lot of people don’t know how to grow their food. If grocery stores were to close today, it would be catastrophic - people wouldn’t have access to food. And it shouldn’t be like that. It’s our birthright to know how to grow food [and have access to the land, resources, and community to do so].” – Akirah
Join these concepts, and the result is Ubuntu Permaculture Mission: a Newark-based nonprofit focused on addressing food insecurity in both urban and rural communities in New Jersey and across the African Diaspora. The organization strives to improve the wellbeing of these communities through education about permaculture, creation of green jobs, and facilitating networking and collaboration for organic farmers.
Co-founders Akirah and Mancoba say it’s a passion-filled project that they dreamt up out of their apartment a couple years ago. They reflected on difficult questions like:
What does it mean to bring food growing back to the city?
What does it mean to bring food growing back to the people?
They also thought about the realities of how people interact with food today. ““A lot of people don’t know how to grow their food,” says Akirah. If grocery stores were to close today, it would be catastrophic - people wouldn’t have access to food.”
Through their nonprofit, Akirah and Mancoba planned to share how to promote sustainable living with permaculture.
Watch a video here of Akirah and Mancoba saying thank you to Kiva lenders.
On crossing paths and paving new ones
Akirah and Mancoba met during Akirah’s service as a Peace Corps volunteer between 2016 and 2018 in the kingdom of Eswatini in Southern Africa. They quickly discovered their shared passion for inspiring a broader movement toward global sustainability. Both had been exposed to the realities of climate change when growing up and were committed to being stewards and advocates for the environment as well as for their community's health.
“I was born and raised in Newark, NJ, an urban food desert that struggles with access to fresh and healthy food options. By happenstance we [both] felt the effects of global warming and not having access to fresh and organic foods. We shared a passion for growing food and nourishing our communities and giving back.” – Akirah
Mancoba also reflects on how his past influenced his trajectory. Now a certified permaculturist, he traces his passion for sustainable agriculture back to his early years spent watching his father use permaculture techniques on their farm. Mancoba’s passion for the work grew, as did his awareness of the need for education around growing food indigenously. This led him to start Sani Farms – as a heartfelt tribute to his late father – in his home village of Bhunya. Through this sustainability-promoting enterprise, he continues to make a lasting impact in his community by teaching permaculture practices.
When Mancoba moved to Newark to join Akirah in 2021, he immediately noticed the lack of access to fresh and organic produce, the lack of education around sustainable food growing practices and the remnants of a food desert-stricken community post-COVID-19.
Eager to do something, Akirah and Mancoba joined the GrowNYC's Beginning Farmer Program, a program which educates and supports aspiring farmers with agricultural experience from predominantly marginalized communities to establish their own economically and environmentally sustainable farm businesses in the NYC region. The tangible skills that they developed as well as the technical assistance and hands-on training they received through GrowNYC proved invaluable and equipped them with newfound confidence for their next step in the journey: in October 2022, Akirah and Mancoba officially founded Ubuntu Permaculture Mission.
Community connections and a Kiva loan helped get the business off the ground
“We were so delightfully surprised with how seamless the process was, and it was very cool to see how there were people [lending] from all over the world. We were like, ‘Oh wow, this person from this country and this country [lent] – they believe in us!’” - Akirah
After officially establishing the business, Akirah and Mancoba knew that a combination of community and capital would be needed for next steps. They were able to secure a 10-year lease for six acres of land in Sergeantsville, NJ, thanks to a partnership between the NJ FoodShed Alliance and the NJ Conservation Foundation which makes New Jersey farmland accessible to organic, sustainable and regenerative farmers by providing long-term leases at affordable rates.
Here they planned to build a food forest — an area consisting of a variety of diverse edible plants which mimics the ecosystems and patterns found in nature. There they would develop the first permaculture demonstration site in New Jersey, aligned with their vision to establish themselves as leaders in permaculture education. They also planned to grow crops commercially, and all the produce grown would be supplied to partner food cooperatives and farmers markets in Newark, contributing to the fight against food insecurity in urban areas. However, to start this food forest, they would first need funding.
Akirah and Mancoba learned about Kiva through GrowNYC, a Kiva Trustee; and although they were initially hesitant about taking out a loan, they quickly realized that the Kiva loan is unique.
“As we learned more about Kiva and how it was the people who were giving the money and then you pay it back, it’s a microloan - we were like, ‘Wow’,” says Akirah. “We had never heard of anything like that before.”
“As a new, beginning farmer, you don’t have money that’s ready and accessible — it’s money at these high-interest fees... I think Kiva was just that perfect in-between to get us going, to get us off the ground,” continues Akirah. “We’re grateful to GrowNYC for helping us to find opportunities like Kiva to start and bring forward our vision for Ubuntu.”
They submitted their loan application in July 2023 and received the $7,000 Kiva loan about five weeks later. Both Akirah and Mancoba smile when remembering the crowdfunding process – the simplicity, the speed, the global reach.
“We were so delightfully surprised with how seamless the process was, and it was very cool to see how there were people [lending] from all over the world,” says Akirah. “We were like, ‘Oh wow, this person from this country and this country [lent] – they believe in us!’” For Akirah and Mancoba, it was another symbol of the power of community.
“We saw our reach was worldwide, like we always envisioned it.” says Akirah. “It was really profound to see how community, again, at the core, can come together and pour into a project that they feel passionate about and want to support. It’s people - it’s not just a funding organization, there’s a face behind it. For us, that was very empowering to see.”
“Seeing people worldwide believing in this vision of permaculture, of planting trees, reducing climate change and creating a local economy - what we’re doing - and willingly funding that, is so beautiful.” – Mancoba
Finding funding as a small-scale farmer is not easy – potential investors typically care more about the size of the farm, and therefore mono-cropping or large-scale farm business operations tend to receive the majority of available government funding or grants. But the Kiva loan helped Ubuntu Permaculture Mission get their farm up and running – funds went towards 100 American Chestnuts which would span across two acres. The restoration of the American chestnut tree – which was wiped out by an invasive pathogen decades ago – would reverse a catastrophic loss, as these trees serve as an invaluable food source for wildlife and humans. They also represent a carbon sequestration source that helps mitigate climate change by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Thanks to the Kiva loan, Ubuntu Permaculture Mission could contribute to this restoration.
Mancoba draws a parallel between permaculture itself and the Kiva platform:. “To me that’s exactly what a permaculture or a permanent economy looks like. It’s when people take control and support visions and ideas that they believe in,” he says. “Seeing people worldwide believing in this vision of permaculture, of planting trees, reducing climate change and creating a local economy — what we’re doing — and willingly funding that, is so beautiful.”
“Kiva gave us the opportunity to believe in our work and made us believe in ourselves even more. We realized that we can do this. If people out there believe in us, what can hold us back? That was very encouraging.” – Mancoba
Giving back to the community and the environment
These days, Akirah and Mancoba are living and breathing their vision of playing a key role in the permaculture education movement. They teach a hybrid, 72-hour Permaculture Design Course that caters to people of all levels of experience and backgrounds who have an interest in permaculture and sustainability. Participants learn about different permaculture topics such as garden design, worm farming, aquaponics, food forests, soil health, and more.
“What motivates us and our passion for our business is seeing the impact that having access to fresh and organic produce and the knowledge to grow one's own food can have on the trajectory of a person's life.” – Akirah
Ubuntu Permaculture Mission also offers workshops, permaculture design consulting, agritourism opportunities to Eswatini, Africa and grassroots permaculture education at a permaculture farm in Eswatini. The programming bridges the knowledge gap in communities that they work in on how to grow food, empowering individuals to farm and live sustainably. The co-founders also appreciate being able to build and strengthen community by connecting with people of like-minded backgrounds, emphasizing the power in numbers. “There are people out there who want in on this movement, and this contributes to a more sustainable green job workforce,” explains Akirah. “Not everyone wants to go into tech, or business. There are a lot of people who like to work with their hands and have this knowledge that they brought with them.” She adds, “There are a lot of curious people who are just interested — they’ve seen things, read things, but don’t know how to bring those things to life. Through Ubuntu Permaculture Mission, we do a lot of demonstration, a lot of education, so that people can get those tangible skills to start exactly where they are.”
Akirah and Mancoba hope to not only equip folks to learn and grow in their respective capacities, but to also bring more visibility to the importance of small-scale farms and the role that they play in ensuring food security in the future, both nationally and globally. While there is a long way to go in this journey, they feel humbled to be able to pursue their purpose and create ripple effects through Ubuntu Permaculture Mission.
One of the things Mancoba loves most about this work is seeing things grow — witnessing “the power of a seed,” he says. “Seeing how tiny they are, but then giving birth to a whole plant that feeds us. Ubuntu is about people first, and not just people, but also nature. I was raised with the understanding that if I take care of soil, if I take care of plants and the environment, they’re going to take care of me.
“Being able to be in a position of contributing my energy in this way, to take care of my family and my community, to give back; is very rewarding.” – Mancoba
They also value being able to bring food back to the community, to preserve the culture of local food, and to bring forth indigenous methods and teachings that have stewarded the Earth for all of history. “Being able to be in a position of contributing my energy in this way, to take care of my family and my community, to give back; is very rewarding”, says Mancoba.
“We’re thankful to be able to reclaim our right to grow our own food, to know where our food comes from”, says Akirah.
“We have such a tumultuous relationship with the land here in the Americas and so having this knowledge, it’s tangible, it gives us that empowerment to pick that torch [that our ancestors left us] back up and give back to the land, because we need it, it gives so much to us. That’s just one of the many things I love about the work that we do.” – Akirah
A reason for optimism and a reminder to everyone, everywhere
Smallholder farmers produce over a third of the world’s global food supply, but their livelihoods – and global food security – are at risk due to the changing climate. Soil erosion, land degradation, and lack of clean water, all effects of climate change, are expected to reduce agricultural yields by up to 30% and increase food prices by 20% for billions of people by 2050. With access to financial resources, smallholder farmers can build their communities’ resilience to climate change.
With Kiva, anyone anywhere may contribute to a loan that supports small-scale entrepreneurs around the world – including those who are disproportionately impacted by climate change as well as those who, like Akirah and Mancoba, are leading impactful initiatives in the fight against climate change.
Removing barriers to finance is key to enabling organizations like Ubuntu Permaculture Mission to take the urgent action that is called for to combat climate change. And Akirah and Mancoba provide a powerful reminder that such transformative action can start anytime, anywhere.
“We think of global warming as this big thing that’s just over all of us and we can’t really do anything about it, but I think permaculture gives us tangible skills to just start exactly where we are,” says Akirah.
“Everybody can do something, whether it be recycling food waste from your kitchen or growing herbs on your windowsill. This is the perfect way to bring a lot of collective vision together, to uplift the work we do in our communities, to bring forth this knowledge and wisdom and also to nourish ourselves with food – organic food that we deserve.”
Learn more about Ubuntu Permaculture Mission.
Learn more about how Kiva advances financial equity for climate-affected people.
