Africa Direct

Guerrilla Garden: A food forest in Cape Town

Plants, produce and empowerment – a collective response to a community’s needs in Cape Town, South Africa.

Qaba Mbola and the Ujamaa Guerrilla Gardening Collective have turned a windswept disused public space into a food forest for the residents of Khayelitsha, an apartheid-era township outside Cape Town, South Africa.

This garden not only provides food but also an important sense of belonging. Residents plant, harvest, sell or exchange produce. They share food, seeds, compost and skills. They plan sustainable solutions to looming drought.

This is a community built on the spirit of agency, self-help and action in the face of huge social and environmental problems.

Omelga Mthiyane is a South African filmmaker whose documentaries have been broadcast internationally and screened at festivals including Sundance and Berlinale. Several of her films have won awards and her latest documentary, Lefu, won a Jozi Film Festival award.