Angel Adelaja, Hydroponic Farmer

Angel Adelaja, Hydroponic Farmer

Adelaja at the World Economic Forum, South Africa

Adelaja at the World Economic Forum, South Africa

BBC News has a great story about a Nigerian entrepreneur who is doing hydroponic farming in Nigeria. Angel Adelaja is using shipping containers to grow salad greens. The story is part of BBC World Hacks.

The link takes you to a 2 minute video about her company.

Using nutrient-rich water and LED lights, Angel Adelaja and her staff grow highly prized greens. She says, “We’re the first in containerised farming in Africa.”

In 2015 she won the Nigeria edition of the Chivas – The Venture competition. She was awarded one million Naira.

“Chivas – The Venture is all about promoting social entrepreneurship to help solve the world’s problems,” I read in Bella Naija.

Her “farm” is in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. She employs mostly young women. They can farm year-round, rainy or dry season, because the plants are grown inside shipping containers.

They face the usual difficulties of power outages, occasional fuel scarcity, and lack of water supply. But they are overcoming these challenges.

Her operation is called Fresh Direct. “Our goal,” she said, “is to show that on small pieces of land we can still sustainable urban farming.”

Black, with One White Parent

I read about people whose parents are a mixed-race couple, just like my kids! Only my children did not grow up in the U.S.

So they are different from the people described in the The New York Times Sunday Review article.

The writer, Anna Holmes, said she started making a list of children of one white, one black parent, she knew who were born between 1960 and 1980’s.

President Obama in the famous photo in the Oval Office

President Obama in the famous photo in the Oval Office

Her list included many well-known people, including of course President Obama.

Halle Barry, Derek Jeter, and Mariah Carey are others. She began to wonder if having one white parent had contributed to the success of the people she named.

Did their direct connection to whiteness through immediate and extended family give them a sense of familiarity and accessibility to the norms and power structures of the white world?

What about the popular assumption that a person of color has to work twice as hard to reach the same level as a white person? Was this calculation affected? Did having one white parent make it less true?

They were called by some the “Loving Generation,” children of one white, one black parent, who grew up after the 1967 Supreme Court Loving decision that ended laws against inter-racial marriage.

Others’ Perceptions Similar, She Found

She checked out her opinion with others. In what some now call the “off-white adjacency,” there seems to be easier movement in the white mainstream world.

One mixed-race woman in a leadership position sees other biracial people become equally successful. She believes their sense of comfort in the white world makes them more acceptable to white colleagues. She notes that she loves her white mother, and doubts whether many colleagues whose parents are both black can say they unequivocally love a white person.

Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote in an Atlantic Monthly article that Obama’s direct connection to and deep familiarity with his mother’s and grandparents’ white world gave him a sense of possibility not available to many black children growing up at the same time in America.

All the family together, December 26 2013

The whole family in Westport December 26, 2013

And my children? I think they would say that growing up in a black country like Nigeria gives all children an entirely different world-view from growing up in the U.S.

Being part of the dominant culture is powerful. And being part-white? I don’t think it was ever a disadvantage for them. Was it an advantage?

I’m asking, dear children! I’d love to hear your answers.

Nigerian Bobsled Team

Well, I just read that the Nigerian Bobsled Team came in 19th of 19 in their first trial runs! But their participation is not really about winning. It’s about their aim to break barriers, they say.

The Nigerian Bobsled team in Nigeria before going to South Korea

The Nigerian Bobsled team in Nigeria before going to South Korea

They want Nigerian girls to see that they can be sports heroes, as men can. Nigeria media does not pay equal attention to women’s sports, not by a long shot! So the bob-sledders hope to have an impact on the amount of press women’s sports can get.

They want to inspire the next generation of women, they say.

Seun Adigun, their leader, says she was not looking forward to a lot of publicity. She’s an introvert. But now she’s accustomed to it and believes it will, “help the sport, something that will help women, the country, the continent.”

The official competition begins on Tuesday. It would be great if they’re not last! I’m not hoping for a medal, but at least a reasonable showing. Still, I agree with them that showing up is the main point!

Author: Catherine Onyemelukwe

Author, blogger, speaker. Born in New York, grew up in mid west United States, lived in Nigeria for 24 years, back in U.S. since 1986. Advocate for racial justice.

4 Comments