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BENIN:
Reaching Remote Villages (p.2)
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The
Songhai Story
Songhai Center has been described as a bio-agricultural
research and training institute, which, technically,
is true. But no one wears white lab coats there, and
a great deal more than organic gardening is going on.
It has been hailed as wonderfully inventive, innovative
and entrepreneurial and even singled out as a pioneer
in sustainable development. But that falls short, too.
For Songhai Center is engaged in no less than a process
of reclaiming the continent by valorizing indigenous
knowledge, local resources and traditional wisdom. The
philosophy behind Songhai is that “technologies
must be developed by specific people living in specific
places and specific conditions to meet their specific
needs.”
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What this means in practical terms is that Songhai creates
new ways of doing what must be done, developing and experimenting
with innovations in the service of sustainable agriculture,
animal husbandry, appropriate technology, food distribution,
marketing, financial management and on-site follow-up
to help farmers develop viable local organizations and
networks. As rural Benin revolves around agriculture,
the results reach well beyond the business of food and
the
role of farmers, improving the access of village people
to information, the efficiency of traditional village
systems, and the effectiveness of essential patterns of
social and economic organization. In short, Songhai Center
is improving the overall quality of village life.
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Geography
