Sorghum - Elisa McGee and Mercy Kariuki-McGee

Teaching ancestral traditions to future generations also protects lands, waters, and joy, for future generations

In 2021, Elisa Kariuki-McGee and her mother Mercy Kariuki began the Haki Farmers Collective, a space for black and brown farmers to come together and grow – in their own way, no strings attached. Elisa and Mercy spoke to us about their relationship to Sorghum, a staple crop from their mother country, Kenya. Mercy spoke to us of memories from her childhood, of harvesting the grain with her mother in the fields, with a constant background of her mother’s singing. Elisa spoke of their journey over the past year of attempting to grow climate-resistant forms of Sorghum on the collective’s land in Lacey, WA.