Celebrating our Afro-Indigenous heritage through land stewardship
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES + PRACTICES
We are rooted in and celebrate the ancestral genius of not only the many lineages of our team and the land we steward, but that of the African continent and the diaspora.
WHAT IS AFRO-INDIGENOUS PERMACULTURE?
Permaculture is a relationship-based ecological design system rooted in Indigenous wisdom that elevates ecosystem health while meeting human needs. Traditionally it’s ethics, principles and design elements have been applied mainly to a focus on land-based systems. Social permaculture encourages us to utilize these principles in all living systems, including human systems and social design.
Afro-Indigenous permaculture design elevates social permaculture as a way to restore Earth care, people care and resource share to African communities throughout the diaspora. It seeks to restore relationships between the human and non-human world, while shifting patterns of how people of African ancestry, throughout the diaspora, design our lives and communities. It uplifts the following African and people-centered principles as central to permaculture design:
Sankofa - We must know from where we came in order to move forward
Wawa Aba - Resiliency and perseverance
Nothing about us without us - no policy should be decided by any representative without the full and direct participation of members of the group(s) affected by that policy
Floating gardens in South Sudan
Mud building in Mali
WHAT IS SANKOFA AND AFRO-FUTURISM?
3 Sisters planting in the Americas
We honor the West African principle of Sankofa, meaning “we must know from where we came to move forward.”
Sankofa is an African word from the Akan tribe in Ghana. It’s represented with the symbol of a bird with its beak on it’s back (pictured above) or a heart with spirals going inward and outward. The literal translation is “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind” or “we must know from where we came in order to move forward.”
The word is derived from the words:
SAN (return)
KO (go)
FA (look, seek and take)
Sankofa represents the quest for knowledge within one’s respective lineages through critical examination, and intelligent and patient investigation. We at Earthseed believe this concept is inextricably tied to Afro-Futurism.
Afro-Futurism, as defined by Ytasha Womack, is “an intersection of the imagination, technology, the future, and liberation”. It is an international movement that has expanded past literature to include music, film, art and fashion. For us, it is expression of alternate and future realities through an Afro-Indigenous lens informed or influenced by wisdom of the past. Afro-Futurism is a practice, and a promise of liberated futures grounded in the ancestral power of African and African-diasporic experiences.
“African Life Centric Design (ALCD) merges Life Centered Design principles with African creation philosophies and knowledge. Unlike other "futurisms," ALCD envisions the future from the realities of Africans on the continent, not external perceptions. This future is built on lived experiences, cultural practices, and local understanding. ALCD positions African experiences as central to future innovation, with Africans leading the design process based on their context and challenges. This allows them to shape their own futures with global impact.”
Some ALCD Principles include:
Land As A Co-designer: Honor the living world and anchor all design within it, not merely “on top” of it. Embrace the symbiotic relationship with the ecosystem, considering it as an active participant in the design process.
Communal Interdependence: Recognize how every individual impacts and contributes uniquely to the community, rooting the design process in tangible communal needs and broader human aspirations.
Recognizing Origins: Immerse ourselves in local design histories, integrating Indigenous knowledge and ancestral wisdom into the futuring and foresight practice.
Centering the Periphery: Prioritize the voices and perspectives of previously marginalized African narratives.
Design as Ritual: Design valued as a sacred, mindful process connected to larger systems and narratives of human need for creative expression and spiritual belonging.