The winner of the Peace Gardens award in 1998, Joe Mpuru, vowed to show what he could do with his prize money
Thuli Nhlapo
For Joe Mpuru, a traditional healer and gardener, opening prayer when he walks into his “Tears of Joy” community garden in Klipspruit, Soweto, does not put him at a risk of being forsaken by his ancestors. “The greens are my spiritual healing. If I do not see something green, I do not feel good. It does not matter whether is it summer or winter,” said Mpuru, who grows his vegetables in the grounds of the Nancecol Technical Centre. “God bless our food gardens/ Bless those hands that work in them/Make us more enthusiastic and industrious/That we may see Thee in Thy creation/And praise Thee throughout our lifetime,” is the prayer the community gardeners say every time they walk through their creation. Mpuru, known as the “King of Vegetables” after winning several awards for his garden, has influenced his neighbours to start their own gardens, irrespective of their paved yards. “There is no excuse for not growing organic vegetables because you could put them inside containers like the tyres I use at home,” he says. Mpuru started growing vegetables in the 1960s when his father sent him to work on the garden as a form of punishment when he did something wrong.
When the clash between the Black Swine and Pirates gangs, which ruled Soweto, started in the 1970s, his father sent him to Pietersburg where the only recreation available was ploughing the fields. Mpuru returned to Soweto in 1982 and started his own garden at his home, sharing the vegetables he grew with neighbours. In 1988 Mpuru met Grace Mashego, coordinator of the Food Gardens Foundation in Soweto, and she agreed to sell him seeds after seeing his garden.
The Food Gardens Foundation (FGF) is a non-profit organisation that was established in 1977 by Joy Niland and Pauline Raphaely as a socio- economic project to teach people to help themselves by growing essential food according to sustainable organic principles. According to FGF, organic gardening not only revitalises the soil but also deals with constructive recycling of organic domestic waste, cleaner basic technologies, energy and water saving and conservation. “We wanted to help people to help themselves by not giving them a handout but a hand-up,” says Niland. Mpuru became more enthusiastic after winning the Peace Gardens award in 1998. “When they handed me the R1500 I vowed to show them what I could do with that money.” The 1,5ha garden at Nancecol Technical Centre is now covered with vegetables such as peas, Chinese cabbage, pumpkins, brinjals, spinach, tomatoes, garlic and a lot more. Community members come to buy vegetables fresh from Mpuru’s garden. With the help of his wife and three co-workers, Mpuru donates vegetables to the White City Jabavu Disabled home.
Through FGF, Tears of Joy also supplies health shops and supermarkets. Due to Mpuru’s successful garden, other gardening projects around Soweto have started.
The Mofolo Village, run by the Salvation Army, has 209 food gardens that feed children and women from Mshenguville squatter camp. A total of 212 unemployed men and women work in the garden and can now afford to feed their families. The Pyschiatric Day Care Centre in Chiawelo Clinic keeps patients busy by growing vegetables. At the Isiseko Primary School, the youth of Chiawelo run 75 gardens that help them pay their school fees and feed their parents. “Watching the sun setting from my garden bring tears of joy,” concludes the king of vegetables.