On the 14th of November 2024, the EthicsLab attended the photo-documentary exhibition Guardians of Seed, Land, and Life: The Seed Research Journey of the Southern African Rural Women’s Assembly that was showing in the Cape Town Castle. The exhibition showcases the ‘herstories’ of rural women seed guardians in seven SADC countries: eSwatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The exhibition celebrates the quiet and silent yet powerful activism of the RWA seed guardians and the seeds they hold. The seed guardian stories make visible how each individual act seed guardianship becomes a collective wave of solidarity across the region.
Through seeds, the exhibition reveals many different forms of solidarity – for instance: solidarity as expressed between women supporting each other in their livelihoods; solidarity between survivors of forms of violence; solidarity experienced by a child in need of support, which motivates a life-long commitment to ‘paying it forward’; and solidarity experienced around times of illness and death. It also revealed that sometimes, solidarity existing in the sharing of something as small as a smile or a handful of seeds; other times, it extends across regions and brings together people around a shared cause. The members of the EthicsLab were struck by the formidable strength of the women portrayed in the pictures, and inspired by their stories. They left feeling enriched, as if another world may – just – be possible.
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Written by Jantina De Vries, Director of the Ethics Lab, at the University of Cape Town
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