Tamalalou Guinea Project

Location of Project: Conakry, (suburb of Yataya) Guinea, West Africa
Project Start Date: October 2008
Expected Completion Date: October 2011

Project Concept

To build a family dwelling from the ground up as a prototype of how the needs of a typical (extremely poor) Guinean extended family can be met, using affordable, sustainable methods. The climate is tropical, with year-round 80% humidity and torrential rains from June to October. The dwelling will include all of the energy efficient appropriate technologies, such as housing with natural cooling systems, a plant nursery attachment, solar electricity, solar hot water, biological waste water treatment recycling, dry compost toilet, rain water harvesting earthworks, diverse inter-active plant animal and tree systems for local food production and processing. A respected family (the elder, M’Bady Kouyate, is a national figure and a symbol of humanity in Guinea) will live in this house. In Guinea family and respect are everything. This extended family are committed to developing large-scale projects and improving the lives of their fellow Guineans, especially for children. Many of the family will be actively involved in building, teaching and propagating permaculture and sustainable projects.

There is some urgency involved in developing this project. We have land available right now, and it must soon have a building, or in the semi-lawless circumstances that exist in Guinea, the previous owner seems to have the right to repossess the land. A well-known and beloved musician, Ba Cissoko, (great-nephew of M’Bady Kouyate), owns this land. He works tirelessly for social change in his country, and though he is a celebrated figure on the international World Music scene, he is little better off than his neighbours, financially. It took him many years to amass the small amount needed to purchase this land. It would make a powerful impact on Guinean society at large if he takes this permaculture leap of faith, and would go far towards disseminating trust within the neighbourhood of Conakry (Yataya), where his land is located.

We plan to purchase land next door to set up a training centre. This second and hopefully simultaneous project will function as a classroom, administration office for further projects and the local community permaculture group. Once established, the project will serve as a model that can be replicated throughout the capital city of Conakry, and throughout Guinea, with variations for climate differences.

Project Description

The land is 25m by 20m, flat and has many trees. It has no house on it. It is next to a major road.

It is located just outside of Conakry, the capital city of Guinea, in a suburb called Yataya. This is an area that is still forested, and is currently being bought up and built on, even by high government officials.

The rapid urbanization of Africa makes a project near to the capital city a vital part of improving the needs of Guineans.

Mardi Kendall, an American/Australian, who is currently working on a documentary film about Guinea, has instigated this project, based on her years of visits to Guinea (beginning in 2000) and the trust and closeness that has developed between her and the extended Kouyate/Cissoko families. The Guineans involved understand very well the importance of sustainable growth and what needs to be done.

As the land is undeveloped, it is an ideal site to begin this work, and as Ba Cissoko has generously supplied the land, it is an opportunity to begin. Though privately owned, the commitment of Mr. Cissoko to using this model project for the wider good is definite. He and his family have proved themselves time and again to be kind, honest, hard-working and unswervingly steadfast people, concerned with the well-being of others.

Mardi Kendall has been in close touch with Geoff Lawton for many years and though not a permaculture expert herself, has studied and followed its development since 1988 (her arrival in Australia). She has also lived and worked in the gardens at Findhorn in Scotland and Esalen in Big Sur, California, as well as many other communities around the world.

She is asking for experts in the field of tropical permaculture and the other related cutting-edge sustainable technologies to come to Guinea to lead and nurture the Tamalalou Guinea Project.

The most obvious needs, according to Mardi, are: harvesting the copious amounts of rainwater that bucket down from June to October and making sure that the water people drink is clean, building a family compound home that regulates temperature and has the room for the numbers of people that a normal family home would contain, creating small food production in conjunction with the families’ animals, proper sanitation (SO VITAL!) such as composting toilets and hygienic bathing facilities, solar energy production and mosquito reduction. Without these needs met, the infant mortality and diseases in general will continue unabated. From this base, small businesses and other projects can grow.

A major inspiration is Stacia and Kristof Nordin and their 3,000 primary school permaculture garden projects in Malawi - www.neverendingfood.org. With the completion of one solid, influential demonstration site, the ground will be laid (so to speak) for more widespread permaculture ventures.

Information about Guinea, West Africa

Guinea emerged from colonial rule in 1958 and under the guidance of President Sekou Toure, chose total independence from France. Though isolated and exceptionally poor since that time, few other African nations today have kept their history, traditions and musical culture so profoundly intertwined and topical in their daily lives. Guinea is alive with the arts, developing in a country with little to no tourism. The few tourists who go there (and they are nearly all coming to study the dance and music in the form of workshops led by empats) remark on the vitality of the culture and how it has personally inspired them to live more fully.

Guinea is a West African country with a coastline on the Atlantic. In area it is about as large as the United Kingdom. It has an extensive coastal plain and inland the country rises to a plateau that slopes gradually eastwards towards the upper Niger valley.

Conakry, the capital, has an annual rainfall of 4,420 mm (174 in) and an annual average temperature of 27°C (about 81°F).

The situation in Guinea is precarious at the moment. After a series of major strikes in early 2007 designed to protest the high cost of rice and to demand a new government, the military was instructed to fire into the crowds, killing about 130 people and maiming many more. There was widespread hope as the ailing and frankly insane President Conte was forced to take on a new Prime Minister, who took charge but has now been ousted by Conte. My friends there are terrified of a backlash. I know there has been widespread torture, stealing and rape by the military. There is now a new prime minister. He has just signed with a California company to begin offshore drilling for oil (June 30, 08).

Guinea is certainly considered to be resource-rich and risk-poor by international investors due to uneven and non-democratic governance. Grassroots projects become even more important in the face of this. Change has often been set in motion from the bottom up.

Despite vast mineral wealth and fertile land, Guineans are among the poorest people in the world. Just 13 percent for example have access to adequate sanitation facilities, according to UNICEF. The mineral wealth of Guinea makes the economy of this country potentially one of the strongest in Africa. About one-third of the known world reserves of high-grade bauxite ore is found in Guinea. Sizable deposits of iron ore exist; other known mineral resources include diamonds, gold, petroleum, uranium, cobalt, nickel, and platinum. Guinea also has great potential for hydroelectric power. And now Oil.

The religions of Guinea: Muslim 85%, Christian 6%, then animist.

The chief economic activity of Guinea is agriculture; some 87 percent of the people are dependent on subsistence farming, forestry, and fishing. The principal food crops and their production in 2005 were rice (900,000 metric tons); root crops such as cassava (1.48 million metric tons); fruits such as plantains and citrus (1,106,000 metric tons); and vegetables (482,200). Chief export crops are typically pineapples, peanuts, palm kernels, and coffee. Livestock in 2005 included 3.8 million cattle, 1,168,743 sheep, 1,395,650 goats, and 15 million poultry.

Project Duration & Schedule

-Partners with expertise are needed to work with Mardi Kendall and Ba Cissoko and his family.
-Since three years is the estimated time required to bring a project to independence, the commitment must span this length of time.
-A trip to Guinea is necessary to assess the situation.
-The timelines and phases can then be planned and calculated.

Project Needs

1. Financing
2. Partners with permaculture and other sustainable technologies expertise.