(upbeat music) (children chattering) (somber music) (speaking in foreign language) (bouncy music) (speaking in foreign language) (plane whirring) - So, welcome to D-Town Farm.

Welcome to Detroit, and thank you very much for sharing with us your work in Malawi.

We're inspired by that, and we stand in solidarity with you.

So we have kale, curly leaf, kale.

Although Detroit is a majority black city, there's not one grocery store that's owned by black people in Detroit.

And so, we're trying to encourage black people in particular to grow food so that we can become more self-sufficient and also as an economic driver.

(speaking foreign language) - Yes, so, that's the other thing is we're creating a model of democracy.

Our organization thinks capitalism and white supremacy is a terrible way of defining human relationships and so and patriarchy as well.

So, at the same time that we and many other people are working to dismantle these oppressive systems, we're creating these models of how we might relate to each other that's more equitable, that society begins to ship.

We use regenerative practices here that don't contribute much to global warming.

This is a rainwater retention pond, and we're able to capture tens of thousands of gallons of rainwater in here, and then we run it back down through the fields using drip irrigation tape.

And this is our solar energy station.

Many farmers would like to not participate in the industrial style of farming, but they feel trapped.

They don't know how to survive without the use of lots of petroleum and extremely large amounts of water.

We have to show how that can be done so farmers can to even see that there's a possibility of doing it and still earning a living.

- Yeah, that's very true.

Because you cannot tell someone without the showing what is the alternative.

- [Malik] That's right.

- Yeah.

- That's just like we're planting seeds in the ground.

We're planting seeds in people's consciousness.

Thank you.

- Thank you very much.

- Thank you, I've learned a lot.

- Thank you, Anita.

(speaking foreign language) (laughing) (rhythmic music) (speaking foreign language) (somber music) - This land around here, which land back my family has lived on for many, many, many years.

Have you ever heard of Harriet Tubman?

Oh, she was an abolitionist.

She freed slaves here.

Many, she made many trips out of this area.

This tree has seen a lot of history.

This is called the witness tree.

(birds chirping) - Preston actually used to be the county seat of the KKK on the eastern shore of Maryland.

And so, people are often surprised when they see young black people out here working, because that's just a sight unseen here.

- [Esther] And what are you going to plant here?

- I've got sorghum and millet that I just planted.

We've kind of had to change our values about what a livelihood looks like when we live out here.

- [Esther] Mmhmm.

- [Aleya] We've created different businesses sprouting up off the farm and all of us in the collective, you know work the land and also have other jobs.

- A village is a very complex idea in the minds of black people.

It's the idea of something we've never had.

When colonialism happened, there was a disruption to African people.

And we have not recovered from that disruption.

- In order to change someone's world, we have to enter their world and sort of bring them out to the land.

We all have to reconnect with the land in our own way.

It's all of our responsibility to figure out how to do that.

And so, we're trying to get back to that but also pulling from the future and trying to create something that's new.

- Do you like okra?

(speaking foreign language) - It's hot, if you don't like it, it's fine.

You don't have to eat it.

(laughing) (laughing) - My mother and my grandmother and my grandmother's mother have always sort of been the keepers of knowledge.

And every place throughout the world, women have always been the keepers of the seeds.

And since they were the keepers of the seeds they were keepers of the cultural traditions.

- This is rice.

It's called upland rice.

So, it grows in dry areas and I brought it from my family's land in Trinidad.

(everyone chattering) - When are you coming to Malawi?

- Let me- (laughing) - Soon, soon.

- It's been wonderful hosting you all.

Hey, give it, give it to me.

(singing in foreign language) (somber music) - [Malik] I pray that people who identify themselves as white begin to look at how their actions as a group have negatively impacted humanity but also to see the great potential that they have to shift and to act in solidarity with African people.

I'm often reminded of the words of Grace Lee Boggs who says that we have to live more simply so that others can simply live.

(somber music continues)