Building Ecovillages in Africa

Lua and Lucky’s mission is to teach communities to be self sustaining through spiritual and ecofriendly lifestyle adjustments. So committed are they to sustainable living that founded an ecofarm in the Eastern Cape called Khula Dhamma which also has partial member of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). The GEN has over 1000 members consisting of communities that are similarly minded.

Lua and Lucky Kekena

Currently they are involved with developing another ecofarm on 5 hectares of land just outside Kinshasa, Congo. The ecofarm is funded by Lush (French handmade cosmetics) an organization that wants to do fair trade (transparent trading with no exploitation of resources) and commercialize products from ecovillages. For Lua, the ecofarm in Congo is a welcome challenge for them to develop their vision on ecoliving. The community in the Eastern Cape is already self sustainable and is home to the couple. They feel that Congo requires the foundation in terms of the building processe as the society is more ignorant when it comes to sustainable living. When it comes to daily living their staples are consumed for survival unlike in South Africa where, for the most part, staples are for sustenance.

The couple is also engaged with the Transition Town Movement who design sustainable living models for city living.

In August this year the Congo ecofarm was awarded the GEN Excellence Award for Africa, shared with Kenya, for their work in transforming traditional villages into ecovillages. Lua is thankful for the 3000 Euro prize money but is still frustrated by the notion of international community that Africa can get by with a lot less.

In January next year Lucky and Lua will be hosting ecoliving workshops. The first one will take place in Congo in January teaching the basics and the South African in April will be a bit more advanced.



Such initiatives excite me to no end as I try in my own way to contribute toward eco friendly living by recycling cans, plastics, charges, and glass. I’ve tried planting my own herbs in the past, to no avail. If someone could teach me how then I’m willing to learn.