USCB's Dr. Najmah Thomas Works with South Carolina Department of Agriculture
Dr. Najmah Thomas is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at USCB and a faculty member for the Human Services Program and for African American Studies. Her research is extensive: social and economic equity with a focus on program evaluation practices, at-risk youth programs, and public policies impacting underrepresented populations to include the Gullah/Geechee community.
She’s also a farmer.
Thomas grew up on St. Helena Island and lives there today on her family’s farm. One of her academic pursuits is connected strongly to her heritage: She is in the last year of a three-year grant from the University of Georgia focusing on Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. “I am blessed to be in this position, and to be able to do research in this way,” she said.
Her parents grew sweet potatoes, okra and other on their small farm; today she and her brother grow vegetables, sugar cane, citrus, and flowers. Their various herbs are the basis of teas, tinctures, and oils. The name of their farm is Earth Peoples Farm, and the name is in honor of their parents, “Bertha Mae and Al who established the EP way of life in the 1970s,” the website says.
“Many of the small family farms of the Gullah Geechee were difficult to operate,” Thomas said. “The farmers had limited access to resources like farm loans and technical assistance. They often had to deal with Heirs Property issues.” Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other organizations are trying to “disrupt decades of discrimination against African-American and other socially disadvantaged farmers,” Thomas said, by offering access to funding, technical assistance, and other resources to these small family farmers. And her grant work is part of that.
Her mission is to promote sustainable farming – farming that does not extract from the earth but gives back to it, and to pass those practices down, with technological improvements, “so that the next generation doesn’t have to struggle so much to maintain their family farming traditions.”
“You want to make sure that the land and farm that has been in your family for generations can pass on to the next generation – and that they’re excited about it,” she said.
For Thomas, working in the field after a day in the office is “therapeutic.”
“After you’ve been in front of a computer all day, or in a class all day, it’s wonderful
to get back to nature,” she said.
Her family’s microfarm – and others on the Sea Islands – speak to “people trying to connect to the natural environment, including where their food is coming from. A lot of young people are rethinking their role in local food systems.” She is now working with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture on developing a career pathway for young African-Americans and other socially disadvantaged groups that are interested in farming, or the technology of farming.
“So much trauma was associated with agriculture because of slavery,” she said. “What we teach is that the land was the site of a crime but was not the perpetrator.”
“Our ancestors were agriculture specialists,” she said, referring to the rice farmers from West Africa who were enslaved and brought to the colonies. “Their brought their practices over from their homeland. Their knowledge and labor translated into untold wealth for others. Reclaiming that is freedom in itself.”
Story and photo by Kathleen Williams, Communications/Marketing Manager for the City of Beaufort.