Crossing the sisal line

For more than a century, the Dwa Estate has harvested sisal in Kenya’s Kibwezi Division. Now farmed for the multinational REA Vipingo Group based in Nairobi (a member of the London Sisal Association), the 25,000 acres of the Estate once were also home to thousands of people now displaced from dozens of villages. Today, violent confrontations with the Estate’s askari (guards) take place in the context of deep poverty that forces more than half of the residents to work at least part-time for Dwa in order to supplement their meager income. Since 2010, Kenya’s new constitution has emboldened some villagers to confront decades of harassment, but Dwa now has plans to repurpose the sisal in ways which could make the land it occupies suddenly much more valuable. Following a decline on the markets after synthetic fibers were introduced, sisal is enjoying a rebirth, not only as a biofuel but also as replacement for glass fibers in composite materials used in new car designs, in construction, but also in furniture, rugs, or flooring. Yet while sisal is considered an environment-friendly alternative resource with a growing economic impact, it comes with a high price for local people. ‘Sustainability’ has no meaning when it is built on displacement, the violation of land rights, neo-colonial exploitation and extreme poverty.