Help record Namibia’s permaculture history

Local growing knowledge has a history: people tried ideas, adapted them and taught others. Recording that history can preserve lessons that never reached a formal report. Begin with careful interviews and dated evidence rather than trying to write a definitive national timeline from memory.

Ask focused questions

Invite contributors to describe their role, approximate dates, places and what they learned. Ask what changed over time and which people or records could help check details. Let them distinguish what they witnessed from what they heard later. Different recollections can be valuable without being forced into one account.

Agree how material may be used

Explain the wiki’s purpose before recording an interview. Obtain permission for publication and discuss names, photographs and sensitive details. Oral History Association guidance emphasises informed consent and clear expectations. A private group message is not automatic permission to publish someone’s life story.

Build an evidence record

1. Keep the original recording or document securely with its date and source.
2. Write a short summary and mark uncertain dates explicitly.
3. Ask the contributor to check the proposed public account where possible.
4. Link public statements to suitable evidence without exposing private contact details.

Publish in small, correctable pieces

Begin with a documented project profile or interview rather than a claim about who was first in the country. Invite corrections and keep a revision record. Include unsuccessful experiments where participants agree: what changed or failed can be as instructive as a celebrated success.

Namibian climate and microclimate

Record the site’s climate, water access and land-use conditions alongside the social history. An approach developed in a wetter northern area may have been adapted differently in the central highlands or on the coast. Those differences are part of the history.