Reconnecting Roots: Restoring Cape Town’s Diverse Heritage Through Forests

Since breaking ground on Cape Town’s first pocket forest in 2022, SUGi has supported the planting of forests in areas deprived of green space due to the political and social legacies apartheid. These forests are planted where they are most needed, transforming dumpsites and unused lots or greening school grounds. Others are born from collaborations with various groups including the Khoi First Nations people. Through this purposeful selection of sites we have created hubs for community engagement and an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to reconnect with nature.

Aghmad Gamieldien is a graduate of the SUGi Fellowship, a SUGi forest maker, and founder of Mzanzi Organics. We had an inspiring conversation with Aghmad, learning more about his experiences as a forest maker.

SUGi: Aghmad, you’ve been working with SUGi since you joined as a fellow in 2021. What can you tell us about that?

Aghmad: For a long time I had a dream of having a farm. The uncertainty and unknowns that came out of the pandemic became a driving force to make this dream a reality. So in 2020 I finally rented a small piece of land in an eco village and began growing fruits and vegetables. Mzanzi Organics was born, my social enterprise that’s focused on small-scale farming and pocket forests in and around my hometown of Cape Town, South Africa.

After I started selling my goods at a local market, a customer encouraged me to get on social media to build my following and network. I was initially reluctant, but over time I saw the opportunity for engaging with the community. At the same time the SUGi fellowship kept popping up on my feed and I decided to apply.

S: Your planting has been prolific in the last three years. You started with a pilot forest during the fellowship and then planted the Khoi First Nations Forest, which is a collaboration with the First Nations people.

We’ve recently broken ground on your sixth forest, the District 6 Heritage Forest. The forest is in a historically significant place, but is also personally significant to you. What can you tell us about it?

A: District 6 was a historically mixed race area that became demarcated by law as a white only area during apartheid. The whole district, including the roads, were bulldozed. Every structure was demolished except school buildings, mosques, and churches. Much of this area was never restored and remains barren like a scar on the landscape of Cape Town. Most of the land around these buildings are still open and barren.

But this forest also resonates deeply with me on a personal level, as it holds memories and connections to my family, and indeed many others who were displaced from this area during the apartheid era. My great-great-grandfather served as the principal of the very school where the forest is planted back in the 1930s, sharing the same name as me, Aghmad.

I’m always looking out for meaningful schools or communities where I’d be motivated to make a forest and then this school came up. My contact, a land artist, has been responsible for building a state-of-the-art library for the school. To build continuity between the library and the forest, the library gifted us leftover bricks that were made from clay from the surrounding area, including Table Mountain. We used these bricks to pave the forest and make an outdoor classroom.

School children, teachers, and other school staff were involved in planting the forest. We really emphasize their involvement to build ownership and community. But we also worked with the District 6 Museum to invite elders who have the memories of growing up in the area. The idea was to create space for holding that memory of displacement while creating an awesome intergenerational moment.

S: Wow. What a beautiful full circle moment. What has the response been like from the community?

R: After planting you see the transformation. At first people just see sticks in the ground, but when they start to see the growth and the biodiversity it attracts they begin to see how it’s working. They begin to trust more in the forest and really use the spaces.

When we plant at schools, we leave openings in the forests for outdoor classrooms. At the Cape Flats Forest we built a permaculture area, have space for teaching, and also included an area for barbecues. Ultimately, we want the forests to be community spaces that boost people, connect them, and allow them to experience nature. We also host events to encourage this.

S: I know you recently hosted an event at the Langalibalele Forest with a musician as part of your broader efforts to combat the lasting impacts of apartheid and racial inequality. What can you tell us about this?

A: We’ve recently started experimenting with the idea of what it looks like to bring art into a forest, particularly in communities where art isn’t so accessible. The singers, Sibusile Xaba and Biopelo, prepared a song to play and taught the students the lyrics. It was empowering, affirmative music for kids who, even in a post-apartheid South Africa, are still only now starting to learn to love their Blackness.

This is the metaphysical justice that I’m obsessed with. It’s about the liberation of the mind. You can live in a free society but be shackled in your brain. Many of these children are taught that they’re inferior, unable to see themselves as someone capable of achievement. These limited beliefs resulted from apartheid. But this singer’s lyrics encouraged the students to open their imagination and offer themselves self love.

S: Beyond what communities decide to do within the forests, we’ve talked a lot about how the forests themselves are a critical part of undoing the legacy of apartheid, about the importance of bringing green spaces to areas that have historically lacked them. Can you tell us more about this history and what role you see SUGi’s pocket forests playing?

A: Inequality is a reality in Cape Town and South Africa. It’s the most unequal place in the world — when it comes to not only wealth, but also access to green space.

Green areas weren’t created for people of color and Black people. I still see this living in Cape Town when I drive from one point to another. White areas are not just privileged economically. They also have the privilege of green spaces and trees in the “leafy suburbs.” Other areas don’t have that because no one planted trees. There are so many layers of stereotypes and stigmas related to the townships resulting from the systemic design of apartheid.

S: So what does it mean to plant trees in the townships or other historically economically challenged areas?

A: I see how it positively contributes to peace in society. These communities may be vulnerable to gangsters or drugs or early pregnancy. But when young people come to school and have this green comfort space? Normally they would have to travel more than an hour to see this kind of green space, so removing the need for travel is a kind of ecological justice. We’re bringing the green spaces to them.

I studied transitional justice, which is one mechanism of peacebuilding. It tends to focus on civil and political justice. But there are other types of justice we must consider too, like social, economic, ecological, and metaphysical. In a way, I see these forests as a mechanism for peacebuilding, able to holistically meet these criteria and build a sustainable, positive peace.

S: This idea of sustainability is central to our approach, which is informed by the Miyawaki method. Rather than simply planting something pretty, we focus on identifying native species and planting them in a way that replicates how the forests would grow naturally. This means that the forests grow and mature much faster and also have higher survival rates. What has your experience been with using the Miyawaki method on the six forests you’ve planted to date?

A: First of all, it has been assuring and motivating to have the institutional backing and funding for these projects thanks to SUGi. I don’t think anyone else in my country would be ready to bring this idea to South Africa.

Secondly, the resilience of the methodology is just wow. So much thought went into it. The emphasis and stress on potential native species, identifying the trees to use, is actually step 0. Each area has a different biosphere and native species. We need to know about these endemic trees and choose which to plant carefully.

Some people just want to plant a million trees but then there’s poor survival rates. With this methodology, the proof is there. You see how it’s spread all across the world.

The trees we’ve planted in the forests across Cape Town are specific trees native to our country. Some people wonder why we plant these trees and not a fruit tree for example. But when I started looking into what these trees do, I found that more than 80% of the trees we plant have medicinal values, whether from the bark, root, or leaf.

The key is relearning this indigenous knowledge, which has been broken down, disturbed, and destroyed through generations of apartheid. We have been relearning what the trees bring, identifying the benefits that existed before doctors and pharmaceuticals. That’s part of the ecological impact — but there is also incredible biodiversity that results from these forests, including amazing species of birds, microorganisms, mushrooms, and more. And then of course the forests offer green spaces and much needed shade to the people in these communities as well.

S: If you could share one thing that you’ve learned since becoming a SUGi fellow, what would it be?

A: We can restore life to our planet, but we must act with urgency. The Miyawaki method of afforestation has shown me that we can rapidly regenerate degraded land, growing tree canopies and ecosystems in record time. This is not just a tree-planting initiative — it’s a climate solution.

By planting endemic and native species densely, we invite ecosystems to restore themselves, ensuring biodiversity for generations to come. Rewilding Cape Town since 2021 with SUGi has taught me that this work goes beyond human benefit — it’s about creating a habitat for all forms of life.

Discover the all SUGi Pocket Forests in South Africa.