The Mennonite Colony That Made a Deal With a Diamond Company in Angola

[Pelerin]

The latitude at Cambanze where they are located is about 12 degrees south. That is similar to the latitude of Guatemala where the Mayans have been growing corn for millennia.

Corn is both a nitrogen-intensive and water-intensive plant. So their success in cultivating corn will depend mostly on soil fertility and irrigation or rainfall. Not latitude. Unlike corn, soybeans are legumes and nitrogen fixing so they can be grown in poorer soil (or don't require as much fertilizer), but still require water.

Daylength will affect corn growth outside of latitudes the variety isn’t intended for. So if Guatemala has a commercial seed variety it would be a better fit than something from further north and probably wouldn’t be stunted like the stalks in the photo appear to be.

[Ken]

Right, we are in agreement that they are NOT "getting kicked out of Mexico" for religious beliefs or agricultural practices or anything else.

Did anyone say they are?

Well....yes. This is what I was responding to:

Wife: it’s hard to tell whether or not the New York Times is sensationalizing this or not, but I think it’s disappointing if they don’t even have a mission focus for this. Also found it interesting that they were getting kicked out of the last country because of deforestation/round up. it would be interesting to hear a less biased article before I made an actual judgment on it. It seems like it would be good to go with a focus on blessing the locals and not just on economics, but I don’t actually know what all their motives were.

[Ken]

From the article it seems that they were also illegals. Luckily it seems that Angola is more forgiving than the US. Trying to work illegally on a tourist visa can get someone deported and barred from re-entry for 10 years here in the US.

The idea of moving to Angola came to the Mennonites after a group of them met an Angolan delegation at an agricultural event in Mexico City in 2019.

But their first attempt, in 2023, ended in anguish. The Mennonites arrived with only tourist visas, struggled to navigate Angola’s bureaucracy and were left living in tents, losing what little money they had, in an area rife with malaria. One 8-year-old child, Lucy, died of the disease.

[Bootstrap]

I don't know anything beyond the article and other articles that it points to. Seems like this is particularly important:

Calling their settlement the Fields of Hope, the Mennonites describe themselves as enthusiastic partners of the Angolans. They say they will set aside about 12 acres of land for each nearby village and teach people to farm like them.

“Angola needs cultivation, and we need land,” said Jacob Froese, one of the Mennonites. “I see us as a pair.”

If they wind up working with the Angolans as partners, really serving them and caring for them, this could be a good thing.

The article points to another article, that seems to be about a closely related group of Mennonites:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/19/worl ... =url-share

Today, seven years later, the cluster of homesteads is now a thriving colony, Wanderland, home to roughly 150 families, a church — which doubles as a school — and a cheese-processing facility.

It is one of a string of Mennonite settlements that have taken root throughout the Amazon, turning forest into thriving farms but also raising concerns among environmentalists about deforestation of a jungle already under threat from industries like cattle ranching and illegal gold mining.

Mennonite communities have come under official scrutiny, as well, including in Peru, where the authorities are investigating several, accusing them of clearing forest without required permits. The colonies deny wrongdoing.

[Thomas_muntzer]

Angola’s population is over 30 million, with almost 10 million in the capital city.

Somehow I doubt 60 Russian Mennonites will be crowding them out. They may find, however, that a sustainable agricultural sector emerges, much as it also did in Mexico and Ukraine.

In 2022 3.5K african requested assylum in mexico i don't know how many of those were angolans but just as africans emigrate to mexico. Mexican mennonites citizens emigrate to africa

https://www.borderreport.com/immigratio ... om-africa/

[JohnH]

From the article it seems that they were also illegals. Luckily it seems that Angola is more forgiving than the US. Trying to work illegally on a tourist visa can get someone deported and barred from re-entry for 10 years here in the US.

The idea of moving to Angola came to the Mennonites after a group of them met an Angolan delegation at an agricultural event in Mexico City in 2019.

But their first attempt, in 2023, ended in anguish. The Mennonites arrived with only tourist visas, struggled to navigate Angola’s bureaucracy and were left living in tents, losing what little money they had, in an area rife with malaria. One 8-year-old child, Lucy, died of the disease.

Being ignorant of immigration laws is not a good start, although it seems millions of Mexicans and other nationalities have been able to colonize various parts of America by doing exactly that.

However, it doesn’t say they overstayed their visas or violated any migration laws. From another source it appears they ran into trouble since they were unable to buy or lease property when on a tourist visa, since Angola doesn’t really allow foreign ownership of land except by special government permission.

[Jeff Altweg]

I have a Nephew who is with the Mennonites in Bolivia , they're barely making it there , He has a share in a large farming co=op there ....The farming is doing ok , barely, but the Bolivian natives resent them, and constantly steal anything they can off the Mennonites,it's got so bad they have to take their valuables to church with them, like money and passports , or they'll be stolen off and away....The article mentions these 60 new people hope the Bolivian Mennonites will join them,it already sounds iffy , the native attitudes towards them.......

[JohnH]

I have a Nephew who is with the Mennonites in Bolivia , they're barely making it there , He has a share in a large farming co=op there ....The farming is doing ok , barely, but the Bolivian natives resent them, and constantly steal anything they can off the Mennonites,it's got so bad they have to take their valuables to church with them, like money and passports , or they'll be stolen off and away....The article mentions these 60 new people hope the Bolivian Mennonites will join them,it already sounds iffy , the native attitudes towards them.......

No wonder places like Bolivia and Angola remain with so many mired in poverty for so long.

Instead of thankfulness for new economic opportunities and jobs, just resentfulness... and thievery. Which never exactly lifts a people up.

[lmcdoss]

I have a Nephew who is with the Mennonites in Bolivia , they're barely making it there , He has a share in a large farming co=op there ....The farming is doing ok , barely, but the Bolivian natives resent them, and constantly steal anything they can off the Mennonites,it's got so bad they have to take their valuables to church with them, like money and passports , or they'll be stolen off and away....The article mentions these 60 new people hope the Bolivian Mennonites will join them,it already sounds iffy , the native attitudes towards them.......

Is he in an horse and buggy colony?

BTW as of 2024 there is an horse and buggy ( old colony mennonites) colony being formed in Angola, they come from Bolivia(valle hermoso i think).
The other colony is not near this one and since they are different( the colony of the article uses cars, and the new one uses buggies) i really doubt if this is the bolivian mennonites that they have been waiting for.

[lmcdoss]

Correction to what? I made no mention of Mexican federal policy. The Mexican farms in the Yucatan are facing legal opposition from local beekeepers and from state agencies that are trying to promote and protect the beekeeping industry. This National Geographic article from 2019 lays it out pretty well (you have to enter any random email address to read it): https://www.nationalgeographic.com/envi ... ers-mexico

Emphasis on "from 2019". Mexico's government structure gives far more power to the federal government than lower-level agencies; it is not a federation or a federated republic, but is more like a unitary state with devolved powers to states. It's not like any farmers on the Yucatan peninsula have had to stop farming. If anything, as far as I can tell, it has expanded. (Not that I support its expansion - I don't think destroying the forest and traditional ways of growing crops and beekeeping to replace with modern industrial agriculture is a good thing. But that tends to be what big governments want.)

Nevertheless, they are Mexican citizens and no one is kicking them out of Mexico despite what they might claim. They are not "refugees". We are talking what...8 families out of the 100,000 or so Mennonites who have lived in Mexico for generations and are Mexican citizens?

I don't think anyone said they are "refugees". Nonetheless, a number of them decided to avoid the conflict after land they already purchased in the Yucatan peninsula and instead move on to greener pastures (or jungles, as the case may be). I expect them to prosper in Angola and in other places, since they seem to be very adept at dealing with corrupt governments and setting up their own micro-societies that simply generate a lot of cash for their host governments through ag exports.

There seems to be a misunderstanding of what the Angolan northeast looks like. There is no jungle there. You can read on DieMennonitischePost about this colony it clearly says " as you can see there area is not forested". Also in Mexico there are less than 100k mennonites now, strong emigration from those in Chihuahua(modern mennonites) to canada and Gaines county,TX.