In this deeply illuminating episode of Battle for African Agriculture, Dr. Million Belay speaks with Mamadou Goita—renowned economist and activist from Mali—about the enduring colonial roots of Africa’s food and farming crises. Together, they explore how colonial policies violently displaced communities from fertile lands, dismantled indigenous farming systems, and entrenched monoculture cash crops for export, laying the foundation for today’s food insecurity. Goita draws powerful connections between historical land grabs, the erosion of communal ownership, and Africa’s continued dependence on imported staple foods—a dependency reinforced by post-colonial trade policies and structural adjustment programs.

With clarity and urgency, Mamadou calls for a radical shift in agricultural thinking—one that centers indigenous knowledge, food sovereignty, and agroecology as tools of liberation. He critiques the ongoing influence of Western-led models and institutions, from donor-driven reforms to chemical-intensive farming and lifts up grassroots resistance across Africa. This episode is a compelling call to decolonize food systems, not just in practice, but in policy, governance, and imagination.