By Eloge Willy Kaneza
Wales, Maine — It’s farming season in Maine. Fields are alive with activity, and farmers are working hard from dawn to dusk. Across different areas of the state, residents flock to markets and farmstands to buy fresh, local produce, some of it grown by new Mainers from Africa.
One of the African farmers who has been in Maine the longest is Muhidin Libah, executive director of the Somali Bantu Community Association (SBCA) of Maine. Under his leadership, SCBA founded Liberation Farms, which now supports over 250 growers who produce vegetables, grains, and herbs that nourish both immigrant families and the broader Maine public. Libah is a living example of immigrants who are working to transform Maine’s farming narrative to include foreign-born farmers who are rebuilding their lives through working the land.
The Somali Bantu farming model is built on principles of community and cooperation.
“This is what true community looks like,” Libah said. “We didn’t come empty-handed. We came with knowledge. We came with our seeds. And we’re planting both.”
From refugee camps to community builder
Born in southern Somalia in the 1970s, Libah fled civil war in 1991. He then spent over a decade in Kenyan refugee camps before he along with many other Somali Bantu families were resettled in the U.S. in the early 2000s. Then, in 2002, in a quest for good schools, safety, quiet, and peace, some of these families found Maine, and decided to move to the state.
When Libah arrived in Maine, he faced a daunting choice.
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“Some of us were already in our 40s,” he recalled. “I had to decide: should I go to school again for six years, or use what I already knew? I chose farming. That was my path to dignity.”
However, Libah, the father of ten children, did not stop at farming, but went on to pursue and complete a master’s degree in public policy, equipping himself with tools to advocate for his community. And rather than using his advanced degree to climb a political ladder, or move outside the state, he stayed close to his community.
He is committed to building a future where his children—and other people’s children—can thrive, Libah told Amjambo Africa.
A call to African immigrants: “Return to what you know”
Libah is well known in the Somali Bantu diaspora community, and often advises groups in New York and Pennsylvania on how to start their own farming collectives and community food systems. His message to African immigrants across the U.S. is grounded in both pragmatism and pride:
“If you were a chef back home, start a kitchen. If you were a farmer, farm again. Don’t waste years trying to become someone else. What you brought with you is enough. Your roots are not a weakness—they are your strength.”
Resisting division, embracing coexistence
Of particular concern, Libah said, is the persistence of long-standing divisions in the communities he works with.
“Even here, some people still divide by tribe, by clan. That mindset destroyed our countries. We need to learn to coexist…You can feed yourself while I feed myself. My success is not your threat,” he said.
Libah draws a parallel between the U.S. and Somalia.
“Fear of the ‘other’ is dangerous,” he said. “We’ve seen what happens when it grows.”
On Discrimination: “Trust immigrants with their own knowledge”
People were skeptical that the first Somali Bantu farmers in Maine could make it here, Libah said.
“When we said we wanted to farm, people laughed. They didn’t believe we could do it,” he said. “People assume that farming means big machines, big land—and that we can’t handle that. But we don’t use machines. We work with our hands. And we’re feeding schools, markets, and families.”
The host community benefits from the presence of immigrants, according to Libah, who said: “Trust immigrants. Trust their knowledge. They’re not just surviving—they’re contributing.”
Libah’s advice to his fellow African immigrants is urgent: “Don’t bring your divisions with you. Bring your skills. Bring courage. And plant something—because America is a land where your roots can grow.”
Click the link below to get: “From Refugee to Farmer: How Somali Bantu Immigrants Are Reviving Maine’s Agriculture“
