Central Maine Agrarian Commons

In the mid-2000s, approximately 3,000 Somali Bantus resettled in Lewiston, Maine, in the aftermath of their displacement by the Somali Civil War and subsequent relocation to Kenyan refugee camps. Central Maine’s Somali Bantu communities include three distinct cultural groups living in the Lewiston area, which are collectively referred to as Somali Bantu.

The SBCA formed in 2005 to advocate for the community’s well-being and organize to meet its needs through a variety of initiatives. SBCA’s executive director and cofounder is Muhidin D. Libah. Libah and all members of the organization’s board are Somali Bantu. Historically an agricultural people, the Somali Bantu in Lewiston-Auburn have mobilized to retain their agricultural skills and traditions as well as their connection to land.

In 2014, at the request of the community that the SBCA serves, the organization founded a farming program, later named Liberation Farms. Liberation Farms started out small—the organization leased just two acres in 2015 and supported 20 farmers. By early 2020, interest and participation in the program had skyrocketed, with six times the initial participants farming on over 30 acres of land in three locations.

As the program grew in popularity, the SBCA acknowledged the importance of secure land tenure. Farming on several smaller disconnected land sites, all with short-term leases, could not provide food security or the grounded sense of place that the community needed and desired. This is what prompted the community decision to form an Agrarian Commons.

Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons
The SBCA partnered with Agrarian Trust in 2019 as part of the organization’s search for permanent farmland. In 2020, Agrarian Trust supported the SBCA and the Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons in raising $367,000 to acquire a 104-acre organic farm in Wales, Maine.

Maine farmers and residents were among the hundreds who contributed to this campaign, making secure land tenure a reality for the SBCA and Liberation Farms. The SBCA’s 99-year renewable lease to this farmland makes possible an opportunity to farm for the long term, investing in regenerative and sustainable management of the land and community well-being.

Agrarian Trust continues to partner with the Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons in fundraising and administration of the Commons. We look forward to continuing to work together to grow the seeds of regenerative, community-centered agriculture in Maine. Click here to watch a webinar presented by Ian McSweeney on the Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons.