MANITOU BEACH, Sask. Ñ Salt and pepper shakers made from cow bone and shaped like mud huts hint at the other life of Saskatchewan farmer Margorie Cline.
Within weeks, Cline will trade the snowy Saskatchewan plains for a lush African setting on an annual trek.
At home, she splits her time among the grain farm she runs with husband Richard Vickaryous at Watrous, an African imports store in Regina and this modest cabin on the lake front at Manitou Beach.
For the well-travelled Cline, who had already toured Asia, Australia and South America with her husband and two children, Africa offered another continent to explore culture and agricultural practices.
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“Farmers, no matter where they are in the world, are crop checkers,” said Cline.
Seeking “more than a tourist” experience, she spent three months in southern Zimbabwe in 1998 as part of an agricultural exchange provided by the Saskatchewan Federation of Production Co-operatives, or SFPC. The purpose of the exchange is to allow people to learn from one another and make friends.
There, she was the only white woman on a co-operative farm for 20 local families, working alongside villagers, particularly women, and forging friendships.
She helped them resuscitate an old poultry barn to provide income for the families and explored ways to improve the water system to reduce the amount of time women spent hauling water.
“If you help the women, you help families,” she said.
Cline initiated fundraising efforts in Canada to support these projects, including selling African crafts back in Canada.
On Jan. 29, Cline accepted a global citizen award for her work from the Saskatchewan Council for International Co-operation.
Ross Korven, SFPC’s special projects co-ordinator, nominated Cline for the award. He said Cline made an impact on women in the African village by empowering them to do things for themselves.
“She gave the women a sense of self-worth,” he said.
“She has that kind of tenacity and desire to help and see something through and not give up.”
Cline has returned at her own expense every year since, but this year, a volatile situation will keep her from spending much time in Zimbabwe.
It was a life-changing experience, she said of her African visits. But she acknowledged that real change in Africa will only come when the political situation changes.
“In the end, the co-operative was a microcosm of the country Ñ corruption, thievery, intimidation and political difficulties,” said Cline.
She learned to cherish small successes in helping people individually, providing an outlet for their goods and helping with their educational needs.
“None of it is really going to change the world but it is something I am capable of doing,” she said.
Her new focus is children.
Today she supports families, funding one child in boarding school whose parents have both died from AIDS, paying another youth’s university education and helping more with their school fees.
Her African experience, coupled with a downturn in her own farming income, led to the launch of Cline’s fair trade handcraft store called Zebra Crafts.
She buys the products directly from artists and co-ops in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Malawi, ships them home and sells them in her store. That way, she said, the artists receive a better price for their goods.
“I have a strong desire for a fairer playing field for everybody whether farmers or craftsmen,” she said, citing the growing gap globally between rich and poor.
“Who is making the money Ñ the middlemen,” she said. “Ordinary people are having a much harder time and a handful of people are having a much easier time.”
She hopes her business can improve the lives of the poor, noting income from the art she buys from one male craftsperson represents 75 percent of his annual income. He is using some of the money to study English.
Funerals have become commonplace in Africa, where few of the latest generation of adults live past 36 years old and children are being raised by their grandparents, Cline said.
This trip, she plans to explore tourism opportunities that could bring people together.
“People are infinitely more interesting. I’d like to take people off the beaten track. Africa is still a big unknown to many.”
