Chidi Chidozie doesn’t remember a time when he wasn’t growing plants. He grew up farming with his father in Nigeria and remembers his unflappable dad planting before and after work, trailed by a group of boys — Chidozie and his friends — who teased and interrupted him with questions all the time.
After the Nigerian Civil War, there weren’t many opportunities to attend college in his home country. So Chidozie came to the United States to study, and even in college, he grew plants.
“I never stopped; it was just part of my life,” he said. “When I came to school here, one of the first things I did was I had some indoor plants in my dorm room. By the time I had my own apartment, they started calling my apartment the jungle; I had plants everywhere.”
But the Nigerian American couldn’t buy or grow the traditional foods of his homeland. At the time, in the 1970s, new immigrants arrived long before their traditional foods did.
Chidozie is from the Igbo tribe (pronounced “EE-boh”) in Nigeria, where it is customary to share and live communally. When he realized that countless African communities in Minnesota could not access the fruits and vegetables from their homelands, he decided to do something about it.
“If you give people culturally relevant plants, they will plant and start gardening,” he said.
Chidozie became a Hennepin County Master Gardener and figured out how to acquire African seeds. He now teaches people in Minnesota to grow African crops, empowering immigrants to plant the foods that support their cultural and dietary needs. He started four community gardens and contributes to research at the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences Plant Breeding Center to grow African plants in Minnesota’s climate.
His latest educational effort is a new exhibit at the Arboretum called Omé-Na-Ala, Igbo Traditional Farm, which tells the story of the sacred and vital plants of the Igbo people of Nigeria. It opened on June 16 in the Garden Gallery at the Farm at the Arb and will run through the growing season.
Garden co-curator Chidi Chidozie is a Hennepin County Master Gardener and teaches people in the community about how to grow African crops.
Minnesota is home to a thriving Igbo community that has arrived from Nigeria over the past 40 years. The Igbo people of Nigeria are an Indigenous group with an ancient, deeply rooted history, predominantly residing in the southeastern region of the country, known as Igboland. Historically, the Igbo people operated as self-sufficient farmers and skilled traders. Traditional agriculture was based on a mix of subsistence farming and commerce.
The Farm at the Arb’s living exhibit will showcase these foods and a scaled-down Igbo village. It is part of an ongoing series of exhibits in the space. The Arboretum invites community partners to share their stories through plants. These curators design a garden that tells their story — in the process, elevating the voices of communities historically overlooked by botanical gardens.
Over the years, Chidozie has learned many lessons about the differences between planting in Nigeria and in Minnesota that he wants to pass on. In Nigeria, many vegetables are planted in the shade to shield them from the hot sun, but in Minnesota, they require direct sunlight. The growing season is so short that some plants won’t germinate unless started inside; others simply don’t have enough time to generate seed heads.
Brownson Arebojie, Garden Exhibit Coordinator at the Arboretum (left), with co-curator Chidi Chidozie (right) on planting day. Photo by Lynette Kalsnes
African food access
Today, Chidozie has raised significant awareness of African crops and helped the local African community access them. Chidozie’s love for agriculture has changed many lives. His next ambition is to one day own and operate his own farm.
“The more we get people to plant what they eat, the better the world is going to be,” he said.
Plus, he adds, gardening is therapeutic. It calms people down.
In Igbo culture, life revolves around the Igbo Market Day system. Four market days make up the Igbo week, known as Izu.
An Igbo botanical garden
For the Igbo people of Nigeria, their rich culture revolves around a unique “Market Day” system that influences how they live, trade and even pray. An Igbo week (known as Izu) consists of four market days. These days are called Eke, Orie, Afọ and Nkwọ. Farmers, artisans, merchants and traders rely on these market days each week to sell goods such as yams, cassava, palm oil and peanuts.
The Igbo Market Day system is so ingrained in Igbo culture that it has withstood generations of modernization, urbanization and the rise of digital commerce. The exhibit at the Arboretum will contain roughly 25 plant species, including flowers, vegetables and herbs that represent Igbo culture and traditions.
This exhibit garden is located in the Garden Gallery at the Farm at the Arb, accessible from Peter C. Moe Drive, just past the Hedge Display on Three-Mile Drive. Find directions and other summer activities at Farm at the Arb