Liberation Farms

Founded in 2014 by the Somali-Bantu community here in Maine, you won’t find a farm like Liberation Farms anywhere. Understanding the goals of Liberation Farms means understanding the Somali-Bantu community. The Somali Bantu people come from the southwestern region of Somalia and are ethnically and culturally distinct from the general Somali population. During the 80s, the US invested and withdrew immense sums of money into and from the nation of Somalia, thus creating a power and finance vacuum that resulted in political instability and civil warfare. Already being a disenfranchised community in their native country, many Somali-Bantus were persecuted and fled to the US and other countries as refugees.

Many of these immigrants settled in the Lewiston-Auburn area here in Maine and were faced with the challenge of adjusting to the radically different space. In 2005, the Somali-Bantu Community Association was founded to give the growing community of new Mainers a means of supporting each other. After just under a decade of working and helping build the community in incredibly significant ways, the Liberation Farms project was launched as a means of providing the community with access to both nutritious and cultural food as well as financial empowerment!

Combining Maine’s long-standing traditions of small, community-focused agriculture and the Somali-Bantu community’s heritage produce, Liberation Farms provides land and other resources for immigrant Mainers to become farmers. You can find their produce at their farm store in Wales, in select farmers’ markets, and feeding the community in local food pantries. We highly recommend you visit the Somali-Bantu Community Association’s website at https://somalibantumaine.org/ to learn more about this amazing community and find out ways to support.