 Have you heard of this phrase before? Afrikaans? Have you heard it before? Yes, I have. And to a very large extent it's associated with mediocrity, with success being inspired by Europe and not feeding our own people, not being self-sufficient and poverty. And that is what we are trying to get away from. And as a farmer yourself, what do you think is the way forward? I think we need to come together and have servant leadership and be able to listen to each other and if people can just hope to do something positive for their country, if people stop being selfish and want to control large chunks beyond what they can consume or creating reasonable wealth for your family, you tend to have those who want to have everything in Africa and those who have nothing. We just need to have business people, political leaders, church leaders who don't want to amass everything to themselves, who are wanting to share the cake with others, who are the concept of growing together, the concept of knowing that if you are privileged to be at the top, you need to have other people surrounding you to make even your business stronger and share the cake with others. Oh my goodness! This is the... This is so huge! Shamisu or Samisu? Shamisu Farm. Where is the name coming from? It's actually named after my wife. She is the managing director of the farm actually and when we decided to leave the red dress from working, I had to convince her to come and stay on the farm to leave the bright lights of Harari and her name means wonders in Shona or a special wonder. So therefore I wanted it to be a wonderful place for her to live, to raise the kids and to also help to feed the nation. Wow! I mean you are actually living in a wonder world. I mean this place looks like a garden of Eden. You said you named your farm as your wife's name, right? Shamisu. What is the inspiration behind that? What really inspired that? From a cultural perspective, a good home is always kept by the wife and I believe that women especially when you are going through the tough times of the beginning if you involve them, they are more steadfast, they are more thrift and everything and to that she has been a backdrop of the operations on the ground of the finer details on the ground because at the beginning when you are setting up the business you understand you have to be on the run sourcing the funding, the building but somebody has to maintain the calm and she did that effectively. The fact that he said during the toughest time he was there with you I would be so happy to know what was the toughest time that you went through that your wife still remained behind you? Like I said we have been married now for close to 29 years and in the beginning I come from humble beginnings so does she maybe she comes from a slightly better background but at the end of the day we didn't start with any resources it was our incomes from work and once I stopped working a year later she stopped working so she was willing to get hands dirty until today she used to wake up wear her dust coat and do the numbers and so on and unfortunately I'm lucky that she's good with numbers and she does the counting because you know in business if you can not deduce it to dollar terms if you can not count the sense you are doomed to failure somebody has to make sure that what needs to be done has to be done every day continuously because to be successful you have to do those difficult things of repeating and improving the same things over and over again and as an intropreneur and as an imaginative person I tend to look at the big picture I tend to want to do too many things and she's been the one who has been saying no no let's stick to the game so you agree with the phrase to be a successful man you need a woman behind you yes that's definitely correct I believe that 100% Shamizu yeah hi wow knowing that you've been named after this farm how does that make you feel? one night I'm happy about it and sometimes I feel it's a bit too much for me I'm okay it's alright he said during the struggles you stood behind him and that is why I want to ask why would you do that I mean you could have just left and enjoy your business or enjoy your time or your life but decided to stand by him why would you do that? I didn't decide to stand by him we were working together that's what I can say so standing by someone is when they go into trouble they stand with you but when you are doing your things together you know you stand by each other side that's what I mean throughout this journey what was the major challenges that you faced? when we left work employment it was tough because we are the first generations to have what we are doing right now it was a bit tough for us and challenging when I look back that's when I say it was tough at that time it was a challenge that we were enjoying everybody else was laughing at us you want to go into farming peak around early 2000s people say you want to do farming people in Zimbabwe they didn't consider farming as a business but we saw we had the vision that we could do something with farming and leaving employment where you were paid well it was not the decision that everybody was looking at at that moment we were very young at that moment and to think of something like that you could go into farming at least leave your formal employment it was something that people would love you it took a huge risk how would you do that? I think we had the zil and the passion and when we were doing our figures and numbers we really wanted to create wealth for our families we didn't want to just have income at the end of the month we wanted to have something that we knew we could live for the next generations to come what were you doing what kind of job were you doing I was an administrator and on the farm you were an administrator managing the farm you do a bit of calculations every day yes I do trying to keep everything running smoothly more on the operations and the management would you say that the decision that you took years ago was really worth it I am very happy about the decision that I made I wouldn't trade it for anything back then by now I could be owning a house maybe in Borodo but now I own properties and I wouldn't own what I own right now and the amount of information and experience that I've gained I mean I'm a mouse apart from my colleagues that I worked with some of the colleagues that didn't move from their jobs my name is Wadumaya the one and only annoying village boy from Ghana who is on a journey to change the negative narrative of Africa and also celebrate African excellence I came to Zimbabwe and so many people are saying I need to speak to you you see like I don't even know your real name all I know is Shamiso can you tell me who you are and where you come from my name is Samson Chauruka come from actually shifting ship in the eastern highlands Zimbabwe I'm 51 years old I'm a social intrapreneur I support small holder farmers the commercialization of the small holder sector I've been actively involved at national level in advancing the interests of the small holder sector in making them have access to the competitive genetics and breeding yes we do a mentorship program we we are involved at the various sectors in order to make it a commercial industry for the small to medium size of course that's where you get the large scale employment and value transfer to the marginalized communities so the whole land is how many actors it started off as 54 we now remain with 30 hectares we have subdivided and allowed other small holder farmers to come and leverage of our expertise but yeah we remain with 30 hectares of land what kind of farming are you doing in here it's a combination of a lot of things different concepts but primarily our main farming is pigs there is cannabis medicinal cannabis there is chickens there is the agrotorism part of it as well we do a bit of cattle we trying to put a different number of animals we've just removed the gods and sheep we had but we are coming up with a new batch of gods and sheep can i say you are a millionaire wow yes i would say so and are we heading to billion anytime soon? no i think maybe 2-3 generations it's not a race we hope that our children and our children's children will add more value to this enterprise and i think real value grows and for me i believe that you create value then the money follows and therefore generation of value the knowledge, the experience through one generation to another will create the lasting wealth you believe in generational wealth yes as you become aware we have got 4 boys actually 5 with one we adopted from my late brother the 2 older boys 127, 125 are already embedded within the operations they went to school, came back to Africa and got involved in the business and you can actually see that they are bringing more dimensions to the business more modern aspects to the business yes we are already in our second generation you've been 20 years here on the farm so it's generation already and i think we are also speaking to the next generation even the third generation because i'm expecting the boys to start getting married soon you're building a generational wealth through farming how is that possible yes farming is like in other business it's a value chain of activities and as you go around the farm you actually see that we are now transiting from the growing of the farming of the animals to value addition, the slaughter the arbat was also shop which is coming up and so on and hopefully in the next year we will be doing processing into validated products like polonis, bacon hams and so on so yes we are looking at going into the agro industry rather than just farming as traditionally we said so i want to know have you ever left Zimbabwe actually my family a lot of it has left Zimbabwe and i took a bet that i will only live Zimbabwe in order to visit and enjoy Europe because i will make the value first in Zimbabwe you know that over the land which came to Zimbabwe which was done in Zimbabwe a lot of skilled people and i happened to be one of and with my siblings including even my twin brother decided to go to Europe and into America and of course the temptation was there but once i decided that i was going to create the necessary change for us Africans to see ourselves in a different way so i took control on destiny i came down left Arari left Brightrides came to the farm, buckled down started building from the bottom i had to buy, unfortunately i didn't get land under land reform like most people did i had to buy this land and started building basically from scratch most of the infrastructure on this farm at the same time sending people and so on it was a tough journey but if you dream and want to leave your dream this guy is the limit so since you never left Zimbabwe which means you are made in Africa product yes i am and if you go back into the real understanding you understand that Africa has got more resources in any other nation in any other continent be it minerals be it holiday resorts be it in agriculture 60% of the agricultural land in the world still available is in Africa in particular in South Africa it's a natural 80% of what can grow anywhere in the world and in Zimbabwe in particular if you go 1000 years we always have been the bread basket of Africa into Asia and so on and things like that and even if you go back 30 years back the best of products eaten in Europe beef vegetables in Amsterdam flowers and so on Zimbabwe always paid a pivotal role they actually had specified quarters of the premium grade products coming from there so once you start understanding your own value and unfortunately is most Africans we suffer from the case of the resource recent nations where we don't actually understand and appreciate those value around us and we tend to run for the muscles of the inferior product so for me with the Hoso land reform program coming in Zimbabwe if I missed out on getting land because I had been in industry which was agrelated in so on it was a natural to understand that that void left had to be filled by none other than us Africans none other than us Zimbabwe we had to learn to feed our people and to also have the surplus to be fed so will you say that it's possible to make it in Africa 100% agree as you can see we had to take on generation here went to some of the best schools here in Zimbabwe went into Europe into America and on finishing the studies they were clear they had more value here in Africa and I want to say that thank you so much for being an African not an African yes I am a true African and like you said the proof of the pudding is in the eating and you can see what we are trying to do here since you became a millionaire from the continent I want to ask when did you make your first million I quit my job as an executive in industry at 31 knuckled down I started trading in kettle I started doing large scale chicken production by the time I was 34 35 I had made my first million including buying this land and a lot of other small little pieces of properties just trading with cattle camekia millionaire yes yes yes I was buying between 50k kettle almost every week at one time putting through my retail outlets and also selling to other butchery outlets that means like the funds that were raised from the corporate world that's when you started your business no no no to be honest I didn't even get my pension because when the bug hit me that I had to live I didn't have time to wait for the six months which was then at the time we were coming for an executive to live so they actually took back my my money so I never even actually got my pension I had to trade off the small little cars I had and so on and to start from scratch we started very basic we opened tech shops we were selling fish from the back of the car then this story just started building and building and yeah we then bought our land we then bought these things I didn't have any retirement package trust me this is the best stories since I ever came to Zimbabwe so do me a favor like the video how many people can have a piece of this so I want to know is the pick farm your first ever business no it's not I've tried other things I've been in manufacturing I've always known that at the end of the day people need to eat and with Africa we know that there is generally rural to urban migration 72% of Africans below 35% and most of them are being attracted by the bright lights that's leaving a gap for production they need to eat they need to be provided for and why would we then wait for products coming from Africa from Europe or from America to feed our own people so people have to just take one step backwards there is need for more intensive farming there is need for more serious commercial farming not substance farming and I saw a big big yawning gap not even for exports into Europe but to feed my fellow Africans in a variety of ways so yes the opportunities continue to grow as the African population continues to grow how many picks do you have right now around 2,500 we are having around 60 deliveries a month so every day the number is changing isn't it a profitable business yes it is I think any business if you do the fundamentals right there is always a market people are buying yes any business has got challenges as you meet to get them I think any especially the agro industry so wanted to know running a commercial farm like this here in Zimbabwe what are the major challenges that you facing okay I will speak for livestock producers where we depend mostly our major input is maize currently in Zimbabwe we have problems in finding maize and that's our major challenge yeah that's what I can say is the major challenge that we face and we have big companies that are also into pig production and we are sort of tagging behind them they set the pace for us sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where they can cut the prices where it's not as profitable for you to sell as someone who is upcoming and you find a lot of farmers end up selling their pigs or their stokes because it's no longer profitable I said it's profitable but at that moment when the big guys want you out they reduce the price so that everybody will go in there there's no way you all can work together okay this is the price that we are all going for yeah that's what we want that's where we want to go to where we are also able to talk with the big guys or to have a regulation actually that stipulates the kind of environment that should exist for upcoming farmers within the economy your house is just close to the pig farm yes yes which is a very important thing for us you can't smoke the pigs because obviously you have to work with hygiene you have to work with like us here of putting bio digesters green technology also using the energy and so on to supplement especially along the new structure who go through the new development on the pigs but yes we live on the farm and most people when they come that side they forget that we are actually on the farm this is how you started this is how we started in 2006 when we bought the farm in 2006 we built this in 2006 we used the bricks primarily from the farm we actually took in tools got some guys made the bricks and built from scratch right now we have just been doing a few renewals as we build the new structures this has primarily become a farrowing house it sits on 2000 square meters the building is 1600 it was initially built as a 100 saw unit but right now we have got a farrowing unit which is 65, 70 pens in there we are having about 60 deliveries plus or minus every month because of the heavy cold we are actually supplementing this new section has just been built recently and the challenge is with power we actually have to do additional heating with firewood during the winter like this one but you can see wow the piglets you cannot actually not smell anything in here I don't even feel like I'm in a pig farm in a pig house hygiene is very important for us this is now hay yes this is the hay we use on the farrowing unit so where the piglets were to keep them warm to keep them comfortable so we keep the hay here we cover it with tents if the weather is bad this is the extension I was telling you about we are building the new houses you will see we are going into we putting about 11 of them this is one of the new farrowing houses this is the this is one of the new farrowing units yes oh you were not expecting this no I wasn't expecting this I was so scared 10 rounds I want you to see this this is about three and a few years old one half years my second son is mostly involved this is the AI station where we take the semen where they take them to Aalipa what do you do with semen bro you do the artificial insemination yes artificially so they are males these are females the males are by themselves the females will be in there so in the morning they will come and this is where it all happens oh and then the people will come and collect the semen and then from each bowl we can produce semen for about 8 females every day every day I would love to see how it's done this is the abadwa where we will be slaughtering the pigs or putting up a diheira and that's how the abadwa will be looking so you have to buy the machines too for this place this is cost effective it is one we are not having to carry our animals from the farm there's no need to go looking for permits, for fed doctors and so on so it just lowers the cost of doing things and you doing it in one place you just moving them from the thing but with over 2500 pigs how do you feed them yes we make the feed 90% of the feed we are making here we already had a smaller feed plant which is already operational but we are now upgrading put a proper feed plant complete process and be able to say the excess feed we also able to give to the small older farmers at a discounted price as opposed to for them to go to commercial producers to buy their own feed so we just following the value chain to make sure that the cost of doing business is managed and put under control Isad you going to turn this place into agrotourism what are you doing then we are 27 km from central Harare okay and agriculture is now a central part of the education system from Zimbabwe from the lower primary school to secondary school so we need to have places where they can come and see the practical side of things a variety of things together and still at the same time for them to enjoy the time in the farm and so on so on the back of that we have a small dam on the farm we are putting tourist aspect swimming pools we are putting a restaurant we are putting a few things Fifersheetsoka and so on for kids to play so we are actually taping in in the government trust to develop agrotourism centers like we said we already teach farmers in their stock main and so on for training we do mentorship program so we believe that there is a lot of other untamed value which we can add to our business so certainly we developing these places in agrotourism facility you can see the way we are taming the different aspect of it you are even growing fruits in your backyard we want to be able to grow all the different types of fruits we can see there is so many different do you grow crops in here too? our operation is too big for the size of our farm to be focused on cropping we also support the other farmers who actually grow the raw materials for us generally what we are trying to in future is to get farmers who don't have the resources to grow on our behalf and support them with tilling and seeds and fertilizers then we buy the crop from them and take out the cost can I tell you something? they are visionary we hope as Africans we should be able to build our own countries I love the fact that you are changing the narrative of your own country helping build Zimbabwe I just want to know what do you think is the problem of Africa I think over politicization of the critical sectors of the economy not allowing leadership to devolve to other areas to know that not everything is political of course kolenya hangovers and medling and so on is too happening in a big way for example us as farmers because the politics is not moving with what the west wants you will find that as businesses we are hamstrung we are operating on a case economy we can't borrow it's very expensive to borrow we can't access a lot of things you can't buy directly to certain countries because we are under sanctions so yes there's a lot of things we are is the sanctions affecting your business? yes it does because you cannot transfer money to buy equipment in countries where we are not allowed to trade so there's a lot of restrictions in the banking system which we have to navigate and because there is no good money supply and because there's expensive money supply and operating a business this size on a cash basis is really cumbersome it's really difficult and as a farmer yourself what do you think is the way forward? I think we need to come together and have servant leadership and be able to listen to each other and if people can just hope to do something positive for their country if people stop being selfish and want to control large chunks beyond what they can consume or creating reasonable worth for your family you tend to have those we have everything in Africa and those who have nothing we just need to have business people political leaders church leaders who don't want to amass everything to themselves who are wanting to share the cake with others who are the concept of growing together the concept of knowing that if you are privileged to be at the top you need to have other people to make your business stronger and share the cake with others and to make sure that you create employment the money, the value is shared among the community I think we all prosper if you had a chance to change one thing in Zimbabwe, what would it be? the politics like I said it's really affecting us we need to look at ourselves in a different perspective the polarisation is just wrong we are the same people we shouldn't be fighting we should be all striving to build a prosperous Zimbabwe it's endured with so many natural resources the people themselves the ordinary people themselves the minerals, the good agriculture so the education which has been left there is so many good things about Zimbabwe if only we could appreciate what God has given us who would be more humbled and want to build it to the next level so many Africans watching us will be a final message to them Africa is the next big thing let's all help build it for ourselves and for the next generations to come thank you what is the secret behind your success if a young African entrepreneur is watching knowing that you don't know everything sharing information with others willing to make your hands dirty and to work gain experience start small and the ability to start we have got so many educated people who write beautiful stories but never get to start them start in your current circumstances wherever you are within your own environment there is something you can do which can change your own circumstances and the circumstances of those around you the concept of thinking you build a Microsoft from Norway it's generations of effort of different people building the kek until it's that big so in Africa we need to go back and start from the basic and have people who start to do something different who start to building value for their own communities let's not be professors and engineers who have not done anything even in their own village let's start there and change the lives of our own mothers our own grandparents, our uncles and in that vein be building value to ourselves with people who appreciate us I wanna say thank you so much for talking to me and I appreciate your time thank you