Grandmas Grow Gold in Swaziland
Sibongile Nkosi, 70, started growing marijuana near Piggs Peak when she heard that the plant could earn a decent return.Credit.Jonathan Torgovnik for The New York Times
Aug. 14, 2012
PIGGS PEAK, Swaziland â After her daughters died, Khathazile took in her 11 orphaned grandchildren without hesitation. It is what a gogo, or grandmother, does in a country where the worldâs highest H.I.V. infection rate has left a sea of motherless children.
âGod will help us,â she said.
Perhaps. But Khathazile has some insurance in case divine intervention fails: Swazi Gold, a highly potent and valuable strain of marijuana that is sought after in the thriving drug market of next-door South Africa. In a field deep in the forest, atop a distant hill in this arid corner of tiny Swaziland, Khathazile grows Swazi Gold to keep her growing brood of grandchildren fed, clothed and in school.