Nyéléni 2007

Nyéléni 2007, the Forum For Food Sovereignty, was an opportunity for people who harvest

and produce food from the forests, waters, and lands around the world to share information and develop strategies to protect their livelihoods and the health of the Earth from the forces that seek to control, contaminate, and destroy them.

More than 500 peasants, fishers, migrant workers and others from more than 80 countries

accepted the invitation to come to Sélingué in Mali, West Africa, for the Forum. They were

joined by allies in the food sovereignty movement from non-government organizations

in both the North and the Global South, plus a couple of hundred volunteer interpreters,

administrators and coordinators, cooks, medics, and cleaning crew, not to mention the

local workers who built the sleeping huts and meeting shelters.

For six days this diverse group of people discussed, debated, told stories, and struggled

to overcome the communication barriers of language and culture. Most of the delegates

spoke one of the four working languages of the Forum (French, English, Spanish, and the

local language, Bambara) but informal conversations relied a lot on gestures, body language,

and sometimes pictures drawn with on the ground with a stick.

This document is a comprehensive overview of what happened at the Nyéléni 2007 forum, and includes political documents like the Nyéléni 2007 Declaration.