Let us return to the Last-Minute Scholar. When you marry a Moab and blame Judah was a necessary interlude! Events of the past three or so days bear witness to this.
Today’s Last-Minute Scholar will have Part A and Part B to compensate for the “Nkholokolo” breather.
A. From Pigeon Peas to 1400 AD
I came with a plan: internal markets, a way to get ahead of the competition, and a plan for changing the way agribusiness works. But the winds of academia had other ideas.
They said, “We looked over your proposal.” “Very interesting.” But we have things that are more important than others as a country.
I was no longer the person who came up with “One Village, One Product.” As a historian-in-training, my job was to figure out the economic DNA of countries that had broken free from the middle-income trap. The US. The UK. Japan and South Korea. They said, “We have data going back to 1400 AD.” “Look at it closely. Please tell us how agro-processing changed their path.
I blinked. What year is it? I had come to learn about livestock and pigeon peas. Now I was following the industrial history of empires.
So, I got to work right away. I looked into how grain mills in England became food empires. How Japan made rice and fermentation into well-known brands around the world. How South Korea used agro-tech to get ahead in electronics. I made a map of the changes, from subsistence to surplus and from surplus to strategy.
And I found a strange comfort in the archives. These countries didn’t start out perfect. They began with need. With hunger. With determination. Just like us.
I started to look at my original dream in a different way. Maybe “One Village, One Product” wasn’t just a local plan; it was a historical echo. A pattern. A chance.
So, I wrote. I looked into it. I linked dots that were hundreds of years apart. And they nodded when I told them what I had found. They said, “This is what we needed.”
I smiled. Even though I hadn’t planned this path, I had walked it with a purpose.
B. The Return of the Strategist
I came back with more than just a degree; I also had a new way of looking at things. The archives had made me different.
I had followed the rise of nations through grain mills, fermentation tanks, and agro-processing corridors. I had seen how food systems turned into engines of the economy.
And I couldn’t stop seeing it. All of a sudden, the local wasn’t just local; it was historical.
That pigeon pea wasn’t just a plant. It was a sign. A place to start. An export that could happen.
I started to wonder: What if we mapped our areas not just by what they grow, but by what they could grow into?
I went back to my old idea of “One Village, One Product,” but this time I added years of knowledge to it. I asked, “What if we used our crops as platforms?”
What if we made value chains that did more than just feed people? So I began making tools.
Not just for classrooms and boardrooms, but also for family meetings and village events.
I made checklists that asked both “What do we grow?” and “What do we process, package, and promote?”
I used humor to question old ways of doing things. I used scripture to help new ones.
To show that change starts with what you already have, I told stories about kimchi and barley.
And the dream changed over time. It wasn’t just about markets inside the country anymore.
It was about the past. About making systems that will last longer than we do.
About turning an advantage in your area into wealth for your family.
The Bonet Framework 