New Kandahar Governor To Deploy His Green Thumb

Published January 14 2009
by Jeff Davis

Kandahar province. In most photos it seems a dusty, desolate landscape where people toil to eke out an impoverished existence amongst the poor, chalk-dry soils.

But many, including Kandahar province's new Afghan-Canadian governor, Tooryalai Wesa, remember that it hasn't always been that way.

In an interview with Embassy from Kandahar on Monday, Mr. Wesa said he remembers the "good old days" when Kandahar was renowned for its agricultural products, feeding much of Afghanistan and the region with its pomegranates, grapes, fruits and vegetables.

photo: office of governor Wesa Kandahar’s new governor, Afghan-Canadian Tooryalai Wesa. A native of Kandahar’s Arghandab district, he fled during the wars, returning in 2004 to put his higher education to good use. Despite close connections with Canada, the founding president of Kandahar University says Afghans know his heart lies with them.

The family farm he grew up on, he said, had the first tractor in his Arghandab district village, and his uncle provided farmers from all around with seeds and advice.

Mr. Wesa followed in his uncle's footsteps, studying and teaching agriculture at Kabul University before fleeing, like millions of others, during the Soviet occupation.

But now, after having completed a doctorate at the University of British Colombia, writing his thesis on how to rebuild Afghanistan's fractured agricultural system, the 58-year-old is using his influential new position to try to rebuild the livelihoods of his people.

During the interview, Mr. Wesa spoke excitedly about his plans for rebuilding his province's ability to feed itself. Nothing though seemed to cause greater excitement than Canada's main "signature project": the refurbishment of the Dahla Dam.

Mr. Wesa visited the dam site over the weekend, before CIDA minister Bev Oda announced SNC-Lavalin had been awarded the contract for the $50 million project.

Mr. Wesa said the dam, which should irrigate some 10,000 hectares of arable land once completed in three years, will be a huge step towards Afghanistan's self-sufficiency.

"Irrigation is the main concern here," he said, adding the completed project would form a new "backbone for Kandahar agriculture."

It's not know-how the people of rural and agricultural Kandahar are missing, Mr. Wesa added, it's water.

"The people are very much experts in agriculture," he said. "If you improve the infrastructure, I'm sure we will be in good shape."

Mr. Wesa said he is working on a number of agricultural initiatives. Among his plans are an agricultural machine rental system, and a system of cold storage so Kandahar farmers can preserve their fruits and vegetables for the winter months when supplies run short.

He is also planning some agricultural education projects aimed specifically at women. With a male population devastated by war, he said, women must be educated and encouraged to raise dairy and poultry, as well as shown ways to preserve fruits and vegetables.

Finally, Mr. Wesa has his eyes on the international market as a source of cash. Last year, several thousand tonnes of Afghan pomegranates were sold to Middle Eastern and European markets, and Mr. Wesa hopes to market grapes and cheap-to-grow Afghan roses with similar success.

Despite his passion for agriculture, Mr. Wesa said his primary concern as governor is to "restore relative security here for the people." Education and the provision of basic services like electricity, he said, are also top of mind.

A Hometown Boy

So how did this man, after spending most of the past two decades away from Afghanistan, get appointed governor of its most volatile province?

"He [President Hamid Karzai] didn't see anyone more qualified than me," said Mr. Wesa simply.

While Messrs. Wesa and Karzai are friends, the governor points to his education and experience as advantages. Besides holding advanced degrees in agriculture and adult education, Mr. Wesa is also the founder and first president of Kandahar University.

In addition, Mr. Wesa can speak, read, and write Pashto, Dari, Farsi and English. He also said he has a conversational command of German and Arabic.

Mr. Wesa said despite having enjoyed the riches and lifestyles of Hungary, Switzerland, the United States and Vancouver, where he taught university classes, he always yearned for home.

In 2004, Mr. Wesa returned to Afghanistan and began working furiously, being employed across the country for 15 different firms and consultancies in the space of four years. These included agricultural development projects with USAID, the British Department for International Development, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Development Alternatives Inc., and as a senior policy adviser to the Senlis Council, studying the poppy trade.

Mr. Wesa said that being a local Kandahari, unlike the province's previous governors, has helped him. Many of the older generation in the province, he said, remember his family and his father, a former newspaper editor in Kandahar.

Mr. Wesa added that his willingness to go out and visit people in remote, and often dangerous, districts has already won him a number of friends

He said he has even visited the troublesome Zhari and Panjwayi districts since taking office in mid-December, travelling in his own SUV and attending shuras with only a light security detail.

Locals in the Taliban-ridden districts, he said, were pleased just to see him show his face. Some towns, he said, had not been visited by a governor for up to seven years.

Mr. Wesa said his connections with Canada were also an important reason why he was named governor.

Back in Canada, Mr. Wesa worked with the Canadian government, briefing top officials on conditions in Kandahar, including Canada's top commander in theatre, Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson.

Previously, he also worked as an interpreter in Pashto, Dari and Farsi for Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Mr. Wesa said he is not concerned these connections, and his Canadian passport, will make him appear to be a Western agent to Afghans in Kandahar.

He said Afghans can relate to those who have lived outside the country, and bear no hard feelings against those who left during the decades of war that define Afghanistan's recent history.

He said many government ministers, governors and business leaders, like him, lived abroad for years during the Soviet and Taliban years.

"Most Afghans have family overseas, so they know the situation," he said. "[Leaving] doesn't mean you are not Afghan anymore. You know the language, you know the people."

'Acceptable to Common People'

Back in Canada, Afghan-Canadians appear to be quite pleased that Mr. Wesa has been chosen as the new governor of Kandahar.

"Governor Wesa will bring a moderate perceptive," said Jahan Zahab, spokesman for Pashtun Peace Forum, a Toronto-based Afghan civil society group. "We believe he will be acceptable to common people at the grassroots."

Mr. Zahab said members of the Pashtun Peace Forum were happy to see a man without a jihadi, warlord or narcotics background assume the important office.

"He was not involved in the fighting," he said. "He does not have that big baggage that others have."

Mr. Zahab said most criticism he has heard of the new governor comes from those who believe "tough people" are needed as leaders in Afghanistan, though he disagreed.

"Afghans have seen lots of bloodshed," he said. "Now we need people that can bring a different perspective. Afghanistan needs moderate people. Afghanistan needs educated people."

jdavis@embassymag.ca