At the age of 21, he worked for an Italian NGO and “every single project that we set up in Africa failed.”17 Sirolli’s first project was to teach villagers in southern Zambia to grow tomatoes. “Everything in Africa grew beautifully. We had these magnificent tomatoes … we were telling the Zambians, ‘Look how easy agriculture is.’ When the tomatoes were nice and ripe and red, overnight, some 200 hippos came out from the river and they ate everything. [Laughter] And we said to the Zambians, ‘My God, the hippos!’ And the Zambians said, ‘Yes, that’s why we have no agriculture here.’ [Laughter]
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