Experiencing the reality of famine
Maite Uranga
Life in Africa
One of my friends sent me a newspaper article a month ago about a famine in Mauritania. It was from six pages into the newspaper, 50 words long and simply said there was a famine and food aid was being collected. Non-governmental organizations in the capital talked about the famine and predicted mass malnutrition and possible starvation. They cited statistics from unknown studies: "This is the lowest amount of rainfall in 40 years. In addition, the last three years have also received low rainfall so the food reserves within the country are running dangerously low. And the cold spell in January killed many goats and cows further adding to the food shortages."
Using American terms this means that no fresh fruit or vegetables are available at Wal-Mart and the canned products are now out of price range because of rapid inflation. All the food in storage in case of a potential terrorist attack or a surprising food shortage is gone. And because of the high price of food, savings accounts were emptied and health insurance cancelled back in January. Definitely not a positive or hopeful scenario.
So the first day I got back to site, I felt guilty even going to my family's house because somewhere in my Catholic upbringing I learned you are supposed to give food to the poor rather than take it from their starving children. I overcame the Catholic guilt, bought some bananas on the way and arrived at my family's house that I thought was in the midst of famine. I told my family about the news article and the things that people were saying in Nouakchott. They admitted their concern and then laughed at my over-concern.
My family is very much upper-middle class in terms of Africa so I thought the famine had not reached them yet. Perhaps the poorer people could not as readily absorb the food price inflation and were also less likely to have been able to afford to stock up on food. At the market the next day I bought food to make dinner with one of my Peace Corps friends and we managed to find everything that we wanted. We would have no problems finding food during the famine. I was also in the economic class that was able to pay the price inflation; instead of five cents for a carrot it was 15. I saw that famines are not lack of food. They are a magnifying glass of economic disparities.
Famines can also be a misunderstanding of the relationship between climate and culture. Mauritania is now at the very end of its hot season which they refer to as "the hungry season." The difference between this year and any other is that the rains came about two and a half months late, and in that two and a half months, the Western media predicted famine whereas Mauritanians continued on with a slightly increased concern. I live with people and a culture that developed in the Sahara. It is absolutely necessary that this culture devise ways to live through droughts. Western media and oftentimes non-government organizations do not understand this relationship.
Life here is difficult, and lack of rain definitely heightens the level, but the culture and the people know what to do. Using American terms, their lives are always on the brink of famine. In their terms, sometimes they have really good years and sometimes really bad years.
The rains arrived a few days ago. Not quite as much and a little late, but nevertheless the Senegal River is rising, the animal herds are moving north away from the river and people are starting to plant their vegetable gardens.
Maite Uranga graduated from Notre Dame in 2000 as an anthropology and government major. She is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, October 14, 2002
