Maga

After dinner I was brought to my house. It turned out that the electricity was not switched on so a person whom I later learned was the mayor’s third deputy helped me put up my mosquito net by torch-light and I went to bed, leaving it to the morning to get my bearings. To my surprise I was told that there was a guard on duty every night and that he sleeps in an adjoining shed.

By Maga standards my house is good. It has a living room, a bedroom, a shower and a flush toilet. The electricity was switched on the next day but then the water failed for a few days. When the water came back I found that there was a blockage in the drain from the shower (this has still not been fixed but I take my showers standing in a big basin). There are bats in the roof and they fly around the living room and bedroom at dusk before going out and at dawn after they return. Sometimes they get trapped between the curtain and the window and make an awful racket until I release them in the morning. They sometimes fly around during the day also. I don’t mind them but their droppings accumulate and I have heard of a person who died from rabies after being bitten by a bat so I should get something done about them. Lots of lizards, some multicoloured, come in and run around the place. Mosquitos are not much of a problem at this time of the year but I am told that they are a serious problem in the rainy season, which could start any time from late April and continue until late September.

Maga is a very quiet town with mainly Muslim people. They are very courteous and have strict protocols which they go through when they meet. They congregate in groups sitting on the ground under trees. The children are extraordinarily well behaved and are expected to do things for adults without payment, such as running to the market to buy things. The one thing that I would hold against the people is that when a white person goes shopping they multiply their prices and if you are not prepared to expend a considerable amount of time haggling you are constantly ripped off (or “bouffé”, as they somewhat impolitely call it). Happily there is a bar, “Chez Rose”, hidden away in a back street. Even some Muslims slip in there for a drink.

The range of things which one can buy here is very restricted. There is very good fish, coming from the lake which supplies the region. Given that we are approaching the end of the dry season I was surprised to find so much water in the lake. The Logone river fills the lake in the rainy season and the lake supplies water to the river in the dry season. I have watched fishermen cast small nets in canals off the lake and pull them in, usually with two or three fish per throw. Over-fishing and poaching are problems. Also the lake is man-made and has led to the drying up of many small lakes where fish used to be caught and to the elimination of some of the swamps, with a consequent loss of wildlife. I have yet to go out in the lake to see the hippos but heard that one attacked a man near Maga a few days ago and was killed by the local people. The Maga football team are referred to as the “hippos”.

A lot of beef is also available locally. The plain in which the Commune de Maga is situated and which extends north to Lake Chad is used to graze cattle. Nomadic cattle herders come here from Niger, Nigeria and Chad, covering enormous distances in search of grazing for their herds. The creation of the artificial lake has adversely affected the grazing and the availbility of watering holes for the livestock. Also some local people have established farms and have fenced off areas through which the nomads used to pass. This has given rise to conflicts with significant loss of life. In theory the state owns all the lands and levies taxes for grazing. In practice the traditional chiefs continue to allocate ownership rights in their areas.