A man (Moussa) from a local development organisation was doing a survey of deep water pumps in the Maga area and I accompanied him in order to get to know the villages, their chiefs and their needs (Halidou acted as interpreter since practically nobody in the villages speaks French). The night before we started I asked Moussa how he planned to spend the days and he said that he might just work for the morning since it gets extremely hot. He turned up as agreed at 7:00 the next morning and casually remarked that if we went far out into the bush we might not make it back that night. I hastily threw a few things, including a torch and a mosquito net, into a bag and joined him in his 4X4. We visited a lot of villages that day, crossing extremely difficult terrain by following what looked like animal tracks, and ended up in a very remote village where we slept in the open. We hung our mosquito nets from poles that we stuck in the ground and the villagers gave us mats to sleep on. They were not expecting us but killed a chicken and cooked it with rice for us. They also gave us boiled milk straight from the cow. At that stage we had eaten nothing for 14 hours. The next day we visited several other villages but I ran out of filtered water and insisted that we go to Guirvidig to buy some (and some bread for breakfast/lunch). Moussa worked through the week-end and into the next week but at least he agreed to go back to Maga at night.
The deprivation of the villagers is enormous. Most of the deep pumps are broken or working badly. Many villagers are faced with drinking water from shallow, unsafe and unreliable wells or bringing water large distances from other villages. In some cases the villagers, and particularly their children, drink water from ponds and swamps used by livestock. As you go further into the bush the tracks that serve as roads virtually disappear. For several months in the rainy season many villages are completely cut off (even in Maga there are weeks when you can’t go out of your house and when it is impossible to go to a neighbouring village even in a 4X4). The rainy season brings high risk of disease since there are no refuse collection services anywhere and no latrines in many villages, with the result that all sorts of stuff is floating around. There are risks of flooding (I have come to realise that there is also an appreciable risk of flooding in Maga because the ditch of the artificial lake sometimes breaks). Many villages have no school and many of their children never go to school (particularly girls, who have to fetch water and perform other chores), even in the dry season. Where villages have schools, more often than not they have fallen into disuse because the villagers are unable to pay teachers or because the villages are too remote to attract them.
When we were sitting in one village talking to the chief I noticed a large flock of birds flying by. They looked rather like a flock of starlings but the flock was enormous and flew past continuously. It still had not passed when we left, half an hour later. I was told that they were “bêtes” which eat grain. The likelihood is that most of the harvest will be wiped out. The defence against these birds is to spray them at night from a plane in order to exterminate them. The last time that this was done was 2001 and they have since recovered and are now everywhere. The local remedy is to cast nets over trees at night and then bring the birds to Maroua to be eaten, but this makes a trivial impact. The government has put in place a service, including planes, to spray the “oiseaux granivores” but I am told that the resources have been diverted to other, probably private, uses.
Although our arrival was unexpected, large reception parties materialised in most villages. Some came with spears, bows and arrows, swords, machetes, and other weapons. In one village there was a fierce-looking man on horseback with a bow and arrows who offered to bring me riding (which I declined). I asked him what he used the bow and arrows for and he said that they were for defence against bandits and lions. I don’t think that there are lions in the vicinity but in another village later that day we were told how they had killed a bandit with an arrow.
The deprivation of the villagers is enormous. Most of the deep pumps are broken or working badly. Many villagers are faced with drinking water from shallow, unsafe and unreliable wells or bringing water large distances from other villages. In some cases the villagers, and particularly their children, drink water from ponds and swamps used by livestock. As you go further into the bush the tracks that serve as roads virtually disappear. For several months in the rainy season many villages are completely cut off (even in Maga there are weeks when you can’t go out of your house and when it is impossible to go to a neighbouring village even in a 4X4). The rainy season brings high risk of disease since there are no refuse collection services anywhere and no latrines in many villages, with the result that all sorts of stuff is floating around. There are risks of flooding (I have come to realise that there is also an appreciable risk of flooding in Maga because the ditch of the artificial lake sometimes breaks). Many villages have no school and many of their children never go to school (particularly girls, who have to fetch water and perform other chores), even in the dry season. Where villages have schools, more often than not they have fallen into disuse because the villagers are unable to pay teachers or because the villages are too remote to attract them.
When we were sitting in one village talking to the chief I noticed a large flock of birds flying by. They looked rather like a flock of starlings but the flock was enormous and flew past continuously. It still had not passed when we left, half an hour later. I was told that they were “bêtes” which eat grain. The likelihood is that most of the harvest will be wiped out. The defence against these birds is to spray them at night from a plane in order to exterminate them. The last time that this was done was 2001 and they have since recovered and are now everywhere. The local remedy is to cast nets over trees at night and then bring the birds to Maroua to be eaten, but this makes a trivial impact. The government has put in place a service, including planes, to spray the “oiseaux granivores” but I am told that the resources have been diverted to other, probably private, uses.
Although our arrival was unexpected, large reception parties materialised in most villages. Some came with spears, bows and arrows, swords, machetes, and other weapons. In one village there was a fierce-looking man on horseback with a bow and arrows who offered to bring me riding (which I declined). I asked him what he used the bow and arrows for and he said that they were for defence against bandits and lions. I don’t think that there are lions in the vicinity but in another village later that day we were told how they had killed a bandit with an arrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment