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Uganda. A bride Mukiga girl.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

The Bakiga or Kiga people are known as people of the mountain. They are a Bantu ethnic group of South Western Uganda and Northern Rwanda. We look at different stages of traditional marriage.

Marriage among the Bakiga has generally been monogamous and it begins with courtship of the couple. The young man identifies the woman he likes and approaches her father. Unlike the usual courtship, among the Bakiga, they will do the Oshwera Abuza (investigation) regarding the family of the young lady. The lady’s family also does the same with the young man. Though in the past, courtship was out of question since the suitor kidnapped the girls.
The investigation also helped families find out if any of them had any serious sicknesses including mental illness, if any of the families were involved in witchcraft practices and rituals, and the virginity of the girl was also investigated. Virginity was rewarded with a goat which was given to her paternal aunt. After investigations, preparation of marriage begins with the paying of the bride price (Okuhingira).

Bride Price among the Bakiga included cows, goats, locally brewed beer. The girl’s father goes to the boy’s family where he is allowed in the kraal to choose the cows, he wanted for his daughter’s bride price.
In the past, many Bakiga owned cows so all bride prices revolved around animals. Today, many things have changed; few people own cows so the number of cows asked for the bride price has reduced.
Marriage was, and is not, a one-person affair among the Bakiga; it is an affair of the extended family which includes the father of the groom and his extended family. The marriage ceremony is a ritual among the Bakiga in which they have stages to follow before the marriage is completed. In the past the introduction ceremony was when the groom was introduced to the girl, because the girl would never know her groom until after he had paid her bride price.

Today, the bride is expected to introduce her fiancé to her parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents since she is the one who knows him. After which the Kuhingira (Giveaway) follows.
At the Kuhingira, the bride’s father hands his daughter to the father of the groom and tells him to take good care of her. In case of misunderstanding in the couple, the groom’s father is supposed to help them find peace. The girl is also advised not to return home.
Then the Okwaruura (introduction of the bride to the family and to house chores) takes place at this ceremony where the new bride was given a hoe by her family and advised to go and start to work for her unborn children. Today Okwaruura is done but the brides are not given hoes anymore because many of them are corporate women or living in urban areas. Before Okwaruura, the bride was on honeymoon and she was not allowed to do any house chores; she would also receive gifts during this time. The last ceremony before she gets her first born is when her family, her sisters and brothers would pack sorghum, local brew, chicken, and any other gifts, then go to pay their sister a visit. They would carry with them a drum and sing along their way.
When they reach their sister’s home there would be merrymaking: dancing, drinking local brew and lots of food and when returning home their in-laws would also pack gifts in the same baskets which they would carry back to their parents.

Kidnapped by secret admirers
In the past, marriage had another twist amongst the Bakiga. According to old stories some girls were kidnapped by secret admirers and tied to ekyigagara (a stretcher-like mat) and then taken to the home of the suitor and the bride price would be paid later. The Bakiga believed that everyone had a right to marriage even the men considered ugly, and the disabled, whom many girls rejected.
Bakiga girls did not have a say in who they would get married to because marriage was a discussion between men, which included the secret admirer, secret admirer’s father, and the bride’s father.

The kidnapper was considered an ugly or disabled man and was sure no woman would marry him. His friends and brothers would organize to kidnap the girl. The old stories continue that the secret admirer would approach his father and tell him about his intentions for a particular girl and after all investigations, his father would approach the girl’s father and tell him about his son’s intention.
There, discussions would begin but the girl would never know what was happening except that she would be told to reduce on heavy chores, and preparations to beautify her would begin. That was the time the girl would know that something was not right.
The culture dictated that girls never knew the men they were getting married to until the day they came to pay her bride’s price. Since some men did not have the patience, once he admired a girl, many brothers were advised to be their sister’s keepers to protect them from kidnapper husbands. Sometimes the secret admirer would attack the girl’s brother and a fight would ensure that the winner takes the girl.

When going to pay the bride price, the groom and his entourage would walk long distances since it was rare to find a man marrying within the same village. They would get their walking sticks, cows, goats and local brew and walk until they reached a point agreed upon by both sides, there they would sit and rest.
There, they would find young girls from the bride’s home waiting for them with entacweka (small calabashes) filled with enturire and bushera, locally made soft drinks, which were offered to them to quench their thirst and then they would complete their journey.
When arriving at the home they are welcomed with ululations and drumming and singing. The visitors are then given seats and given food to eat before the marriage negotiations can begin. After the meal they begin negotiations, and after the negotiations, the following day the groom is expected to come back and take his bride.
Today the entacweka is taken from the girl’s home after the groom’s entourage arrives. A Mukiga girl had no right to reject a suitor because it could earn her punishments. The girl’s father and suitor’s family discuss the price which he would be given, without him consulting anyone. So, rejecting a suitor meant the bride’s father returns the items he received. She was also not expected to leave her marital home however hard the situation was. In the event she left and asked for divorce, her family was required to return every item given to them for her bride price.

Irene Lamunu

Ethiopia. The sacred waters of Lake Tana.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

This internal lake of Ethiopia is an Alpine circle of muddy waters, more than three thousand five hundred square km. This is where, forming a slow and calm stream, the Blue Nile rises. Lake Tana is a sacred boundary, a frontier of Christianity.

Almost all of the thirty seven islands conceal a monastery, a church and an Orthodox hermitage. Most of the churches of Lake Tana are round with a conical roof (like the traditional Ethiopian churches). The larger circle, the cloister, with either wood or cement columns, is usually open towards the outside while on the inside, in concentric circles, we find the presbytery and the drum, with walls often decorated with paintings. With its twenty-eight square pillars connected by round arches, one of the noblest examples of this type of architecture is the church of Kebran Gabriel, located on the suggestive island of Kebran at the southern point of the lake, facing the city of Bahir Dar.

Kebran Gabriel is one of the monasteries founded in the fourteenth century. The large elliptical church, dedicated to the Archangel Gabriel, was built on the level summit of the island. The Archangel Uriel – guardian of the gates of Paradise – managed to intercept a lightning bolt that was about to burn up the great church of the Ura Khidanemehret Sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady. Dek, at the centre of the lake, is the largest island. The church of Narga Selassie, the basilica of the Trinity of Narga, known as the sanctuary of honey, rises on a rocky isthmus on its western shores. On the island of Kebrar, there are now almost seventy monks whereas in the past it had as many as five hundred. The life of the monks is a simple one: in Kebran, where women are not allowed, the young men eat once a day in common while the older monks usually take their food in their little houses, fasting frequently.

These little islands are the strongholds of evangelisation in Ethiopia, unassailable refuges during the centuries of the Muslim incursions. Tana Kirkos, for example, is an island far distant from the reassuring port of Bahir Dar. It is a solitary island, forbidden to women. It is like a rocky claw along the north-east shore of the lake. Here, according to legend, it is said that the Virgin Mary took refuge during the flight into Egypt. Here, according to the accounts of the monks, the Arc of the Covenant was preserved after it was taken from Jerusalem.

At about thirty kilometres from Bahir Dar we can view the great spectacle of the Nile. The Blue Nile, after its quiet exit from Lake Tana, confines itself in a narrow gorge, digging its path through the rock, seeking an outlet towards its counterpart as it descends the immense savannahs of Sudan. The Ethiopian Nile, with no further delay, makes the great leap of Tis Issat, the Blue Nile Falls, where its waters seem to take flight, transforming themselves into ‘the smoke of a great fire’ (this is what its name means in Amharic).
At the end of the rainy season, during the first months of the Ethiopian autumn, the Blue Nile Falls are impressive: almost a kilometre and a half wide, a wall of water crashing down. In some places the waterfall is forty five metres high. (C.M)

The Canaries route among the most dangerous in the world. ‘Barça or Barsakh’.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

In the Wolof language ‘Barcelona or Death!’, as the route through the Canaries is often called in Senegal. The dramatic situation of the country is forcing thousands of young people to undertake a voyage of 1,500 km on overloaded fishing boats.

In Thiaroye sur Mer, an ancient fishing village now absorbed by the suburbs of Dakar, the silence of the morning is broken by the hooves of a galloping horse. Along the sandy alleyways, a cart is heading for the beach. Seckane watches the scene from his balcony: “In this area, everyone knows at least one person who has tried to make the voyage to Europe. We have no future. We live in constant discomfort and
we feel we are failures”.

Seckane tried to reach the old continent twice: first by crossing the desert only to find himself held up in the inferno of Libya; then, a year ago, by crossing the sea, undertaking the route towards the Canaries. The adventure almost cost him his life: “After some days, we came close to Spain; very close. Then, the engine broke down and the rough sea was about to leave us shipwrecked. Then, we came back as if by a miracle, after losing some of our companions. I have abandoned the idea of going to Europe … for now”.

The less expensive route
The tightening of the control screw operated by the European Union along the Moroccan Mediterranean and especially the further closure of land borders, together with the grave economic crisis related to the Covid-19 pandemic, have caused an exponential increase in the departures of migrants along the ‘Canaries route’, even though it is one of the most dangerous anywhere in the world. It costs less than the others (300- 900 Euro) and so attracts migrants who have fewer funds available. It is a voyage of 1,500 km from the main Senegalese ports of departure – from Saint-Louis to the north and M’bour on the coast south of Dakar – to the Spanish archipelago.

The migrants must face the Atlantic Ocean for from 8-10 days in overloaded fishing boats. In 2020, a series of shipwrecks causing more than 1,800 deaths sounded the alarm for this route. The number of people disembarking on the Spanish coast was the highest since 2006, with 23,000 arrivals, according to the Spanish authorities, while the number for the previous year was around 2,700. There are those who have described the Canaries as a new Lampedusa and the EU continues its work of externalisation and frontier controls by means of doubtful agreements with the countries of provenance. In November, the Spanish foreign minister Arancha González Laya visited Senegal. Since then the seas are patrolled by an extra aeroplane and a coastguard ship, to add to the existing Iberian patrols and a helicopter. In addition, the repatriation by air of illegal migrants going to Dakar recommenced last March, for the first time since 2018.

The lack of employment openings
It is clear, however, that this surge of migrants has its reasons. The feeling of uncertainty due to the difficult living conditions and the lack of employment openings has never been so marked among young people with qualifications. There are no statistics on the rate of unemployment in Senegal, but in 2019, the Senegalese authorities stated it was 19%, having increased for the previous two years. Doubtless, the present crisis will not have reversed the trend. “You must see these departures as a cry of desperation from the youth”, affirms Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba Fall, president of the Senegalese association Village du Migrant, which for some time has been working to stem the phenomenon of flight among young people. “More often than not, sensitisation is not sufficient. There are those who have already risked their lives or have lost family members and they would try again”.

Around the slogan ‘Barça ou Barsakh’, which in the Wolof language means ‘Barcelona or Death’, as the route is commonly known in Senegal, a sort of myth has been created which makes young people consider successful migrants as heroes. “Now it is pure fatalism. The alternative is to tempt fate and die in the sea or to die here. Professional training and new jobs on the spot are the only solution”, explains the Sheikh. A sense of frustration and disillusion is the cocktail that gave rise to an explosion of violent protests last February and March in the major urban centres of Senegal, resulting in victims and extensive damage. The involvement in a court case and the provisional arrest of Ousmane Sonko, the main political opponent of the government of President Macky Sall and greatly loved by younger voters was the spark that transformed dissatisfaction into rage. Of the same view is Aly Tandian, a professor of sociology at the Gaston Berger University of Saint-Louis and director of the Observatory of Senegalese Migrations, and adds: “Dissatisfaction and anger towards the apathy of the government regarding these problems are nothing new and will not simply go away. Without interventions aimed at restoring hope, people will take to the streets from time to time and the passeurs will always have customers to fill their boats”. The sociologist goes deeper when he states that “apart from the institutions, some responsibility must be attributed to the communities that continue to bring unbearable pressure on young people”.
In the social fabric, the idea that the conquest of the ‘European Eldorado’ benefits entire family networks, urges the young people to tempt fate to avoid being considered losers in the homes and city quarters. “Migration ceases to be a personal project and becomes a collective one born in families and couples”.

Fathers prosecuted
There has been much talk in Senegal during a court case where three fathers of families were accused of having assisted clandestine emigration. Among them was the father of fifteen-year-old Doudou Faye, who died of a disease in the arms of a friend on board a boat that sailed from M’bour. The boy’s body was thrown into the sea. The father had paid a fare of around 340 Euro for the boy to go to Spain. The debate raged in the Senegal media and social networks, fed by the continuing weekly news of the death of migrants.

“Some blamed the irresponsible father and the state which does nothing to prevent the passeurs from operating; and also those who were more understanding, venting their anger instead against the EU which makes it impossible to enter Europe to work or study” ‒ recounts the blogger Petit Ndiaye who took part in several debates on TV about the case at that time. “Without doubt, the media stimulated a collective reflection on the phenomenon and the state chose to make a statement by instituting the court proceedings. But it is not sufficient just to sensitise the population”. It is only the testimony of those who lost someone in those insane journeys that can have any real impact. In Malika Plage, in the outskirts of the capital, fifty-one-year-old Yayi Bayam Diouf emerges from a meeting of a local group of women who fight against illegal emigration. During the meeting, funds were collected for a young widow. Yayi lost his only son three years ago. His expression is one of fatal sadness: “He was my only helper. I urged him to find a job but I had no idea someone put the idea into his head to emigrate just to please me. One day he left to go fishing and he never came back”.

(M.S.)

Herbs & Plants. Albizia coriaria: anti-depressant medicinal plant.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

It is used for a treatment of a number of diseases. The plant can be prepared in a number of ways such as decoction, maceration and infusions.

It belongs to the plant family Fabaceae and is a deciduous tree that is widely distributed in tropical Africa. It is heavily branched forming a spreading dome-shaped crown. It usually grows up to 35m in height with a straight, cylindrical bole that can be branchless for up to 22m and a girth diameter of up to 100cm. It is usually unbuttressed, but can have small, thick buttresses up to 1.5 metres high. The leaves are bipinnate, pinnae 3-6 pairs, and leaflets 6-11 pairs, oblong to elliptical and 13-33 mm long, 5-17 mm wide, rounded at the apex, subglabrous except for a few hairs on the midrib beneath.

The flowers are subsessile or on pedicels 0.5-2 mm long; minute bracteoles, 1.5-2 mm long usually falling off before flowering. The calyx are 3.5-6.5 mm long and not slit unilaterally, puberulous outside, with few short stipitate glands. The corolla are 8-13.5 cm long, white and puberulous outside. The fruit is a pod of about 10-21 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, glabrous, brown or purplish-brown in colour when matured with a tapered or acute apex. The tree is harvested from the wild for use as timber and medicine. It is sometimes grown as an ornament in homesteads and as roadside trees, valued especially for its bright green splashes of new foliage growth and showy flowers.
The stem bark and leaves are the major medicinal parts of Albizia coriaria used for treatment of a number of disease conditions including cough, sore throats, syphilis, skin diseases, jaundice, and eye diseases and for use as a general tonic throughout the communities in which the plant is distributed. These plant parts can be prepared in a number of ways such as decoction, maceration, and infusions before administering based on a given disease condition.

The leaf decoction is used externally to treat headache, and as a wash or steam inhalation against fever, and gargled to relieve toothache. The leaf decoction can also be applied as a wash to kill head lice. A maceration of the leaves is administered as an enema to induce abortion. The bark is often used in traditional medicine and considered an astringent and vermifuge. The bark decoction of Albizia coriaria is often applied to stop bleeding from fresh wounds. It is also administered for the treatment of intestinal worms. Similarly, the bark decoction is also used for the treatment of dysentery, bronchial affections, and pain caused by fever. The stem bark is also boiled with water and the resultant decoction cooled and applied to the skin for the treatment of sores, pimples, and other skin ailments.
In addition, the steam from the concoction, once inhaled, can cure fever. The liquid can also be used to treat toothache. A bark maceration is drunk and/or applied as a wash to treat jaundice.

The bark has also been reported to be useful in the treatment of anaplasmosis and used as such is also used in the treatment of malaria. The bark decoction is taken orally to relieve one from anxiety, depression, sleep problems (insomnia), to improve mood, and to reduce swelling associated with trauma. It is also applied to the skin to treat insect bites, fractures, and sprains. In some communities, the bark of Albizia coriaria is used for the treatment of menorrhagia, threatened abortion and post-partum haemorrhage. The roots and bark in concoctions with other herbs is used in treating venereal diseases.
The medicinal activities of Albizia coriaria may be attributed to the various phytochemicals it contains including saponins and alkaloids.

Apart from the ethno-medicinal uses in treating human diseases and disorders, Albizia coriaria is also known to be important in ethno-veterinary in that the bark decoction is used in treating cattle diseases and a number of abdominal problems associated with protozoan parasites. The leaves are a source of saponins and are sometimes used for washing clothes. In some homesteads, the leaves are also used to cover bananas in order to hasten their ripening. The branchlets have been used as firesticks. It is used for construction, light and heavy flooring, staircases, furniture, cabinet making, joinery, turnery, implements, and carvings. It is also suitable for carpentry, musical instruments, railway sleepers, and the wood is a vital source of fuel.

Richard Komakech

Always On the Move.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

The Bororo culture is one of movement. There are different sorts of movement. First of all there is the perol, ‘the great movement’, mostly for political or environmental reasons.

It is a real migration and happens only in exceptional cases. For example, the great perol that brought part of the Wodaabe into the territory of Kawlaa, took place starting in 1910. Then there is the seasonal migration (baartol) which is a regular event and is caused by the ecological factors of the different areas. This movement determines the coming and going of the nomads; their centre, however, remains their affiliated territory.

The movement to the north, during the rainy season, is called njakake. When the rains are over, the Wodaabe return to the south where they spend the dry season. This migration is called djolol.
The goonsol, instead, connects two grasslands within an ecological unit. Shorter than the goonsol is the dimbdol, which takes place between two ‘points of water’. Moving during a girsusaki (short movement), the nomad can see his point of departure.

Livestock is their all
The family (wuro), whether nuclear or extended, is the fundamental unit of the social and economic life of the Wodaabe. It usually consists of a man, his wife (or wives) and the children. Each family has its own cattle. The ideal of an elderly Bodaado is to leave a legacy of more cattle than he himself received to his children.

Among the Zebu, the cattle are at the centre of Wodaabe interests. The animals are rarely killed although their milk and dairy products are used. A Bororo proverb says: ‘Without milk we are like the dead’. However, the animals can be bartered for other consumer goods with neighbouring peoples or people met during transhumance.
Unlike other tribes, among the Bororo the cattle also belong to the women. Each girl receives some heads of cattle as a dowry so that her survival may be assured, apart from Zebu espousal ties that are often very weak. The relationship with the animals is indissoluble. Each boy receives a calf while he is still very young. A Bororo lives off his herd. Each animal has its name and each boy is given the name of an animal. Only during feasts is it allowed to sacrifice an animal.

Animals mark the time
The day of the Bodaado is divided up by the life of the animals. Before sunrise, (tiima pinde na’i), the inspection of the animals takes place. At dawn, the small calves are released from the cord with which they were tied the night before (yoofa nyalbi) and allowed to suck milk from their mothers. Then the milking (bira na’t) begins. The animals are set free to graze (wammunde maajunde). At midday (iftol), instead, the herd rests; the small calves are kept separate from the adult cattle (nyalbi kodaama).

In the early afternoon (hiirtunde), the herd is allowed to graze. In the late afternoon the small calves are tied to the cord that divides the encampment (daangol): the hour is called habba nyalbi (‘then the calves are tied up’). In the evening (na’i njaa’oo or dudana na’o), the herd returns to the encampment and the fires are lit in the corral (du-dana na’). The milking follows (lira na’). Before retiring, the pastors tie the older calves to the cord (daangol). During the night (soggunde), the adult animals are sometimes allowed to graze.

Marriage, by law and for love
Being nomadic pastoralists, the Wodaabe are constantly moving in search of new grazing. They say: ‘We are like the birds: when we finish pecking we fly away’. They are well versed in knowledge of plants and spells and constantly use talismans and amulets. They live in temporary encampments composed of simple huts made from bushes and straw.

Marriages take place within the ethnic group and are of two types. The more prestigious form is that which takes place through engagement (kooggal). In this case, a male child and a female child are declared ‘engaged’ from a most tender age and they marry once they reach puberty. Since this sort of marriage is really ‘arranged’ by the parents and the families and demands various transactions involving animals, the tendency is to seek the future spouse of the son among paternal relatives; a cousin is often chosen. Most of first marriages are of the kooggal sort. The second type of marriage called teegal (free contract) is resorted to by people who are divorced, by those who have been left without a partner or by men who want a second or third wife. In this case, it is not necessary to choose the wife or husband from within the lineage of affinity; often a non Bodaado may be chosen. In principle, the teegal marriage certainly denotes mutual love, sentiments and passion but also an element of hostility since the wife is considered ‘stolen’.
In any case, the marriage is considered improper if it takes place between related lineages.

Reserved but jovial and with refined manners, the Bororo Wodaabe see themselves as courageous warriors. This is a necessary quality for survival in an area of continual tension and ethnic clashes. The areas of their transhumance border to the south with the sedentary farmers and, to the north, with the Tuareg whose warlike spirit is well known.
Unlike that of their neighbours, Wodaabe society is one of equals in solidarity but independent, one that has never had any form of slavery. The Bororo hate bonds, fences or being faced with limits. They are born nomads who do not recognise ties and do not wish to blend with other peoples. Besides their livestock, the Bororo take with them the most beautiful jewels and amulets; the women also take some empty gourds to use as containers and the men carry a long sword. They do not use tents. There is no hierarchy in their social organisation. The head of the clan, the ardo, simply gives counsel and his power is based on his moral authority. (F.M.)

The new narcotics routes in Africa.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

Heroin trafficking in Africa is growing in intensity due to the development of the ‘southern route’ that crosses the continent. This alternative route has become more popular because it is open almost all year round due to the lack of controls on the sea.

In recent years, the heroin trade in Africa has peaked due mostly to the tightening of controls along the Balkan route which, for decades, was the preferred road by which drugs from the East reached the western markets. Now it is the southern route that receives the greater volume of traffic. The route is composed of three different phases: sea transport from Afghanistan to the ports of eastern Africa, overland to South Africa, and again by sea to the main European ports.

During the first phase, the heroin is transported close to the coast of Makran in southern Pakistani Baluchistan towards east Africa using motorised dhows, small fast boats that are not picked up by satellites and capable of carrying a ton of cargo. The dhows wait a few kilometres from the more remote coasts of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique (Quissanga, for example), but it seems that a certain amount of drugs arrive concealed in containers in some of the port cities of the east coast (Nacala and Pemba are among these). As soon as the heroin begins the second phase of its journey by road, a less streamlined journey due to the poor condition of terrestrial communications. Light pickups loaded with from a hundred to two hundred kilos of heroin leave Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique and eventually arrive in South Africa.

Towards Johannesburg and beyond
On the southern route, Johannesburg constitutes a basic sorting house; at present, it is the main deposit and transhipment. There the loads are usually broken up into smaller packets (weighing from ten to twenty kilos) to avoid the inspections which are usually avoided by paying bribes or by inserting the packets into containers of non-perishable goods (wine, stones, or tiles) where they are not seen.
The use of containers in heroin trafficking has been an important resource introduced by influential Asian families that settled in Mozambique before independence.

A drug stash captured in the Indian Ocean. (Photo ACSS).

After the departure of the Portuguese, the remaining families shared out legal and illegal businesses, one of which was that of narcotics. Besides heroin, it seems that containers are also used to sell stolen cars, explosives for illegal mining, arms used for poaching and capturing protected species, alcohol, and tobacco. Widespread corruption allows almost all the containers to pass through the checks. According to some local workers, containers belonging to some protected businessmen cannot be searched. In this way, the containers are taken by train from South Africa to the principal ports and airports (Durban, Port Elisabeth, Cape Town), after which they reach their destination: Europe.

Social Impact
Despite the increase in trafficking, it seems that most of the heroin in Africa is only in transit. There is some local consumption, but it does not seem to be much at present. Nevertheless, in the past five years, the largest net increase in the use of narcotics in the world has been recorded in Africa (around 9.5 million African consumers) and a further peak is expected in the next thirty years (up to 23.2 million). Heroin trafficking has developed as an integrated regional criminal market that involves different east African economies in illegal activities and has prospered due to the fact that it is protected by the political élite.

In Mozambique, for example, this has prevented war between the trafficking families since it is continually being monitored by the FRELIMO authorities. Nevertheless, now that the use of hard drugs has infiltrated the community, it is becoming a source of serious concern since it is a vehicle for harmful social dynamics and threatens the already fragile government apparatus and African institutions. In the cities that are the largest consumers in the market, (Mombasa, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria) there has been an increase in criminal activity (theft, robberies, gang-wars), a general expansion of violence (with the use of arms), as well as the widespread diffusion of HIV, hepatitis C, and other infections.

Ylenia De Riccardis/CgP

Nigeria. Avocado, the black pear.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

Some African countries are on their way to becoming the main avocado exporters of the future due to the particularly favourable environmental conditions of the continent. The crop may take the place of coffee and create more jobs.

The avocado is certainly one of the food products more in demand in the West in recent years both for its culinary and aesthetic properties. The Latin American countries are the main exporters. There, the avocado is seen as nothing less than ‘green gold’ and it is a source of riches for the regional economy but it has come to be the symbol of environmental degradation and the exploitation of the cultivators. Recently, the market for this fruit has been expanding also in the African continent with modalities that are completely different from those of Latin America and give reason to hope for a mode of production that is both profitable and eco-sustainable. In Africa, in fact, the avocado is cultivated on small farms in areas of high rainfall that renders unnecessary the use of harmful pesticides and avoids creating water supply problems
for the local population.

Kenya is already among the top ten producers in the world, while other African countries have only just discovered the characteristics of this new crop. This applies to Nigeria where there are fields of various species of avocado, especially in Plateau State, but trade is more international than local. This is due to different factors, one of which is the lack of information among the population which is reluctant to cultivate a plant that takes several years and a lot of water before producing fruit as compared to cultivating maize and potatoes. Furthermore, starting a cultivation of avocado trees often requires imported seedlings which raises the cost of production. However, some cultivators have established themselves in this new sector and are collaborating with the Nigerian government to sensitise public opinion about the avocado, the modernisation of the agricultural system, rotating various crops so as to render the soil more productive.

Woman selling fruit in the market. Compuinfoto/123RF.com

The Avocado Society of Nigeria (AVOSON) is the main organisation at the national level devoted to developing the avocado market, guaranteeing the integrity of the environment and new jobs for the citizens. Besides various training projects, AVOSON also promotes outlets for the sale of seedlings so that the small farmers do not have to pay high prices for imports. There are still, of course, many questions to be answered, the first of which regards the effect of climate change on rainfall and the model of the future development of Nigerian farms, but at present there seems to be a real possibility of a new market for the country
and the surrounding region.

An alternative to coffee
Even though the export of agricultural products was, in the sixties, the largest source of income for Nigeria, since the seventies, agriculture has been neglected in favour of the petroleum sector. Only in recent years, due to the collapse of oil prices, is agriculture emerging from a long period of stagnation.

The government is now aiming not only to increase agricultural production but also to diversify and modernise it. In this context, the role of the avocado is becoming increasingly important. Coffee is another agricultural product that has been present in the African market for many years. Like the avocado, it is produced for export rather than local consumption. The African coffee plantations face strong competition from Latin American countries known for the excellent quality of their coffee as well as climate change due to which rainfall has become unreliable and endangers the fields of millions of African coffee cultivators. The government is therefore making investments to develop new techniques of coffee cultivation as well as diversifying production while relying on avocado plantations.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo (L) holding an Avocado while speaking Sola Adeniyi, chief executive officer, of Avocado Society of Nigeria. (Photo Business Day).

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo defined the avocado as ‘the new Nigerian oil’ during a meeting of the Avocado Society of Nigeria and hopes that the country will become its largest exporter before the end of 2030. Income from the export of this fruit increased by a third from 2019 to 2020 in eastern Africa. The ‘African pear’ – as the fruit is sometimes called in the continent – is being seen not only as an antidote against malnutrition and some diseases but also against poverty since it creates work for many of its citizens. The schools are also providing information about this fruit so rich in beneficial properties, and the government is enthusiastically supporting initiatives in the sector, confident that the hopes of the former President may be realised.

Alessandra De Martini/CgP

Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya. Death of the Moses of the Congo.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

Like Moses, Cardinal Monsengwo, who died in France 11 July last aged 81, fought for most of his life to lead his flock to the promised land of democracy but did not see it himself.

Most of those who knew him consider Mgr. Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya who just passed away in a hospital near Paris, to have been one of Congo’s greatest figures and even one of Africa’s most important church leaders of his generation.
Born into a family of traditional chiefs of the Sakata tribe, in the Mai Ndombe province, near Kinshasa, Laurent Monsengwo, the son of a carpenter, was a brilliant student at the Kabwe Major Seminary where he studied philosophy. A few years later, he travelled to Rome where he was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 24.
The young priest soon became quite a figurehead among African Roman Catholic intellectuals. He was the first African doctor of Biblical Exegesis which he was awarded in 1971 and the first of his continent to become the special secretary of a Synod of Bishops in 2008. Later in 2021, he co-chaired with Pope Benedict XVI the synod on the New Evangelization.

Laurent Monsengwo’s cultural achievements are impressive. He spoke more than 12 languages including his mother tongue Kisakata and also the Congo’s main linguae francae, Lingala and Swahili beside those of the Belgian colonizers: French and Dutch. In addition, he learnt Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese. He was also familiar with the languages of the Scriptures: Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Greek and Latin. Moreover, Laurent Monsengwo composed pieces of organ music and celebrated Holy Mass according to the Zairian ritual which includes dancing in accordance with the inculturation theology he was promoting to spread the Gospel in Africa.
After he was consecrated bishop by John-Paul II in 1980, Mgr. Monsengwo became archbishop of Kisangani and later of the capital, Kinshasa until 2018. In 2010, Benedict XVI made him a cardinal. He also acquired an international dimension after he became the chairman of Zaire’s bishops’ conference, was elected chairman of the symposium of bishops conferences of Africa and Madagascar and chairman of Pax Christi International. He also represented Africa in the College of Cardinals appointed by Pope Francis to reform the Curia.

In many ways, Mgr. Monsengwo played a pivotal role in the Roman Catholic Church on the African continent. But his political involvement in Congo itself provided him with even more visibility and celebrity. Indeed, as a promoter of the basic ecclesial communities which were spreading all over the country, Mgr. Monsengwo became one of the main authors of the Roman Catholic bishops’ memo which urged Mobutu to abandon the single-party system and pave the way for a democratic state. In 1991, he acquired a leading political role when he was elected chairman of the Sovereign National Conference, whose task was to lead the democratic transition, while exposing at the same time, the properties misappropriated by the Mobutuist tycoons and cronies. Eventually, Laurent Monsengwo was elected chairman of the transition parliament called the Higher Council of the Republic. From this position, between of 1992 and 1996, he tried but did not succeed to force Mobutu to leave power in a very tense period. Those were the times of the massacre of Christian activists by Mobutu’s security forces during a peaceful demonstration for democracy on 16 February 1992.

But in 1997, the rebellion of Laurent Kabila’s Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire put an end to Monsengwo’s predominant role in Congolese politics and from then on, he devoted all his efforts to his Kisangani dioceses.
However, in 2000, the occupation of the city by Ugandan and Rwandan troops and the battle between them for the control of Kisangani and the looting of its resources prompted the prelate to get involved again in politics to expose the “martyrdom” of his compatriots and call for the creation of an international criminal court to judge the predators and the perpetrators of the crimes.
Ten years after Joseph Kabila was sworn in as the successor of his father Laurent, who was assassinated on the 16 January 2001, in an almost dynastic way, Mgr. Monsengwo criticised sharply the massive rigging of the 2011 presidential elections. He spoke of results that were not in conformity with truth or justice. He resumed the fight for free, fair and credible elections in 2016 at the end of Joseph Kabila’s mandate when the incumbent president was using all sorts of pretexts to delay the vote and stay longer in office. As protest demonstrations were growing, Congo’s Roman Catholic Church offered to mediate but Kabila used all sorts of tricks and managed to postpone the elections until December. At the time, Monsengwo’s address calling for the “mediocre people to step down,” met with tremendous success and gathered support all over the country. The cardinal said that the victims who died during these demonstrations wanted to remind us that “Pacta sunt servanda”, (Commitments must be respected). He also spoke against the “barbarity” of Kabila’s police who entered the churches including the cathedral, using tear gas.

Journalists will remind Cardinal Monsengwo as a man who, despite his monotonous voice, fascinated them with his vast culture and the relevance and humour of his statements. Few Congolese intellectuals have described as sharply the corrupt and versatile Congolese political class, which was going through an “ethical crisis” he said, distinguishing two main types; the very few “vertebrates” who rely on the support of a party, of a region, or of a cause and the chameleon-like “invertebrates” whose weakness is owed to their difficulty to stick to their word. “I almost have the impression that there is a cult of mediocrity in the country”, he said once to Vatican Radio.
To those who accused him of seeking power for himself, Cardinal Monsengwo retorted: “Political power does not interest me. I have said several times that we want a Congo of values and not a Congo of anti-values”. His successor as archbishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Fridolin Ambogo says: “He is convinced that you cannot believe in God without believing at the same time in the human person, in his or her dignity”.

François Misser

Kenya. Nairobi’s thirst for a future.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

Short of water and housing, with spreading criminality and a pandemic that seems difficult to bring to a halt, Nairobi is in search of a ray of light. With its lively underground scene fed by a young, dynamic society and a futuristic smart city plan, the Kenyan capital is trying to quench its thirst for a future.

Before the formation of the metropolitan area with more than ten million inhabitants, there was a vast swampy area where various peoples lived, the best known of which were the Maasai. It is from the Maasai language that Nairobi takes its name: enkare nyirobi, the land of cold waters. When the British arrived in 1899, it was necessary to open East Africa to colonisation, join the internal regions of the continent with Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean. Nairobi was then founded at the beginning of the twentieth century as a railway depot for Uganda Railway. This marked the start of a population explosion from 25,000 inhabitants in the early twenties to 4.5 million today and an annual growth projection of more than 4% at least until 2030.

So little remains of those cold waters that, since independence, Nairobi has often had to come to terms with serious difficulties in providing water, due especially to the rapid rise in the urban population and a high rate of loss. The situation is so critical that, despite the large dam on the Thika River (with a capacity of 70 million cubic metres), the city is still exposed to the cycle of the seasons and only 50% of the population has direct access to the mains while 40% of the water is lost. Apart from the possibility of boosting the urban network, (64% financed by foreign donors according to USAID estimates), the government has launched a project to connect to the pipeline 193 wells dug by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services, a public entity, with an investment of 1.7 billion Kenyan shillings (about €13 million).
According to the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation, Nairobi needs a further 260 million litres of water per day which, with the financial help of international institutions, the city intends to obtain by means of important infrastructure serving the entire metropolitan area, such as the Karimenu Dam (23 million litres per day) and Ruiru Dam (32 million litres), the Northern Collector Tunnel (140 million litres) and the Kigoro water treatment plant (140 million litres).

These projects could provide the Nairobi metropolitan area with more than 500 million litres per day, increasing the percentage of citizens with access to potable water which already rose from 72% to 76% in the last three years. While the shortage of housing has become a chronic affliction for the well-off western metropoli, the phenomenon assumes dramatic proportions in Nairobi. According to the World Bank, Kenya would need to build around 200,000 new homes every year to keep up with population growth but the situation shows a housing deficit of about two million units. As a result, Nairobi has an abundance of slums full of misery and poverty, with no essential services where conditions are ideal for the incessant spread of the pandemic which has already reached 70,000 cases in the city. The crisis is aggravated by the constant coming and going to and from the rural areas of the country from where thousands of people come to the capital in search of a better life.

Overcrowding in the slums of the periphery also contributes to the intensification of existing criminality, a very dangerous phenomenon for the capital of a country in the front line of the fight against international terrorism. However, the housing crisis has also been produced by the real estate bubble that has held Nairobi in its grasp for years. Around 75% of the workforce of the city earn less than 500 dollars a month and 91% live in rented accommodation due to high interest rates on loans. This creates a wide gap between those who earn enough to buy a house and to change the face of entire quarters. An example of this is the ongoing process of gentrification in Eastleigh, in the eastern part of Nairobi now in the hands of the Somali diaspora while the original population increasingly falls victim to authoritarian evictions enforced by the police as happened in the spring of 2020 when, from one day to the next, the Kenyan government removed around 8,000 people from the Kariobangi and Ruai. The urban and housing dynamics, an emblem of the rapid increase in inequality, have led to a stratification of classes and groups in a regime of substantial coexistence which has amplified the perception of the marginalisation of the poorer segments of the population, especially the young who are trapped between the dream of riches and the disenchantment of deprivation, often co-opted by criminality. In a country where youth unemployment is almost 40%, the young people frequently face a lack of education and training, despite the government having started various initiatives within the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Vision 2030 and the former Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation.

The vitality and complexity of Nairobi is also shown by the vibrant music scene which is going beyond the confines of Kenya, especially regarding hip hop and electronic music, with productions by artists like The Cosmic Homies, Khaligraph Jones, Karun and Octopizzo. The parabola of Nairobi hip hop has its roots in the slums, in contexts of social conflict and contestation, poverty, violence and discomfort. The song ‘Wajinga Nyinyi’ by King Kaka, for example, is one of the soundtracks of youth protests against corruption, misgovernment and the feeling of being deprived of a future. The former group Ukoo Flani has made the suburb of Dandora, the site of the largest dump of the city and the centre of dubious business between Italy and Kenya, into one of the main rap scenes of the country. All this is accompanied by the coloured graffiti culture which, in defiance of the law, is to be seen on the matatu, the privately-owned minibus taxis. In the midst of such a scenario, not many people would connect the concept of a ‘smart city’ with a metropolis like that of Nairobi. Yet, an experiment is taking place to use technology to modernise the city and render it more visible, also helping it to face the dangers posed by climate change.

The project ‘Konza City’ was born in Nairobi.

The terms and conditions are dictated by a society where the average person is young, where new technologies are slowly but inexorably taking hold thanks to the development of telecommunications and digital technology in the field of banking and finance. It is no coincidence that the project ‘Konza City’ was born in Nairobi. This involves the idea of creating a sort of Kenyan-style Silicon Valley, a project worth 14.5 billion to be built 60 kilometres from the city that could create about 20,000 jobs. It is planned to function as a real smart city capable of collecting data on traffic, transport, energy, and construction. Like the Konza Technopolis, a hub of innovation and research which, though rather late in comparison with others, is proceeding by leaps and bounds.
These are small signs of hope in a difficult context, forging ahead and making up for lost time. Perhaps they are but a drop in the ocean, but they may help Nairobi to quench its thirst for a future.

Luca Cinciripini – Beniamino Franceschini/CgP

Gerewol. The festival of Love.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

The Gerewol is the festival of bodily beauty. The young Bororo, after spending ascetic months in the savannah, paint their faces with the most extravagant designs to accentuate their extended lines.

On a pre-selected plain, the various groups set up camp with small huts made of branches and mats. The enclosure for the livestock is close by. At dawn, a woman sings: ‘The morning star has risen. O you, most beautiful girls, and you, charming youths, arise. The great of the Gerewol begins’. Both the youths and the girls dress up for the feast: ethnic tattoos, abundance of necklaces, bracelets and rings. Narrow black, white or yellow lines from forehead to cheeks help to make the noses appear still longer and sharper. Each one looks at himself or herself in a mirror and is pleased with his or her beauty. What matters for the young Bororo is to differentiate oneself as much as possible from what distinguishes the appearance of the Africans of the central west.

The signal for the start of the feast is given by a second song. The young men, unmoved, with painted faces, smiling and with their lips painted black, begin the first moves of a ritual dance. Hand in hand and forming a circle, they begin to sing a monochord song based on a single, continuous note. In a few minutes the harmony becomes almost hypnotic; the appearance of the young people creates a hallucinogenic vision. The dance consists of a series of slow upward jumps in which the body is bent, almost in an arch, while the face assumes bizarre expressions. The dancers roll their eyes, show their teeth, puff out their cheeks, and grimace with their lips, turning them outwards in impossible ways or making them tremble. Their aim is to show off their attractiveness, their magnetism, their personality. The eyes fascinate and frighten. Some are able to roll one eye while keeping the other still like that of a fish.

Four men, winners of former ‘editions’ and now appointed judges, observe and urge on the dancers. Novices and beginners soon give up and go to one side, leaving the true champions to continue the contest. Excitement grows. The challenge is hard. Some surrender and the remainder rejoice. They change their ostrich feathers for others; they touch up their paint or go over it again, increasing the magnetism of their faces.The girls have hitherto confined themselves to watching and commenting on the appearance of different dancers. Now, however, an elder approaches and offers them his hand. Now free to approach the dancers, their presence adds fuel to the fire. Covering her critical eyes with her left hand, the first girl chooses a youth with a gracious gesture of her shoulders. He is ‘her’ togu. But he is not necessarily the most interesting of all. That decision belongs to the judges and will be made at the end of the festival.

The Wodaabe believe the heart is the seat of the togu. A person with togu speaks with the heart. Togu is a way of being, based on behaviour that is noble and refined behaviour but is also courageous and warlike. The dancers continue to dance. The second girl comes on the scene, then the third and all the others. Each one chooses her young man. ‘Married’ to a man not of her choosing, the girl is now free to have the man who made her heart beat faster. At least for one night! Nevertheless, the Gerewol is also the appropriate occasion for a true teegal marriage. The union will be sanctioned by the results of the first night of love spent together. If a child is born, it will be a ‘love- child’. Once the seven days of the festival are over, filled with memories and renewed in spirit and in body, each one returns to their usual way of life. “We are not afraid of the difficulties of life like drought or death. As long as we have feet to walk with, we will take our herds where the land is fertile. Our life is like the sand of the desert, always moving, without end. And when we die we shall continue to walk and to watch over from above the herds of our children”.

Text & Photos. Francesca Mascotto

People and Values are Interconnected.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

Advocacy is both defending people, especially the poor and vulnerable ones, and actions promoting values. Splitting the two, people and values, however, brings advocacy to a cleft stick of becoming a tricky ideological issue. Insofar, a clear set of values on the background of any advocacy is of acute need. Two significant examples are on the front page during these weeks.

On the NGO/CSW website, has appeared a document advocating and supporting the position that “sex work” is a feminist principle. The statement provoked a counteraction through a proposed letter for signing by organizations and individuals from across the world.
In the letter, a statement out of concern opposes this initiative supporting inclusiveness and intersectionality in the women’s movement to promote prostitution.

“The notion that sex work is work –states the document- is one we believe to be fundamentally incompatible with the values laid out in a statement called The Affirmation of Feminist Principles which claims to oppose exploitation and discrimination in all its forms. We know that the sex trade systematically preys on poverty and disproportionately harms women of color, children, trans-women, and other marginalized communities. Any effort to legitimize it as an alternative to education and employment is counterproductive to our collective long-term
goal of gender equality.”

At the same time, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, archbishop of Newark (NJ-US) expresses his concern because the proposed federal budget of the United States wants to eliminate the Hyde Amendment, “which, for 45 years, has prohibited the use of federal funds for abortion.” He explains, “The Hyde Amendment is credited with saving the lives of millions of children. Now, the powerful pro-abortion lobby and members of Congress are calling for the elimination of this Amendment and the implementation of a policy that would designate billions of taxpayer dollars for elective abortions,” even in foreign countries.

“Taxpayer-funded abortion represents a failure to recognize the sanctity of human life and promotes a culture in which human life in its most vulnerable moment is perceived as disposable. Such a proposal targets poor women as needing an expedient solution to a complex problem.”

Cardinal Joseph’s concern, however, stops short. The suppression of the Hyde Amendment and all action promoting abortion in Africa, for examples, would be not moral but a social tsunami. It will enforce the idea that rich countries ‘want to kill people’ in poor countries to decrease the world population.

As a result, for instance, South Sudan is about to send back the 124,000 doses of the anti Covid vaccine because for Africans, Covid and vaccines are, like abortion, European policies to kill African people. Which, by the way, would create in Africa the dreaded large pocket of infections that would then spread across Europe and the world through migrations, the exact contrary result of what many world organizations would like to achieve by sending vaccines free-cost to Africa.

As Pope Francis said, abortion “is not a primarily religious issue but one of human ethics,” and let us add a social issue. Think of China: after their one child policy, it allowed two children and now three. Without eliminating selective abortion, however. China is having 120 males for 90 females, with serious social hardship.

The solution? What the Romans did, the Sabine women’s kidnapping. For China, the solution is from Thailand and Myanmar through women and girls trafficking.
Are we then surprised why China vetoes UN intervention against the military dictatorship in Myanmar? China sells weapons to and steals women from Myanmar, and China, let us remember it, plays a prominent imaginary role in the social and public consciousness in Africa.

Going back to the first example, the quoted letter goes on, affirming, “Prostitution is a clear expression of the patriarchal systems of power”, oppressing women. However, it goes on, “We must recognize that male entitlement to the bodies of other people is a hallmark of slavery, colonialism, and other forms of racism, genocide, and domination. The system of prostitution is antithetical to equality.”

The advocacy aims at the universality of human rights, to non-discrimination, and freedom from violence, as well as to the understanding that human rights are inherent to every person, regardless of their sex or gender. Therefore, it is becoming clearer by the day that the presumption of defending any social group, even a minority, without setting the advocacy on the solid bases of universal and accepted values is just a sterile ideological action. “It cannot be emphasized enough,”

Pope Francis says, “how everything is interconnected.” The Pope applies this principle to explore the root causes of environmental degradation, linking it with corrupt social structures, human failures, injustice, and inequality. We cannot either separate the advocacy addressing human right from the defense of human values, people and values are interconnected.

Living without destructive plastic.

Sunday, 1 August 2021 8:00

Plastic was and is a magical invention. It is a material based on oil and has thousands of excellent and life-saving uses. In the medical world, in construction, in tool-making, manufacturing of phones and other gadgets, cars, household items, furniture and almost everything you see has plastic in it.

Our modern world depends on plastic to sustain its present lifestyle. But that lifestyle built on the plastic revolution has its dangerous dark side. Everything we humans use and discard can have dire consequences for the planet. Garbage is everywhere and it is damaging our health. Plastic pollution is destroying many creatures and poisoning our air and rivers and oceans and people don’t seem to care.

It is dangerous to health because it is a destructive chemical-based pollutant and it is the one-time use of disposable plastic stuff that is so dangerous and damaging to our lives, our health, our environment. The fish we eat have plastic in them because the vast oceans are filling up with discarded plastic. If you Google ‘Plastic Pollution in Manila’ you will get a sight that will make you cry or angry. You will see photos of the esteros, canals, rivers and Manila Bay choked with millions of discarded plastic bottles, cups, straws, bags, nets and wrappings. Eventually some drifts into the far ocean.

These single-use plastic items make up 40 percent of all annual plastic production worldwide. They are with us forever, you might say, and will not disintegrate for about 400 years. The millions of tons of floating plastic will eventually join the great Pacific garbage patch that covers a surface area that is 1.6 million square kilometres. That is three times the size of France. It is swirling in ocean currents between California and Hawaii and elsewhere. There are many other lesser known floating garbage islands where our discarded single-use plastics end up.

The ocean currents sweep up the floating plastic in gyre regions as they are called. An estimated 297 million tons of plastic is out there on the ocean currents distributed as follows: in the North Pacific (36 percent), Indian Ocean (22 percent), North Atlantic (21 percent), South Pacific (8 percent) and the South Atlantic (4.5 percent). The Mediterranean Sea has 8.5 percent. We humans sure dirty
our own planet.

What is most dangerous to all living creatures in the short and long term is the damage to our health from micro-plastics. The plastic bottles, cups, straws and bags eventually breakdown into tiny micro-plastic particles and even Nano-plastics.
A massive eight million tonnes every year float into the oceans and tons of plastic dust are blown into the atmosphere from the tons of plastic in open pit garbage dumps. We breathe the dust into our lungs. It may be necessary to always wear a mask.

The micro-plastics get into everything- our throats, lungs and stomachs- and they harm wildlife, too. Fish are found dead their stomachs filled with plastic bags. Tests have shown micro plastics are in many caught fish on our dinner tables. I have gone vegetarian.

Birds are dying by the thousands from eating plastic items. Penguins, albatrosses and many sea gulls have died as a result of eating floating or submerged plastics. Thousands of dolphins, sharks, whales and turtles are caught in the drifting discarded plastic fishing nets of the commercial fishing industry.
What incredible damage we are doing to wild nature, ourselves and our children by such irresponsible I-don’t-care behaviour.

Discarded one-use plastic is a culture of death and destruction. Researchers have found items from almost every continent floating in the garbage patch and cast up on remote Pacific islands. They have been found in the deepest part of the ocean to the highest point on earth, Mount Everest, no less. Europe and the United States have their garbage and plastic disposable and recycling challenges yet Asia is the source of most of the plastic garbage.

The plastic garbage monster is coming not only from the Pasig in Manila where most of it stays in coastal waters but mostly it is coming down the five major Chinese rivers and also from the Nile in Egypt, the Ganges in India, the Indus in Pakistan, the Niger in Africa and the Mekong River that passes through Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.

There is one way to solve this: a worldwide ban on single use plastics like plastic bags, cups, bottles, drinking straws stir-sticks, cutlery and food containers. There are laws in place in some countries banning plastic bags. In the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, plastic bags are banned in stores and super markets. More restrictions are coming in the US and the EU but not soon enough. The Philippines needs such laws to save our beautiful islands and rivers and beaches. Burying the garbage in the sand is not the answer.

Beach and environmental clean ups are good and we see youth cleaning up other people’s dirty environmental mess that is destroying the ecology. Speeches are important but action is more effective.
It will be so much better to prevent the plastic pollution by passing and implementing laws to get all stores, supermarkets, and food establishments to use only recyclable bio-gradable packaging
and wrapping.

Each of us can do our part. We can always have your own reusable water bottle, demand restaurants give a glass, ceramic or paper cup and paper straw and refuse to order if they use plastic. Look for bio-degradable materials. We can bring a shopping bag to the supermarket and never use plastic that is not biodegradable. At home or in the office, we separate all discarded materials and make a weekly trip to the recycling bins. If we all did these things, it would make a big difference. Let’s make a start. But we have to persuade government to act and pass stricter laws to end the plastic pollution in the Philippines and elsewhere.

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