Harvest Appeal 2010 - Letter from Hazel Durbridge August 2010
Dear Wendy
What shall I pontificate about this month? Feudalism. Much of what I
have found in Bogo is essentially feudal – a way of life I studied in my
History classes that took place in medieval times. Why do I think that?
They farm in rows using hand implements in open fields operating a 3 year
crop rotation. Land disputes are the primary source of conflict in
villages, along with ‘sort your weeds because they are affecting my
crops’.
One concerning thing for the future (as it has happened in other African
countries and happened in England with enclosure of fields) is that very
few have the ‘titre de fonctionaire’ i.e. legal evidence of right to their
land. Technically it all belongs to the state and ‘ownership’ is only
history and family tradition.
The ‘lawane’ system (tribal chiefs) that sits alongside the political
system operates the same tithing structure as the feudal lords only it
seems churches and mosques don’t get one tenth of production here if
anything. This means that mosques generally have no charitable
function other than guiding prayers and running Koran classes for
infants. It’s not East London or Luton here with their very socially
active mosques.
People live in the African equivalent of wattle and daub huts with straw
roofs, mud floors and no water, electricity, gas or in many cases any sort
of road for access. They draw water from wells and cook on open wood
fires.
People bow and scrape to anyone more powerful than them and can generally
be treated with the utmost disrespect.
People die all the time of diseases that could be cured if the families
were prepared to or could afford to buy medicines. Hospitals don’t have
enough equipment, but people only use them as a last resort so as a
westerner if you need a doctor you go to the hospital and there are less
queues than in England apart from at an American hospital just outside
Maroua.
Babies are rarely registered so the majority of the population don’t know
what day they were born or how old they are. It goes without saying that
therefore they don’t celebrate birthdays, but also if they are not
registered they can not go to school beyond primary or be eligible for
many jobs.
Very few people go to school, especially in the villages, partly because
schools have no toilets, tables and chairs, books, enough teachers or even
a roof in places. Conversely there are young people still at secondary
school who are 25 because they have missed years or
had to resit. I feel sorry for the parents.
You know this because I have already said it, but there is very little to
eat. People eat the same thing day in and day out – a big lump of mille,
like a dumpling, with 3 or 4 changes of sauce. Mille is nutritionally
very good even though I may think it tastes pretty yuk, so the upside is
most of Bogo populace have fantastically fit bodies and wonderful teeth.
Their skin isn’t always brilliant which might be because they don’t eat
much fruit or vegetables.
One thing I haven’t told you about yet is that men and women ‘gob’ a lot.
Great big globules fired in giant arcs. It’s most disconcerting and not
considered something you do privately. However they do go outside to blow
their noses which they do without handkerchiefs or
tissues.
Men wear very cute little pill box hats in starched cotton that are both
jaunty and distinguished. What they also wear with equal panache are
western style woolly hats favoured by trendy young men in the west. It
makes me smile to see them on old men here. They don’t do moustaches, but
they do do very stylish goatee beards.
Projects internal and external to the council are beginning to formulate.
The organizational development process will be illusory because the
council executive all think they are brilliant and obviously can’t learn
from a woman, but the councillors who can’t read and write and the lawanes
do want training. Externally it’s about maximizing all the buildings they
do have that they keep empty and locked – public toilets in the middle of
a cholera epidemic so people
defecate in the street, not one but two granaries where people should be
saving sacks of mille to sell when the price is high, empty public halls
when young people have nowhere to meet, a library run by the mission used
by Catholics and Muslims that needs staff resources rather than investing
in yet another building.
And finally, my beloved moutons and poulets have been residents chez moi
for a month. Yod is very good and affectionate. Mabel (already pregnant)
is a very naughty escapee who has eaten off all the tops of my maize. The
guardian de nuit (Bouba) says she is the naughtiest
sheep he has ever known. Jake says it is just typically a Durbridge
phenomena that we get disobedient animals.
Charles is the cock and Cressida the female chicken who is already laying
eggs that we are leaving in the hope she hatches some. Charles starts
crowing about 3.30am in the morning which isn’t quite his fault. It’s
Ramadan so the Muslims are up eating breakfast before
daylight.
Charles too is very friendly and spends most of the day on my porch
watching me through the mosquito doors. Consequently I get a lot of
chicken excrement by my front door. I have already had one row with Bouba
who thinks I should be running round clearing up all day.
I am not being told what to do by anyone these days. I shall be
insufferable when I get home!
Hazel X