Posted on 05/25/2002 5:54:55 PM PDT by blam
Starving children scavenge for berries as famine sweeps Zimbabwe
(Filed: 26/05/2002)
Robert Mugabe's calamitous land grab policy is turning a drought into disaster for much of southern Africa, reports Jane Flanagan from Zimbabwe.
Matsapi Nyathi had spent two days queuing for food aid on an empty stomach and was finding it difficult to keep herself standing upright.
Her haggard features were creased not just with hunger and age, but with embarrassment at having to wait in line for charity handouts.
"We have plenty of our own fields, you know, and it should not be like this," said the 67-year-old peasant. "We used to be able to grow everything we want but that has all changed."
When she finally arrived at the front of the queue in Zimbabwe's drought-stricken Matabeleland province, she was handed a bag of maize meal and a portion of dried beans provided by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
"At last I will be able to sleep," she said, smiling faintly and loading her bags onto a borrowed donkey and cart. "My grumbling stomach has been keeping me awake."
A quarter of Zimbabwe's 12 million people are starving. Two years of drought have brought hunger and malnutrition to swathes of southern Africa, but in Zimbabwe the crisis has been deepened by President Robert Mugabe's policy of grabbing the land of white farmers and his calamitous handling of the economy.
That is a disaster not just for Zimbabwe but also for its neighbours as the country had been an exporter of maize and wheat before Mr Mugabe's mobs embarked upon their campaign of violent farm seizures just as the worst drought in half a century began.
The parched fields in southern Matabeleland show the scale of the crisis.
In the queue for food, a man in his eighties explained that his grandchildren had stopped going to school because they were too weak to walk the 90 minutes each way. Instead, they spend hours every day scouring the bush for roots and berries for the family.
The dirt track through the nearby village - an hour's drive from the nearest tarmac road - was lined with children picking fruits and berries. Schoolteachers have warned them to be careful of what they gather; two children died recently after eating poisonous berries.
Emelda Marufu and Mgani Moyo, both 10, were sitting on a rock, munching on mabubatsa fruit - a long, brown fibrous pod. They were gathering armfuls of the fruit to take home to their families.
Mgani said that his family had received some donated food, enough for one meal a day. "I am not as hungry as before," he said, "but I like to eat fruit to make me full until it is time to eat."
A number of schools in the area have been forced to close on certain days after pupils fainted from hunger. Sports lessons have been cancelled indefinitely.
"I want my children to go to lessons to learn," Edith Nyathi, 32, said from the back of the food queue, "but the walk is too much for them some days when they are so famished. How can they learn when they have no food in their stomachs?"
Her mother, Matala Nare, 78, was sitting outside her thatched hut using a small rock to crush a pile of marula nuts gathered from the bush, to extract tiny seeds that provide at least some protein. "It takes a long time to open them, and it is hard for my old fingers," she said, "but they are good for us."
Throughout the homesteads, scores of skeletally thin mongrel dogs pawed through the scrub and dust, searching for scraps to eat; others were too close to death to leave the shade of the trees.
Robinah Mulenga, an official of the WFP, said: "Dogs are a good indicator of how bad things are.
"They rely on leftovers from the family, but in these times, there are none. After the dogs, it is the smallest children who begin to suffer because they are not fed often enough.
"Adults can survive on one meal every day, or other day, but young children can't and they soon begin to get dangerously ill."
The combination of natural disaster and political folly has left more than 20 million people across southern Africa suffering from malnutrition or facing starvation.
Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket of the region and its farmers were previously relied upon to feed their own citizens and their neighbours during times of hardship. This year, however, few of the commercial farmers left on their land have bothered to sow for a future harvest.
Shop shelves have been empty of staple foods such as maize, oil and sugar for months, and there is nothing in reserve for winter. With only about a fifth of its normal maize crop of about 1.5 million tons expected to be harvested, Zimbabwe is unable to feed its own people, let alone its neighbours.
Mr Mugabe, with his foreign currency reserves squandered and unable to afford to buy extra food from abroad, recently declared a state of emergency. He has also thrown himself on the mercy of those nations prepared to give aid.
Few donors are willing to assist his discredited regime, however, particularly after the violent and disputed election in March. The WFP has received only half of the 120,000 tons of food aid for which it has appealed for Zimbabwe.
It has also increased security for food-handling operations after reports that convoys were being hijacked by pro-Mugabe thugs and distributed solely to Zanu-PF supporters, leaving the population at large to its fate.
Pity.
I hope the nominating committee is paying attention!
Our man Robert's lookin' good!
Famine sweeps Zimbabwe Pity.
Keep in mind this is only the beginning too. It's going to get worse, much worse.
The slaughter of the population by the ZanuPF hasn't even begun yet.
I agree. How do you think South Africa will be affected?
The winter wheat crop is not being planted due to farm invasions and due to the issuance Section 8 orders making it a criminal offence for the commercial farmer to continue operations.
Even if a farmer were to be allowed to operate, farms need borrowed capital. What banker will lend money on the strength of a pledge of land and crops that can be confiscated on short notice whenever a Zanu PF bigshot takes it into his mind that he would like to own a farm.
In the long run, the same forces are at work in South Africa and it can be expected to follow Zim's example within the decade.
Yup. That's pretty much what I was thinking, thanks.
Well, no. It gets better. After the slaughter, there
will be lesser demand for food, hence the famine is slaked.
Oh Clive, even a witless idiot could know that famine would hit Zimbabwe with Mugabe's land-grabbing. It's like watching a slow motion, on-coming train wreck and there's nothing to stop it. The elections were Zimbabwe's last hope and of course, that was stolen also. Why should Mugabe and his aides care about famine? They won't starve, not matter how bad it gets. To hell with the people and on to blaming the West and demanding aid, the majority of which won't get to the starving. It's the same old story. God help the innocent Zimbabweans.
Ah, but the thirst for blood won't be satisfied with out making those responsible for the famine,
(the white commercial farmers) pay a deadly price.
The ZanuPF will of course be blameless, and as they will be the ones that survive the famine,
that will be their story and they will stick to it.
The worst thing we could do is to prop him up with assistance.
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