Hello friends and family,
Last month, I wrote about the historic drought that is devastating Zambia. Since then, things have only gotten worse. Aside from a few brief showers, the rain has stopped completely, and whatever viable crops remained have dried up. The New York Times reported that 20 million people in southern Africa are facing “acute hunger.” Unless the UN and foreign governments intervene, the situation will continue to decline until everyone’s savings and reserve grain have been depleted. Famine, it seems, is all but inevitable.
When you hear the word “famine,” it’s easy to imagine that Zambians have no food at all. It’s a reasonable assumption—it would be weird if millions went hungry while there was corn and tomatoes nearby. So we imagine that the supermarkets must be empty, the street markets must be dead, and the number of beggars must have blossomed. Again, it’s a reasonable assumption.
But if you were in Zambia with me, you would be surprised by how much food is around. If you walked into a supermarket, you would see a fully stocked store, with everything from turkey to curry powder to cheese. Walk outside and a few beggars might bug you for change, but no more than normal. Glance down the street and you’ll see a vibrant market, with locals haggling for the best prices on bananas, onions, and pork. You might find that the price of food has risen—tomatoes are now 50 cents, not 25—but everything is still there. What gives?
The stores that are well supplied—supermarkets, local vendors in urban areas—service wealthier patrons. These Zambians have a good education, steady pay, and enough income to afford the hike in prices. They’ll have to tighten their belts this year, but most of them won’t go hungry. The people who are hit hardest by this drought are the ones who live in rural villages. They’re the subsistence farmers who rely on their fields for both income and food. They can’t afford to travel to buy expensive groceries in urban centers, and now even the local markets are becoming too pricey. For these people, the famine is more economic than agrarian.
My host family is a perfect example of this. They’re subsistence farmers who rely on tobacco for income, maize for their staple food (nshima), and a small garden for side dishes. None of them have jobs, so they rely entirely on their fields for both income and food. Even in good years, they never buy from supermarkets and usually can’t afford to shop at their local market. Last year, they pooled their savings and sent their oldest son to a university in the capital. They needed a good harvest this year to keep their son in college and feed their seven children and grandchildren.
Then the drought came. My family had a poor yield from their tobacco fields and almost nothing from their maize fields. All I see from my porch is acre after acre of brown corn stocks, short as wheat and dry as sand. They’ll barely turn a profit on their tobacco harvest, and that’s if the company they sell to gives them a fair price (which they won’t). Their son may have to drop out of college and return to the farm to save money. Even then, they don’t have the savings to afford the skyrocketed food prices. When you earn less than $5 a day, 50-cent tomatoes are unaffordable.
This is why I’m not worried about feeding myself, despite the historic drought and famine. I have a (meager) salary, and can afford the rise in food prices. So long as someone is selling tomatoes, I can pay for it. My host family, and others like them, will have a much tougher year though.
I wish I could say that there’s some kind of solution or an easy fix, but I can’t. I don’t even know what a motivated and generous American could do to help someone here in Zambia. It’s a dire time. The country is, as the Zambians say, in God’s hands now.
P.S. Shoutout to my grandmother for giving me the idea for this essay. I promise I’ll write something happier soon, but I can’t promise when.
Thank you, Colton. I did not understand the seriousness of the situation.
As I am also living in Zambia I can vouch for what has been stated here. It is so sad to see!
The situation is indeed “In God’s hands.”
(Thankfully, it is become increasingly obvious to thinking people around the globe that man cannot solve the mess he has created.)
I am grateful for the promises from “The God who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2) that he will soon “Bring to ruin those ruining the earth” (Revelation 11:18) and “There will be an abundance of grain on the earth, on the top of the mountains it will overflow” (Psalm 72:16) “And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.”
(Revelation 21:3,4.)
Being able to share these promises with the humble and very intelligent Zambian people who respect the Bible, and are grateful to learn, not only of these promises for the very near future, but also how its guidance can help them live better lives now, is an inestimable privilege.