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December 01, 2004

An appeal in the wake of the locust swarms in Africa

'Listen, you elders;
hear me, all you who live in the land:
has the like of this happened in all your days
or in your fathers' days?
Tell it to your sons and they may tell theirs;
let them pass it on from generation to generation.
What the locust has left, the swarm eats,
what the swarm has left, the hopper eats,
and what the hopper has left, the grub eats.'
(Joel 1:2-4)

How do you feel about locusts? Chances are, you aren't keen. Even one locust on its own can be a terror, as Sophie Anderton found out in one of her 'I'm a Celebrity' bushtucker trials. But imagine two million of them descending on you. That is what happened yesterday in Lanzarote - you probably saw the pictures - millions of locusts hopping all over the beaches, whilst British sun-worshippers ran and cowered in their hotel rooms.

Radio 1 reported at the time that locals were attacking the insects with flamethrowers. This technique had some success because the locusts were by that time getting a bit long in the tooth - they must also have been a bit tired in the tooth, having systematically chomped their way through vast swaths of Africa. As you know, the real locust victims last year were not Sophie Anderton and company, nor the Lanzarote holiday-makers, but farmers in North and West Africa.

It was back in March 2003, shortly before I came home from Burkina Faso, that the first locusts arrived in Djibo. They settled on the barkeehi tree by the clinic and stripped it bare with ruthless efficiency. At that time there were not enough of them to make us seriously worried. People joked about the locusts and little children ran to catch them and make 'helicopters' with them (cruel but creative - remember that there is no 'Toys R Us' in Djibo). Mossi women netted some of the insects to add to their soup, much to the disgust of their Fulani neighbours.

I left Burkina Faso in March and returned to Chesterfield. In my absence life went on as normal. Men went ahead and planted their millet at the start of the rainy season in June, and worked their fields through July and August. By the end of September the millet fields around Djibo were almost ready - just two or three weeks and then the harvest. But on Sunday September 26, the locusts arrived again - this time in a huge swarm, the biggest for 15 years. As the prophet Joel observed, a locust swarm is like an army, 'Like a countless host in battle array, / Before them nations tremble, / every face turns pale, / Like warriors they charge…' (Joel 2:5-7)

Some of my closest Fulani friends would have been in church when the locust swarm arrived in Djibo, but even if they had been in their fields there was nothing they could have done. Those who were out in their fields that day could only stand and bat locusts away from their faces as they watched the devastation unfold. The locusts ate their fill and left, then returned the next day for breakfast.

90% of the harvest was destroyed. The price of a 100kg sack of millet in Djibo market shot up overnight from 8,000 CFA (£8) to 18,000 CFA (£18), more expensive than I have ever known it. At this price, people simply cannot afford to buy food. When I return to Djibo in January, I am returning to a famine.

I have contacted the World Food Programme in Burkina Faso and (thank God) they are planning to do relief work in Djibo - and in Dori and Gorom-Gorom which have also been declared a famine zone. Their priority is malnourished children, so they are going to be distributing grain primarily to schools and health clinics, and then in various cereal banks around the north of Burkina. They have said that I am welcome to collaborate with them in this, and I am fundraising for that purpose.

As you know, my focus in Africa is not usually humanitarian relief. But in the face of a situation this desperate, all organisations in the area must co-operate to help alleviate hunger. Bearing in mind that whatever we do for our brothers and sisters in Burkina, we are doing for Jesus.

If you would like to donate to this grain project, 100% of your gift will be used to buy grain for distribution in the north of Burkina Faso. I will buy grain in the south of the country and World Food Programme lorries will transport it up north. In my monthly newsletters I will keep you in touch with exactly what is happening.

Please make cheques payable to World Horizons. Write GRAIN AID on the back of the cheque (so that Margaret in the finance office knows what the cheque is intended for).

If you are a UK tax-payer, you are eligible for gift aid - this increases the value of your gift by 28%. Simply enclose a note with your cheque stating that you are a UK tax-payer and that you would like your donation to be gift-aided.

Send to:

Centre for the Nations
North Dock
Llanelli
Wales
United Kingdom
SA15 2LF

Thanks for taking the time to read this appeal.

Posted by sahelsteve at December 1, 2004 09:13 PM