Roots of hunger, roots of change

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Millions upon millions of people left Africa as slaves from places like this.

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Their labor helps create much of the wealth of industrialized countries, the wealth we now enjoy.

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The chains of slavery have now gone, but less visible forms of slavery remain.

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Hunger is 1.

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It is no accident that hunger occurs primarily in what we call the developing world.

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For centuries, this land fed its people.

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Today, many go hungry.

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Hunger is a symptom of poverty, not created by acts of nature alone.

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Hunger can be prevented, but prevention begins by understanding the forces that control your life, then learning how to make change.

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By looking at the causes of hunger in one part of one country, we might then understand the global picture.

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Hunger is widespread, but people in this part of Africa, the Sahel, are especially affected.

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The Sahel borders the Sahara Desert and is vulnerable to drought.

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Like other Sahelian countries, drought strikes Senegal hard, but drought is not a new occurrence.

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Over thousands of years, Senegal's people learned how to live in this difficult environment.

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Herders and cultivators shared the land.

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But slavery changed the world, trading lives and shackling souls.

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It created prosperity for a few and poverty for many.

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By the 18th century, Europe was colonizing Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, and Asia.

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Convinced of their cause and moral duty, the French colonists soon conquered Senegal.

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By 1865, they had built cities, roads and railways to keep the wheels of trade turning and to administer their new colony.

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They selected Dakar on the coast for their capital.

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It was elegant, a Paris of Africa.

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But the wealth that created Dakar and pampered its elite came from the countryside, from the land and its people.

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A whole transportation system was developed to carry Senegal's wealth back to France.

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Motivation overcame some unique problems, but motivation seemed unable to solve other problems caused by French colonial rule.

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Crimo Marsar in northern Senegal is one place where the impact of colonial decisions is still felt today.

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It is now an area in crisis.

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There has been almost no rain in Crimo Marsar for three years, but drought is not the root of all problems here.

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Kruma Morsar is home to several distinct groups of people.

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This is robo a full day settlement.

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The full day have lived nomadically all across West Africa for centuries.

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Pendaka is a woman of 18 and the mother of two daughters.

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She is pounding Millet, a grain that grows and stores well in hot, dry conditions.

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It is a traditional food for the full Bay and a staple in a sparse diet.

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Traditionally, the full Bay have lived with their herds, keeping the area's ecology intact.

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The full base wealth is their cattle.

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Milk provides both food and income, but the drought has decimated herds.

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With little to eat, the cows give no milk.

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With no milk to sell, there is little cash to buy other food.

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Some families have lost over half their herds to starvation.

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Not enough food, not enough water, not enough cash.

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Not new problems here.

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Droughts only make old problems worse.

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There was hunger here in Robo, but not starvation.

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Not yet.

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Panda and the other full Bay can no longer rely on their herds alone.

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They must find other ways of living and of providing a future for their children.

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In the past, things were better.

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Traditionally, reserves of Millet were stored for years of drug.

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But today there are no reserves because not enough Millet is planted.

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Instead, peanuts are planted to earn cash.

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With little pasture left, even the cows must eat peanut shells.

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Laughter hides wounded pride.

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We can't even receive strangers with our hospitality anymore.

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We used to give them milk, but this year we don't have anything to give them.

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In good years, the women would take their milk to Kerma Marsar's market to sell.

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In pre colonial times, Senegal's economy was mainly a barter economy.

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Now if local food is available, it is sold for cash with no milk to sell.

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Women from Robo have come to buy what food they can with what money they have.

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So has Makumba Nyang.

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He is a.

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Who are traditionally farmers, but Makumba can no longer depend on his fields to support his family to get by.

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He also translates here for a tea merchant from nearby Mauritania.

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Makumba's home is Gankad Ghent, a settlement of about 40 families.

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It's near the market and robo some Millet is grown, but like the full Bay, priority is given to growing peanuts for cash rather than food to eat.

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But families must be fed, and it is the young and the old who are most vulnerable to malnutrition.

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About a mile away, Makumba grows vegetables.

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The land shared by others sits on part of the dried up bed of Lac du Guiller.

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The water is receded, and so Makumba's vegetables are nourished by the moist earth below.

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Makumba also grows Millet and peanuts on drier land.

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Both need rain for planting.

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This year, the rains have not come.

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Makumba's garden has fragile roots.

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Its produce can't provide both the cash and the food his family needs.

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I work with my.

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Hands and with my mind.

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I always plan my expenses.

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Today's problem of hunger is rooted in the past.

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Colonial policies transform Senegal's power structure, its economy and its environment, and A1 self reliant people became enslaved to a small ground nut.

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As France industrialized in the 1800s, it needed high quality vegetable oil.

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Peanuts grown in Senegal could provide cheap oil for a ready market.

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But Senegalese farmers had no reason to grow a crop they didn't eat or need, so the French provided a strong incentive.

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They levied taxes.

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Only one crop could be sold for cash, the peanut.

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Like sugar cane in the Caribbean, coffee in Kenya and cotton elsewhere, the wealth from this one crop left the country, while inside the country people grew poor and hungry.

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Peanuts subsidized by the government were planted instead of food crops like Millet.

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They still are.

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Over 100 years later, the picture remains the same.

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Stockpiles of peanuts, not food.

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Senegal's economy still depends on the peanut food, fuel manufactured products are important and must be paid for with cash.

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Cash from the sale of peanuts.

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The infrastructure for growing, transporting and selling peanuts in place for over a century is the system.

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Works for peanuts.

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Food crops have no export value, but peanuts are exported in prices controlled by others.

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Neither Senegal's government nor its people like Mukumba and Panda, can break their dependency on the peanut.

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Both need cash and this year both need rain.

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Every year drought occurs around the world, but the impact of drought varies.

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Deserts have been made to bloom.

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Drought still strikes the Canadian Prairie, but the horrific Dust Bowl of the 30s was overcome and the land made fertile.

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Here in the Sahel, prolonged drought is still a matter of life and death.

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Like any destructive act of nature, it hits the poor hardest.

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The search for water in Chroma Marsar is all consuming.

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The land near Makumba's home is dotted with wells.

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When you are lucky enough to find water, it's usually about 30 feet underground and often too salty to drink.

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The responsibility for collecting water nearly always falls to women and their daughters.

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Most women here spend most of their daily lives just getting enough water for their family's needs.

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The men dig and clean the wells.

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The lack of good water is a problem for much of the developing world, a problem that kills millions of children every year and keeps women enslaved to this grueling daily task.

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Pure water sustains life.

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Impure water can kill.

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The fact that Cromo Marsar lacks good water has more to do with poverty than with drought.

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Less than a mile away from the wells is Senegal's largest body of fresh water, Lac Duguay.

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A plentiful supply of water would seem like a great blessing during this drought, but like many things here, the lake is not what it seems.

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The people of Carmel Marsar cannot drink or wash in this water.

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It is polluted and riddled with parasites.

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They have no money for pipes or a filtration system, conveniences found in cities like Dakar.

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Dakar, Senegal's capital, is 150 miles away from the lake.

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The car rose from colonial dreams.

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Built as a European city like Nairobi and New Delhi, the car offers much to those with money to buy.

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But one urban privilege everyone can share is 1.

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This is water from Lac Duquier, filtered and purified, a matter of basic technology, a matter of priority and motivation.

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If the car had no water, the city would likely collapse like other third world cities.

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The car continues to expand, growing like the desert, creating new problems before old ones are solved.

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With a population of nearly 1,000,000, the car has not yet reached the size of Mexico City or Calcutta.

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The scale is different, but the problems are similar.

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Not enough transportation, not enough jobs, not enough affordable housing.

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The city tempts with dreams on display, but these dreams need cash in.

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Robo choices are few.

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Like many young people, Penda considers moving from the country to the city.

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If I had someone to look after my I'd go to the car because it's better than life, is easier and you can drink and get enough and not get tired.

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All of this I'll try to find a job and get paid for.

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You can make money, come back to the village, take care of your herd and go back to the car.

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Her husband, Cherno has already come to the car.

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His business here on the outskirts of town is.

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Selling yogurt.

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The cash she.

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Earns will be sent home to Pendant and his daughters.

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He buys his powdered milk and plastic bags in bulk.

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He pays rent for his tiny stall.

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It's where he also sleeps.

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He eats once a day.

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In a good month, he reckons he'll have about $40 to send home.

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Selling yogurt in the car is not a new idea.

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Other, more established business people do the same.

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Cherno needs cash.

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The drought is affecting us very.

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Much you've.

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Been to my village and as you may have noticed.

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You see?

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That but the result.

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Of our small.

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Trade here.

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Selling milk also depends on the rate.

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In the past.

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People used to rely on the crops in the village and the money they would make out of the herds, but now that there is a drought, we can no longer rely on our herds.

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Others also seek solutions in Dakar.

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People come here because they have no options at home.

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What point is there in farming if there is nothing left to farm?

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With few alternatives, more and more people will continue to leave the countryside and rural life will become even more marginal, dying slowly from benign neglect.

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In Robo and and her family shell peanuts for planting.

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For now, it is their only option.

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They can no longer depend on their cattle, but they also know that reliance on peanuts will not break the cycle of poverty and ecological destruction.

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What the full may need now are alternatives.

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For Penda, education means options.

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Hope my.

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Children live.

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I'd like to take them to school what they didn't know.

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Learning is good because know what you didn't know before.

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Changing your life and that of your children begins with having choices and understanding them, learning how to control your life and not be victimized by it.

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That is the heart of development.

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The people of Kurma Marsar are working in a long term development project administered by Church World Service.

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It has been created with the community, women and men, Full Bay and wolf.

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It addresses basic needs, both immediate and future, as defined by them.

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If the problem of irrigation in Kurma Marsar can be solved, a more stable food supply can be established using simple tools and local materials.

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The instructor of this workshop is showing how to make valves for pumps, the basis of a simple irrigation system.

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With less reliance on rainfall, drought would not be the crisis it is now.

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The people of Karma Massar do not choose to be hungry.

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They have not chosen to be.

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Poor.

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They cannot control the act of drought, but they can learn ways of controlling the impact of drought on their lives.

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The changes occurring here are the internal as well as external.

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There's only so.

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Much and.

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Teach.

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Us how to.

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Use.

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Them and if.

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We manage to.

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Get water.

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Effective development listens to the people and learns from them.

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The tools of development can be very modest.

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It is how they are used that counts.

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These thorny branches will help make a fence to protect a Reserve Bank of seeds growing inside.

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New seedlings will be planted to replace the trees as part of the reforestation Senegal so desperately needs.

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Fruit trees have been planted and wells dug to help irrigate them.

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Wire fencing is now being installed so fewer trees will be cut.

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The produce from this garden will be sold locally and it's seeds held in reserve.

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The project is an investment in the future as well as the present.

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I don't know people who have have a life that they want to live.

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And unfortunately people can't control everything.

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They can't control the weather, they can't control outside influences.

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But they're confronted with it, and they can beat their head against it, or they can run away from it, or they can look at what it is that's confronting them and try to figure out how their life might have to change, how what they do might have to change, but how they can retain what's already here.

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What's already here is something very, very strong.

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And that's a tradition of a family of actually piety, a tradition of knowing how to work and live in a in a extremely harsh part of the world.

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Where you live is what you know best.

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But life in the Sahel is full of risks, Risks few can afford to take.

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Development projects undertaken by the Canadian government and other agencies can now assume some of the risks.

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The common goal is self-sufficiency.

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The people can stay here in the land they know.

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And.

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Share everything I have with my family.

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If we can feed ourselves and if we can get good water close by, then anything that we wish to do can be right here in this village.

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I don't.

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Know I've never been pessimistic in Africa.

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It's a place that is not pessimistic and the people, it's not natural for them to be pessimistic.

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Confronted with this, I would think I would be pessimistic, but I'm not an African.

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I'm confronted with this and they're giving me a lot.

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Of optimism.

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I'm.

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Optimistic.

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I have hopes.

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The people who are here.

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Today.

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In my field, they would meet me soon.

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Also, in the future, bring something.

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Better the.

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