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Mardy's a happy Christian place, they don't have much, except basic dwellings made of baked clay, the women go about their chores, cooking, cleaning, washing and tending to their men folks needs.
The guys substantiate their meagre crop rations with fresh meat caught through hunting and trapping. They're a happy contented people. Things could be better but they're not going to complain. Unfortunately for Mardy and a thousand other African towns and cities, things are about to get a damned site worse.
It's
been a hot spring, the promised rains haven't come, the skies are clear blue and not a cloud in sight. The arid dusty floor is parched, the usually flourishing crops are wither on the stalks and you can pick handfuls of dust from the
floor.
The reserves of grain which they conscientiously squirrel away in year in the store houses are running low. If the rains don't come within another month, Mardy is going to be in serious trouble. A month passes, each day breaks
with a powder blue sky, clouds remain obvious by their absence and the only thing on the horizon is more, unforgiving sunshine. The heat seers into the high 90s, then the hundreds. The wells begin to run dry, the women worry, the men become anxious. Even the animals what punctuate their meagre rations have either died or left for pastures new. Mardy is on the brink of destitution. What
will the people of Mardy do?
As this takes place, a roving Aid charity has come across Mardy. A team in three land Rovers have swept into town, the arid dust exploding beneath the wheel arches of their vehicles as the arrive. Once in the town proper, the aid workers alight their vehicles, straighten themselves and scan the immediate area panoramic. It's horrendous, women lie destitute in the streets their bellies bloated, the men lie limp and lethargic by their sides, the entire town lies
beaten and demoralised under the hot, unforgiving African sun.
This is the moment the aid volunteers have been waiting for. At last they can fulfil their ambitions, satisfy their conscience. They will make a difference. From the rear of the first Land rover a cine-camera is taken out and the indignity of human suffering is recorded in minute detail so the waiting world can witness the tragedy as it unfurls. People lay defeated, the bodies are piling up on biblical proportions, and the only thing multiplying is the flies.
They're everywhere, swarms of them racing away as the aid workers approach. Outside buildings, in the streets everything has ceased. It's too hot, they're too hungry to summon the energy to do anything.
The head of the aid assistance programme tells the good people of Mardy not too worry: 'Aid is on its way...' he pledges after a brief phone call. Three days later the first people from the outside world begin to arrive: a camera crew from a western TV station. The images are transmitted globally and the viewing public from the US and UK, from Europe to Australasia are shocked . The UN makes a plea to the world's peoples, as do individual world leaders. Presidents are Prime Ministers appear on national news bulletins and
ambitious...
Continued
Famine in Africa: Essay Page 1
Famine in Africa: Essay Page 2
Famine in Africa: Essay Page 3
Famine in Africa: Essay Page 4
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