Harmony During a Famine

By Zhong Risheng

The day before we went to a village to investigate the famine, a friend in China heard the news of the famine in Niger on TV and called to check in on me. When I told him that we were having a non-site inspection the second day, he screamed and urged me not to go, worrying that things would be out of control and that the hungry indigenous people there would devour us as food.His words made me smile.

The Nigeriens are the pickiest people I have ever seen in terms of food. Their crops are mainly millets and sorghums. The vegetables in their diets are common things like potatoes,lettuce, cabbage,etc. Their diet is fixed and monotonous, and they will only eat foods that have been tried by their forefathers or foods generally recognized locally. Foods they have not eaten before or have not seen other people eat before, they don’t even want to give a try. We planted many Chinese vegetables at the medical team’s yard. Later when we brought some harvest to the locals, they wouldn’t eat it. Once, we brought a plate of stir-fried loofah to Udi, a local guard working with us. Udi put a piece in his mouth, frowned and couldn’t swallow it no matter how hard he tried. Eventually he had to spit it out and told us apologetically that he was not used to the taste. Having seen their father dislike it, his children also shook their heads and didn’t want to give it a try. I couldn’t understand. Loofah was neither bitter nor sour, why couldn’t they swallow it? Udi was not the only one. Other janitors wouldn’t try it either. Nigerien people really had stubborn palates.

The Quran stipulates that animals and livestock are forbidden to eat when they die on their own. In this great famine,there were many animal corpses lying around the village, but local people would rather starve to death than eat their meat.

During the famine, the Nigerian attitude of mutual aid also impressed me deeply. Even the poor, whenever they got a bite, were willing to share it with those poorer than themselves.Therefore, although there were many beggars on the street, few people were starving to death,since they could always get something to feed their stomachs.Once, we gave some leftovers to Udi. When he was about to give them to his children, an old beggar appeared at his door,asking for help. Without any hesitation, Udi gave half of the food to the old man, which was very touching to us. He was more compassionate and generous than us. What we gave him were only leftovers, but what he handed out was the lifeline food for his family. His kindness was also the reason why we didn’t let him go even though he could be quite lazy sometimes.

Older generations in China remember that in the 1960s, a great famine hit China. At that time, people ate whatever they could find to survive. But in the famine of Niger, no one went to peel bark from the tree or dig wild herbs to relieve their hunger. When the rainy season came in June, various plant seeds sprouted from the ground.Among them were many familiar wild herbs, such as goutweed,shepherd’s purse, and white cauliflower, which all grew in abundance on the roadside with no one to pick them up. On one occasion, when some pedestrians saw us pulling white cauli fl owers and learned that we planned to eat them, they were so surprised that their eyes went wide with sympathy in their expression.They must have thought that these Chinese people must have been desperately famished to eat those grasses.

In the village of Hilanda, we saw many bird nests hanging on locust trees like ripe fruits, and traces of fallen and shattered bird eggs could be found on the ground. Still, no one went to catch birds or pick up bird eggs to relieve their hunger. We also often saw turtles resting in the shade of house, but none of the Nigerians caught them to make nutritional soups for their gaunt bodies. There were many kinds of wild animals in the local area,including antelope, squirrels,and large lizards, which could be seen quite often in the wilderness,yet no one was hunting them. On more than one occasion we found a large lizard which had strayed into our house. This kind of lizard is called “five-clawed golden dragon” in some areas of China,which used to be adelicacy on rich people’s table. One year after the famine and one month before we returned to China, we went to the capital Niamey for business.When we passed by Dosso, we encountered several wild giraffes sauntering across the road. The sight of all these made me feel ashamed for the thoughts fl ashing through my mind, I couldn’t help asking myself this question: “If it were Chinese people living here,would there be so many deaths due to starvation on this land?”

We have different beliefs and habits, but no matter what, having seen so many wild animals live happily on this barren land after the famine, we can’t help revering Nigerien people for what they’ve done.

我们决定前往村落调查饥荒的前一天，国内有一位朋友从电视上看到尼日尔饥荒的消息，打电话询问我的情况。当我告诉他,我们第二天去了解实际情况时，他失声叫了起来，极力恳求我不要去。他怕那里会失控，怕饥饿的土著会把我们吃了。我听罢不禁莞尔。

尼日尔人是我见过的最不乱吃东西的民族。他们的作物以黍子和高粱为主，蔬菜只是常见的土豆、生菜、白菜等，口味十分单调、固定。他们只吃前人吃过或者当地普遍认可的食物，如果以前没有吃过或者没看见别人吃过，他们不会轻易去尝试。我们在医疗队驻地种了好些中国蔬菜，收获时，拿去送给当地人，他们都不吃。有一次，我们炒了一盘丝瓜给门卫乌迪一家送去。乌迪尝了一口，皱着眉头许久都咽不下去，最后只好吐出来，抱歉地对我们说吃不惯。孩子见此情景也都摇摇头，不愿再尝试了。我怎么都不理解，按理说丝瓜不苦不涩，怎么就吃不下呢？不单是乌迪吃不惯，其他门卫也吃不惯，可见尼日尔人的口味真的很顽固。

《古兰经》规定，自死的动物和家畜是禁止食用的。在这次大饥荒中，有许多动物暴尸在村庄附近，可当地百姓宁肯饿死也没人去吃它们。

饥荒期间，尼日尔人的互助精神也给我留下了很深的印象。即便是很穷的人，如果有一口吃的，都愿意分一杯羹给比自己更贫穷的人。因此，虽然街道上的乞丐成群结队，但都能讨到一些食品果腹，很少有人饿死路边。有一次，我们把一些剩菜剩饭送给乌迪，他刚想分给孩子们吃的时候，门外出现一个年老的乞丐，有气无力地请求施舍。他毫不犹豫地把一半饭菜分给老人。乌迪的行为令我们很感动，他比我们更具有同情心，更慷慨大方，我们送给他的只是剩菜剩饭，而从他手中送出的，是一家人活命的口粮。乌迪虽然很懒，但比较善良，这也是我们一直下不了决心解雇他的原因之一。

上了年纪的中国人都记得，20世纪60年代，中国发生过的大饥荒。当时，人们为了生存，把能吃的东西都拿来果腹。但在尼日尔的饥荒中，没有人去扒树皮、挖野菜充饥。六月份雨季来临的时候，埋藏在地里的各种植物种子纷纷发芽，有很多我们常见的野菜，如羊角菜、荠菜、白花菜等，一大片一大片长在路边，没人采。有一次，我们在那里扯白花菜，几个行人看见了，得知我们要弄回去吃，一个个惊讶得眼睛瞪得大大的，表情中还掺杂着些许同情——想必我们这些中国人快饿疯了，才如此饥不择食。

在希兰达嘎村，我们见到刺槐树上的鸟巢像累累果实般挂满枝头，地上还有鸟蛋跌落打碎的痕迹，人们也都没有去捉鸟儿、掏鸟蛋来充饥。房前屋后阴凉处，常常发现旱龟在那里休息，也没人去捉来炖汤补身体。当地的野生动物种类很多，什么羚羊、跳鼠、大蜥蜴等，在野外也轻易能遇见，没有人去猎取。有好几次，我们在驻地房子的墙角发现莽撞闯入的大蜥蜴。这种蜥蜴在国内一些地方，被称为“五爪金龙”，曾是有钱人餐桌上的山珍野味。饥荒发生后一年，在回国之前的一个月，我们去首都尼亚美办事，路过多索地区的时候，还遇到几头野生长颈鹿悠然地穿越马路。目睹这些情景，有时候我为自己闪过脑际的念头感到羞愧，但又不由得问自己，如果换成中国人生活在这里，这次大饥荒还会饿死那么多人吗？

也许信仰和习惯不同，但不管怎么说，饥荒之后，在那片贫瘠的土地上，还能看到各种动物快乐地栖息生活，不能不对尼日尔人产生深深的敬意。