Algas Comestibles Base de la Alimentación de los Antiguos Peruanos Primeros estudios de la Algas en Perú.

Norman Thomson

N. Thomson University of Georgia

166 N. Thomson complex than you people seem to think.” Unfortunately, after 20 years I found myself reduced to anecdotes and that may be the best I can do in this essay.

In Malawi, Dr. Glasson has found through his work with his Malawian col- leagues that when a westerner initially begins working in an African country, we usually enter with some confidence and spirit of giving that we might be able to be of assistance in problem solving. But, in reality it is really our personal experiences that become the journey of learning “humility and gaining respect for the indige- nous cultures.” It is the in-country efforts of our hosts working at the grassroots levels where change can be realized. And, we realize that we are but a part of the whole village that is necessary to raise the “child” whether nurturing ideas, children, or our own growth as a person.

It has been my experience that there is no such thing as development, but rather it is change that occurs, and it usually has different positive and negative outcomes. Thus, when nations make transitions toward “development,” something else is given up or lost. Everything that has been proposed or implemented as a solution to a problem comes with caveats, limitations, and, in some instances, creates or results in even worse unanticipated problems. (I dislike using a reference to “costs” as that places a connotation that something has an intrinsic monetary value.)

Early in colonialism, in order to create a working labor force for exporting resources to the new “homeland,” a currency economy was established and was required for paying various taxes. Paper and metal currencies, with inscribed figures of a distant ruler, reminded people to whom homage and thanks should be given during each transaction. The only way to obtain the currency was to work for the colonial rulers in some capacity of servitude. Social and agricultural dependence was introduced using the “fence.” Land ownership and exclusionary boundaries restricted the traditional free movement of peoples as colonists partitioned the land. And, signed paper contracts demonstrating ownership were evidence that the Europeans had given up trusting one another’s word. Africans soon learned that even their written word could not be trusted either.

A three-tiered educational system prepared Europeans/Whites for government positions and large-scale farming (requiring African office cleaners, laborers, and house servants), Asians for business ownership (requiring African shop cleaners, laborers, and house servants), and the African peasants were to continue producing subsistence quantities of food crops. Africans were prohibited from growing crops and cattle that would compete against the Whites (e.g., coffee, tea, wheat, and hybrid cattle) but were introduced and became dependent upon food crops the Europeans had found in other explorations, such as maize, potatoes, and tomatoes from the Americas, displacing many of their traditional and indigenous nutritional food resources. In business, Asians controlled the cost and access to hoes and sickles required for farming.

Following the African wars for establishing independence (lessons learned from serving the “motherlands” in World War II), indigenous people were able to move on from postcolonial rule – but a new African elite began to fill and maintain roles of established domination. All too often, military coups have masqueraded as ref- ormations for the disposed and frustrated urban and rural “peasant” populations who have never seen benefits of independence. There is a history of African writers’

167 12 When Elephants Fight, It Is the Grass That Suffers

lamentations for loss of cultural values (p’Bitek 1966): Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s (1986) concerns that Africa has not yet engaged in “decolonizing the mind” with respect to language use, Batibo’s (2005) documentation of language decline and extinction, and Beti’s (1957) insight into the disconnects between western schooling and vil- lage life.

However, a more perpetual and insidious problem that continues to grow is that sub-Saharan Africa has remained a “basket-case” for food. It is a continent that seems to be unable to provide enough food for its people with cycles of famine and starvation. However, as with other issues, problems concerning food production and distribution are complex: choice of farming methods (e.g., large-scale, high-energy input versus small-scale sustainable/low energy), cash crops (exportation of coffee, tea, flowers versus local consumption of plantain, maize, and millet), changing climate with unpredictable weather (deforestation, drought, flooding, erosion), population increases that have exceeded improved crop production, loss of indigenous crops, the continued over-exploitation and exportation of Africa’s natural resources and products (forest, minerals, coastal, endangered species), the dislocation of human resources (brain drain, refugees, genocide), and, of growing international concern, the wholesale long- term loan of millions of hectares/acres of land by countries with monetary resources, who want and need food for their own national consumption (e.g., middle-eastern and Asian countries) – a dangerous form of neocolonialism. And, even when crops are successfully grown and harvested, transportation to markets and externally deter- mined (e.g., the mercantile trade markets of London and Chicago) prices interfere with whether, or not, a crop year is successful. So it goes, that the marginalized peoples of Africa who know their plight and call for ecojustice, sadly state the African proverb that “when the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers,” crying out that someday the elephants should stop.

Sustainable agriculture is being revisited as a viable source of livelihood for rural peoples as a global movement from Malawi to Thailand in the context of the twenty-first century and seems to be offering a new and necessary movement for the world’s rural peoples. It has been estimated that it takes 13 cal of fossil fuel to produce 8 cal of maize on Africa’s large-scale farms whereas the individual local farmer uses only 1 cal. And, lest the reader forget – in Africa the image of farmer should be a woman as most males have migrated to urban areas in search of second- ary employment. However, migration and colonization in Africa preceded the arrival of Europeans. The history of Africa is one of human migrations most likely beginning with the earliest hominids whose very origins were locations in Africa. And, the Bantu peoples now claiming Malawi as their home displaced hunter/ gatherers in the sixteenth century and established their own methods of using the natural resources bringing slash-and-burn agriculture, only sustainable because of the low population numbers of people.

Malawi attained independence in 1964 and has depended upon an agricultural- based economy. Realizing that education is a critical necessity for establishing self-sufficiency it was the first sub-Saharan African country to declare free primary education in 1990. Despite these efforts the system has not been able to fulfill its aspirations (Chimombo 2009). Since the introduction of Free Primary Education in 1994/95 many more children have been to school and gender parity in enrollments

168 N. Thomson has been reached at the lower levels. However, levels of resource provision to schools is very low and their distribution uneven. The system has high dropout rates, especially for girls in higher grades, and only small increases in completion rates. Further, the overall performance of pupils has been decreasing significantly. Malawi faces a major task to deliver quality and relevant education.

The country is landlocked and comprises farmers who have limited amounts of land and resources. And, the amount of land for each farmer has diminished with each generation as the population has grown. Recently, the country faced a food crisis in 2005, the result of drought, floods, and a disastrous maize harvest. Huge amounts of food aid, costing more than $100 million, barely averted widespread starvation. The President decided to ignore the consensus advice of the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development, and other developmental agencies (Beardsley 2009). Rather than rely on incentives to boost market efficiencies, he provided smallholders with subsidized inorganic fertilizer (two 50-kg bags per household) and a few kilo- grams of subsidized seeds. Most farmers opted for using hybrid seed. The increase in national maize production was immediate: the country’s maize deficit of a half- million metric tons turned into a maize surplus a year later. By 2007, production had tripled, and Malawi broke its maize harvest record. Production fell back in 2008, when drought struck again, but still met national requirements. The cost of the program was less than half the cost of food aid in 2005.

Yet the Malawi program is not without critics. Proponents of traditional and organic farming fear that providing farmers with inorganic fertilizer will encourage dependency. It could also leave them vulnerable to increases in the price of natural gas, which is consumed in large amounts to make the component chemicals. Inorganic fertilizer promotes emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, and it can encourage soil erosion. Moreover, crops grown from hybrid seeds, which are supplied by corporations, may be less resilient than traditional landraces to pests and changes in rainfall patterns. For these reasons, the proliferation of look-alike schemes in Africa is not universally hailed as progress. However, organic farming may not be suited to the nutrient-depleted soils common in Africa. The Freedom Gardens created by Dr. Chinkhuntha has been developed in “reclaimed swampland,” but swamplands are also known as “natural wetlands” and these are known to have very fertile soils. The Malawi program of unsustainable solutions could provide time for vulnerable populations, while the infrastructure for more sustainable agriculture is developed through innovations, such as the Freedom Gardens.

The use of real-time technologies for distance communication of farmers, teachers, and students especially interfaced with visualizations is a positive and African way of sharing ideas through real people conversing. It is far superior to using paper documents. However, it should not be forgotten that with the technologies new prob- lems are arising such as electronic wastes (e-waste). A not too far away neighbor of Malawi has problems of ecojustice where coltan is being mined. Coltan is the local Congolese word for columbite-tantalite, a metallic ore comprising Niobium and Tantalum. It is found mainly in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formally Zaire). When refined, coltan becomes a heat-resistant powder, metallic tantalum that has unique properties for storing electrical charge. Coltan is a

169 12 When Elephants Fight, It Is the Grass That Suffers

metal used in cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices. A worldwide shortage of coltan has driven its price up to nearly US$600 a kilogram providing miners with up to US$200/month compared to a national average of US$10/month. Forests and streams are being destroyed, the bush meat trade is depleting wildlife, large numbers of miners fight over mining rights, and war lords are using the money to buy arms that are being used in the continuous genocide that has killed over three million people and displaced 1.5 million refugees in the Congo over the last 15 years. Coltan is now known as a “blood ore” in what has become known cynically as “guns, money, and cell phones.” Thus, positive change for ecojustice in Malawi is in part, contributing to eco-injustice change in Congo. And so, change in Africa continues as the elephants fight.

But, I do not want to end this anecdotal essay with elephants fighting and the grass continuing to suffer. One facet of resources that has not yet been realized in Africa is the continents’ lost crop. Today, the 6+ billion people living on earth depend upon only three grains that were developed as food resources 10,000 years ago in the “stone” age!: wheat, maize, and rice. This is a “recipe” for a global disaster if we would consider human extinction, as such, and a major crop failure takes place. Climate change and global warming may certainly qualify as part of such a recipe. The US National Research Council (NRC) in partnership with sev- eral other science organizations both in the USA and many African countries have identified over 50,000 plant species indigenous to the continent. Over 1,000 Africans have been asked to identify their favorite grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, and other food plants. They have identified over 1,000 grains, up to 3,000 native vegetable roots, stems, leaves, bulbs, and fruits, and thousands of fruits that they know, but have been “lost” through displacement of introduced plant food resources (NRC 1996, 2006, 2008). Populations of people throughout quite vast areas of Africa have continuously used many of the plants, whereas others are only known and used locally. Little is really known about their genetic potentials because the focus of research and development has been on increased productivity of the few introduced species that have become the food staples intolerant to the vicarious African seasons.

However, out of the unpredictable changes associated with rainy seasons has emerged the inspirational story of William Kamkwamba, “the boy who harnessed the wind” (Kamkwabala and Mealer 2009). Kamkwamba was forced to drop out of school because there was no money left for school fees because of the crop failures. But, his quest for knowledge was partially satisfied by a village library where he found a fascinating illustrative textbook on electricity, Using Energy. Kamkwamba envisioned building a windmill for generating electricity in his home where he read by candlelight. Using scraps of metal, old tractor fan blades, parts of bicycles, and local wood, and especially his imagination, he built a windmill that could convert wind energy into electrical energy. His accomplishments have brought international attention and recognition and donations to the whole community.

Malawi is a parable for global change. Its story emphasizes, that while interna- tionally, scientists and politicians have focused their attention on the established and easy crops to grow and energy production on a large scale, local people today

170 N. Thomson are revisiting the past, merging it with what they are learning about the potential of sustainable agriculture, and using their imagination and creativity to solve problems on a local scale. Maybe it is also time for Africans to bring their indigenous plants along on this journey and then the elephants may be able to stop fighting.

References

Batibo, H. (2005). Language decline and death in Africa. Tonawanda: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Beardsley, T. (2009). Organisms from molecules to the environment. BioScience, 59, 539. Beti, M. (1957). Mission to kala. London: Heinemann.

Chimombo, J. (2009). Changing patterns of access to basic education in Malawi: A story of a mixed bag? Comparative Education, 45, 297–231.

Kamkwabala, W., & Mealer, B. (2009). The boy who harnessed the wind. New York: HarperCollins.

Kenyatta, J. (1965). Facing Mt. Kenya. New York: Random House.

National Research Council. (1996). Lost crops of Africa: Volume I grains. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

National Research Council. (2006). Lost crops of Africa: Volume II vegetables. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

National Research Council. (2008). Lost crops of Africa: Volume III fruits. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

p’Bitek, O. (1966). Song of Lawino & song of Ocol. London: Heinemann.

Wa Thiong’o, N. (1986). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. London: Heinemann.

171 Reading George Glasson’s paper, I was transported back to the days when I used to work in a science education reform effort in India. This effort, known as the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Program (HSTP), developed, sustained, and dis- seminated an innovative inquiry-oriented, place-based framework of science teach- ing at the middle-school level. It was a collaborative effort that brought people on the ground – the teachers, students, and activists – on a common platform with educators and scientists in universities and research centers – quite like the effort so well-documented by George Glasson. And just like what George Glasson and his intrepid colleagues have initiated in Malawi, HSTP too started small, though in 16 schools and not one, and not recently but way back in 1972. By 2002, the program had grown to cover about 1000 middle schools in Hoshangabad, and 14 other districts of the central state of Madhya Pradesh in India. However, as often happens with reform efforts in education, the program was unceremoniously shut down in 2002, and the schools that had been successfully teaching science through an inquiry and place-based curriculum for decades quietly went back to teaching science the traditional way. Now when I look back at this unique effort in the his- tory of education in India, I find that HSTP was largely successful in developing an alternative way to teach and learn science. However, even after a long run of 30 years, the program’s accomplishments in terms of its ability to sustain itself and influence the dominant paradigm in science education were comparatively somewhat muted.

So as I read and marveled at the fascinating account of development of an inno- vative ecojustice sensitive curriculum in a school in Malawi amidst centuries-long unchecked devastating exploitation and expropriation by globalization and (neo) colonialism, I could not help but wonder about the challenges as well as the oppor- tunities that lay ahead for George Glasson and his wonderful band of colleagues in Malawi as they work ahead to endow some measure of sustainability and wider significance to their effort in one school. In this response to George Glasson’

Chapter 13

Working for Change: Reflections on the