Eating Leaves and Lizards to Survive in Niger
June 27th, 2010Via: BBC:
Aid organisations are warning that millions of people are facing starvation from drought and crop failure in the West African country of Niger, and some people are turning to desperate measures to survive.
If you look up “bo” on the internet, nothing that makes sense comes up. But we were looking at a bo, or rather looking for it.
We were walking along the bank of the Niger river, searching for the tracks of a hippopotamus that was ravaging the corn on Karim’s farm.
All of a sudden, a lizard about the size of a small crocodile hurtled out of the undergrowth and raced up a nearby baobab tree.
“It’s a bo,” everybody cried, racing to the foot of the enormous tree.
Now I had never seen a bo before, so I was interested out of pure curiosity.
The handful of villagers with us had other ideas, though. “The bo is delicious,” explained Karim. “It has the taste and texture of fish, and the inside of it is all white.
“You don’t see them very often. There are not that many about.”
Moustafa, Karim’s head man, was talking excitedly into his mobile phone. “He’s calling the kids from the village,” explained our host.
“He wants them to climb the tree and get the poor creature down.”
It was hardly surprising, I thought, that the bo was scarce. It is rotten luck to be a delicious animal in a land where people are hungry.
I plan to go there in 2011. Fuck eschaton, my hope’s on permaculture.