HUNGER GAMES – IYA BASIRA IS SERVING

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So the other day I was in the kitchen cooking - boiling water - and then guess what happened. A fly appeared! You don't know how much I detest pesky flies when I'm boiling water. First, Le Mouche (French for The Fly) and I had a stare down like in an old American Western and next came the high flying Jet Li manoeuvres; full scale forward back-flips, Chinese bending, Liu Kang dragon shadow kicks, Chinese get-up, afternoon tiger strike, another move named after China, morning peacock assault, omo see fight! At the end of the battle, the fly was victorious and I was shamefully defeated but just as Monsieur Le Mouche turned his back to celebrate, I struck a low blow; I swatted! Muhahaha-ha! Don’t judge me, it was a fight to the finish so it had to be done. Now that I have mentioned kitchen, cooking, fighting fly and boiling water, my stomach has been tickled and so I might as well talk about food.

There is nothing like osikapa ne ku anwulu, smoking hot rice, or amala to gbono feli feli, savagely hot amala, that has been placed on a plate before you and you know you are about to do justice, "Mine, mine, all mine!...my precciooousss!" Good food really is one of the greatest reasons to be alive and even Smeagol, aka Gollum from The Lord of The Rings loved to eat fresh fish every now and again; nwanne ifukwa point and kill. So what do rice and amala have in common, what makes them so special, what makes nothing else quite like amala or rice? Quite simple, they are both food for the masses, national saviours from starvation. Rice here stands for cereal, not cornflakes, and grain while amala stands for all swallowables: eba, starch, fufu, samovita, wheat, pounded yam and you know the rest. Whenever you see men lined up at Iya Basira’s shop and anwulu ne ku n’ebe ni ne, there is steam everywhere, then you know owo o ti wole o! dem done get alart! God win!  

Are you hungry, when last did you eat? But first of all, go down low! (Lol, sorry bad joke). [Now really] First of all, let me clearly state that hunger is not a game nor is it a joke. Who is playing with you? Someone is hungry and then you will be calling hunger game, e be like say you don dey mad abi. This title is not a play sometin, we are not here to smy with anybori; Hunger games?! People are starving and oyibo are using hunger as games, omo see rough play. To add pepper to pepper soup, they now called the Hunger Games Part II 'Mocking Jay', ahh *sheds one tear* they don’t know Mockingjay is bush meat here. Wadannan fari mutane za su kasha wani! Oyibo go kee pesin o!

When I finally started writing this week’s piece, I decided that I would write about the hunger of the masses in Nigeria, hunger in Africa but I really didn't know what I was getting into. The moment the actual staggering depths of suffering and starvation hit me was when I opened google images; I could not stop real tears from filling my eyes. The pictures of human beings looking more like simple skeletons covered in thin films of skin and children with distended abdomens brought first of all, real tears and then heaviness to my heart but in a flash anger took over. Anger because those who are deliberately leaving thousands and millions to starve to death are jejely sleeping with two loaves of bread under their pillows. We will talk about these evil men another day. For today, let me give you a better perspective of the real Hunger Games, no sci-fi.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UN FAO) estimates that in 2010, 925 million people were hungry. That is approximately a billion people and about 15% of the world’s total population, fifteen percent! Of this gastric (ghastly) number, Asia and the Pacific take the cake with 578 million while sub-Saharan African is chewing the cord in second with 239 million but weighing in pound for pound, sub-Sahara is the main chef with 30% of its population being simply hungry while Asia and the Pacific with their plenty plenty people is at 16%.

The causes of this magnitude of woe and misery include poverty, conflict, terrible economic decisions, negative environment and population growth. They are more often than not intertwined but intertwined or not the end result is the same; misery and despair. Kevin Carter was a South African photojournalist who received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for his photograph that aptly captured the 1994 famine in Sudan. He immortalized a once in a life time image of a fat and healthy vulture patiently waiting for a sickly and starving child on the verge of death to become its next meal. He was told not to touch the child for fear of transmitting infection to the child. Kevin Carter committed suicide three months after winning his career defining prize and these are his last words as written by his hand:

“ I’m really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist…depressed…without phone…money for rent…money for child support…money for debts…money!!!...I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain...of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners….I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky ”

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Who was Ken? Honestly, I have no idea and I did not seek to find out. What caught my attention, however, was the fact that vultures have now added freshly starved Homo Sapiens to their menu and even the world’s greatest prize for photography could not keep the dreadful images from hunting Kevin Carter. Mr Carter happened as far back as 1994, it makes me wonder how many children that vulture and his friends have had between their meals since then.

Today, for the first time since I can remember, I could not finish a whole loaf of bread. I was shocked to say the least then considered that it must be the effect of the unsettling information and images I have recently acquired, yes I eat a loaf of bread on my own. Most times I take good food and clean water for granted because like most of you who can afford to read this, I am fortunate to have three square meals every day but after seeing what I have seen, I doubt I can ever forget to be grateful. Beyond my selfish gratitude it is more clear to me now that the number of people, children dying from starvation even if it is just 1 is 1 too many. We as a race, as a species need to get our act together and at least resolve the poverty, conflict, economics and population growth that we can control and then fight tooth and nail against the environment.

An International Non-Governmental Organisation, Save the Children says: “In Africa, hunger is a constant, chronic pain gnawing away at hungry children. Starving children in Africa can, and should, become a thing of the past. We must put an end to starvation in Africa and we can’t do it without you. The good news is, Save the Children has many proven ways to help stop hunger in Africa...”

Some 3 idiots - the Indian Movie - once said “All Is Well” and if idiots can see hope then why can’t I? We must all join the fight to save the children and not just the children but also the youth and the adults that have been forced to face the torment of starvation and sleeping on empty and growling stomaches.

Anyhow sha, I have said my piece, "Sistah Iya Basira abeg gimme flied lice and cully", Ogbeni don’t come near my food o, my love no dey reach that side o, because I was asking you if you were hungry before? If na play stop am nw o, don't be a fly, lol. I will end this piece with a Hausa song I seemed to have picked up at some joint a while ago, it is simply a song asking for some bread from heaven:

Abinci alheri shine zamunci

Abinci alheri Eh, abin ci rai shir ye-ye

Daga wurin adah on

Abina al-he-ri zamunci!

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