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.

我們決定前往村落調(diào)查饑荒的前一天，國內(nèi)有一位朋友從電視上看到尼日爾饑荒的消息，打電話詢問我的情況。當我告訴他,我們第二天去了解實際情況時，他失聲叫了起來，極力懇求我不要去。他怕那里會失控，怕饑餓的土著會把我們吃了。我聽罷不禁莞爾。

尼日爾人是我見過的最不亂吃東西的民族。他們的作物以黍子和高粱為主，蔬菜只是常見的土豆、生菜、白菜等，口味十分單調(diào)、固定。他們只吃前人吃過或者當?shù)仄毡檎J可的食物，如果以前沒有吃過或者沒看見別人吃過，他們不會輕易去嘗試。我們在醫(yī)療隊駐地種了好些中國蔬菜，收獲時，拿去送給當?shù)厝耍麄兌疾怀浴Ｓ幸淮危覀兂戳艘槐P絲瓜給門衛(wèi)烏迪一家送去。烏迪嘗了一口，皺著眉頭許久都咽不下去，最后只好吐出來，抱歉地對我們說吃不慣。孩子見此情景也都搖搖頭，不愿再嘗試了。我怎么都不理解，按理說絲瓜不苦不澀，怎么就吃不下呢？不單是烏迪吃不慣，其他門衛(wèi)也吃不慣，可見尼日爾人的口味真的很頑固。

《古蘭經(jīng)》規(guī)定，自死的動物和家畜是禁止食用的。在這次大饑荒中，有許多動物暴尸在村莊附近，可當?shù)匕傩諏幙橡I死也沒人去吃它們。

饑荒期間，尼日爾人的互助精神也給我留下了很深的印象。即便是很窮的人，如果有一口吃的，都愿意分一杯羹給比自己更貧窮的人。因此，雖然街道上的乞丐成群結(jié)隊，但都能討到一些食品果腹，很少有人餓死路邊。有一次，我們把一些剩菜剩飯送給烏迪，他剛想分給孩子們吃的時候，門外出現(xiàn)一個年老的乞丐，有氣無力地請求施舍。他毫不猶豫地把一半飯菜分給老人。烏迪的行為令我們很感動，他比我們更具有同情心，更慷慨大方，我們送給他的只是剩菜剩飯，而從他手中送出的，是一家人活命的口糧。烏迪雖然很懶，但比較善良，這也是我們一直下不了決心解雇他的原因之一。

上了年紀的中國人都記得，20世紀60年代，中國發(fā)生過的大饑荒。當時，人們?yōu)榱松妫涯艹缘臇|西都拿來果腹。但在尼日爾的饑荒中，沒有人去扒樹皮、挖野菜充饑。六月份雨季來臨的時候，埋藏在地里的各種植物種子紛紛發(fā)芽，有很多我們常見的野菜，如羊角菜、薺菜、白花菜等，一大片一大片長在路邊，沒人采。有一次，我們在那里扯白花菜，幾個行人看見了，得知我們要弄回去吃，一個個驚訝得眼睛瞪得大大的，表情中還摻雜著些許同情——想必我們這些中國人快餓瘋了，才如此饑不擇食。

在希蘭達嘎村，我們見到刺槐樹上的鳥巢像累累果實般掛滿枝頭，地上還有鳥蛋跌落打碎的痕跡，人們也都沒有去捉鳥兒、掏鳥蛋來充饑。房前屋后陰涼處，常常發(fā)現(xiàn)旱龜在那里休息，也沒人去捉來燉湯補身體。當?shù)氐囊吧鷦游锓N類很多，什么羚羊、跳鼠、大蜥蜴等，在野外也輕易能遇見，沒有人去獵取。有好幾次，我們在駐地房子的墻角發(fā)現(xiàn)莽撞闖入的大蜥蜴。這種蜥蜴在國內(nèi)一些地方，被稱為“五爪金龍”，曾是有錢人餐桌上的山珍野味。饑荒發(fā)生后一年，在回國之前的一個月，我們?nèi)ナ锥寄醽喢擂k事，路過多索地區(qū)的時候，還遇到幾頭野生長頸鹿悠然地穿越馬路。目睹這些情景，有時候我為自己閃過腦際的念頭感到羞愧，但又不由得問自己，如果換成中國人生活在這里，這次大饑荒還會餓死那么多人嗎？

也許信仰和習(xí)慣不同，但不管怎么說，饑荒之后，在那片貧瘠的土地上，還能看到各種動物快樂地棲息生活，不能不對尼日爾人產(chǎn)生深深的敬意。