Common African Recipes or How to Prepare For Famine in Three Easy Steps

How do you prepare for famine if you have never even known hunger? Here is the trick. Try these 3 easy steps.

Before starting, prepare yourself by fasting for three days. Because you are unfamiliar with starvation, you must drink at least a cup of water daily while fasting. Body/mind preparation is essential for you to withstand the rigorous demands of food deprivation.

Now you are ready to begin. Don’t get nervous. It is as easy as 1,2,3 to achieve a fat free, low cholesterol, low salt, low carbohydrate, low nutrient, minimum caloric diet that is pathetically normal to people enduring famine.

I promised you three steps. Here they are; 1) Gather; 2) Prepare; 3) Eat.

Step 1) Gather; Climb up high in a banana tree, or any tree that has some remaining leaves, and throw down some of the largest leaves. Watch out for the thorns on some of the other trees. They will pierce your skin, just like they pierced the tires of the four wheel drive Land Rover. Save the younger, smaller, and tender leaves for tomorrow. Now walk to the nearest puddle of water or stream and fill any container you can find with water. A clean bucket, or old oil can without holes works better. The two hour walk would be wasted if more than half of your water is spilled on the way home.

Be very careful not to stir the water up too much or you will get mud and silt. Avoid any place where animals may have deposited bodily waste. It adds an undesirable color, taste, fragrance, and texture to the water. It also leads to death by diarrhea.

Watch out for hungry crocodiles (your kids are easy for them to swallow) and other thirsty wild animals (they will literally kill to be first in line for water). Now gather some dried grass or dung and place it on the charcoals that remain from yesterday’s fire.

Step 2) Prepare; Place your banana leaves and water in a pan (recycled from discarded oil drums) on your fire of charcoals, dry grass and dung. Don’t let your kids get too close to the fire, as if they get burned, there is no place for them to get care and they will probably die. Also, the inhaled smoke predisposes them to pneumonia, and asthma and is bad for their eyes. These are just some precautions you should take, like not putting foil in your microwave. Don’t be in a hurry for the dung to get warm. After all, this is not fast food. Bring to a boil or at least heat well.

Step 3) Eat; It’s just that simple. You are now dieting in the style that is a staple for millions of Africans every day, if they can find leaves and water. Well, to be true, I made up the recipe based upon the stark ingredients I have seen as we tour the villages and homesteads of people here in Kenya. These are the ‘must have’ elements of a diet for people struggling to survive.

As an American physician with over 15 years of experience working in Africa it is still hard for me to believe there is such famine some where in the world. As I clean my overcrowded refrigerator, discard cartons of egg-foo-yong, stale pizza and overripe strawberries I think, “how can people be hungry when I am so full?”

As I worry about my widening waistline I feel uncomfortable and guilty about my excesses as I come from a land of plenty. I have trouble understanding famine when I haven’t even known hunger. Let’s get back to the recipes. If you don’t find banana leaves, you can always try sawdust. I have read of this in other sub-Saharran African nations. Sawdust does not require any special sauces, so my thinking is you can eat it raw by the handful. People in those nations have tried more readily available things as well. Rocks and soil do fill the belly and since they are very slow to pass through the digestive system, they give a prolonged sense of fullness. You have to give them credit for their creativity.

Then there is always tree bark and roots. Season these with the natural silt that comes from the water. As you pound the roots, some of the sap exudes adding a pliable consistency to the roots making it easier to swallow. Taste is not a consideration when you are eating to live. After all, remember, you are starving.

One of the best things about this modern day African recipe is that it never spoils. You can eat it again and again, especially when it is the only food you have. The alternative to this recipe is death.

All over the continent weakening mothers hold emaciated children, sucking at their dry breasts, as they slip from soft weeping to silent coma and final stillness. They must bury the bodies deep, deep..., deep in the sand, as the hyenas and vultures are hungry too.

Are you ready to handle this recipe? Do you think you have the right stuff to survive this diet? If not, you may be ready to do something to help those who alleviate this specter of starvation and death. You may want to ask your Father in heaven to give you a real hunger and desire to help fill the real hunger and desires of those who have so little when we have so much.

The most recent health statistics reveal that Americans are dying earlier than in previous decades. The cause of early death is now obesity and the related diseases. Imagine that! Our access to excess which we deem as success causes early death, while so much of the world goes hungry. It is obvious that we use different recipe books. I read a report that says we as Americans spent $14 billion dollars on exotic chocolates in 2005. Imagine the condiments you could add to this recipe with that much money. Talk about a Happy Valentine!

Today and, tonight you will gather, prepare and eat. Most likely, the steps you follow will be much simpler than outlined for the common African recipe I have described above. Your meal may give you heartburn. If it does, before you take your antacid allow your heart to ache for the people who will fill their bellies with dirty roots, cold sawdust and warm leaves. Ask the Lord to make you make you aware of these very common African recipes.

Mt 25:35…. 45 “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave
me drink….,Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”