Mahangu

I don’t think I am too out of line by saying most Americans these days are not reliant upon one staple food item.  Some Americans may say their staple food is meat, or vegetables, or even McDonald’s but even for those that harvest their own animals, grow their own vegetables, or pull their big metal machine up to the drive-up window, the level at which they depend on these items is negligible.  Things are vastly different in Africa though.  For the Owambo the staple crop is the hearty, drought tolerant, and nutritious mahangu that is cultivated across the land.  Mahangu is not something that is grown as a hobby or to supplement other parts of their diet; life revolves around mahangu. A lot has happened in the world during my two years here; war, uprisings, rebellions, natural disasters, nuclear disasters, economic collapse, coups…the list goes on.  But never was any of that the talk of the day.  The talk of the day was about when the rain was going to come, or the exhilaration of when the rain came, or the wind that knocked down the mahangu, or the tired chatter of those that had been in the field all day. We often like to accusingly say “ignorance is bliss”…maybe so.