Hunger erodes traditional values

Swaziland's traditional family values, which usually help people weather disaster, are taking a knock as the region's food crisis forces people to take extreme measures to survive.

"Instead of assisting each other, some Swazi families are stealing their neighbours’ food," said Ben Nsibandze, director of the National Disaster Relief Task Force. "This is very un-Swazi. It cuts to the heart of who we are as a people."

Nsibandze, who is also regional director of Hhohho province, the northernmost of Swaziland's four administrative regions, said that even rural Swazis living under chiefs are developing a "me first" mentality that troubles traditionalists.

At last week's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food summit in Rome, King Mswati pleaded for assistance for 150,000 Swazis who he said are on the brink of starvation. The government's National Disaster Relief Task Force has estimated that at least one-sixth of the population will face food shortages this year.

Though this year saw normal aggregate rainfalls, the rains stopped for a sensitive one-month period when maize plants were maturing, leaving them stunted or wilted.

As food shortages intensify, the media has been reporting on families raiding each other's maize harvests.

In the Lubombo region, some people are reportedly taking the stolen grain to market which is alarming leaders like Chief Malunge, who overseas the Nyangeni area 15 km north of Manzini, Swaziland's most populous town.

"It is bad enough that hungry people are stealing from one another instead of helping one another," Malunge said.

Swaziland has always been prone to famine, a fact underlined by anthropologist Hilda Kuper. Kuper has noted that late spring and early summer is a time of great want in Swaziland as people wait for the ripening of the first crops.

Older Swazis seem to accept this.

But although the reports of food thefts are not widespread, they do indicate a change in expectation, said University of Swaziland sociologist Petros Mnisi.

Eighty percent of Swaziland's population reside in rural areas. They pay no taxes, yet they expect electricity, piped-in water, roads and infrastructure, said Mnisi. The monarchy has provided these in exchange for the political loyalty that has kept the kingdom a relatively peaceful and stable place, he added.

But, said Mnisi, people have come to expect complete care and to be cushioned from harm. But when problems arise, like drought-induced crop failures, the social compact unwinds.