A Tale of Three Cities: Freetown, Maputo and Accra and the price of bread!

On a day when Janice arrived home in state of delight, having found wholemeal flour in a local supermarket, the rioting over price increases for bread continued in Maputo, for the third day. The Mozambique government, having held an emergency session, appealed for calm, as reports of seven people killed and 280 injured in the protests.The army were then called in to clean the city of barricades and restore order and public security.

The rioting had been prompted principally by increase in the price of bread, in one of the world's poorest country, which has yet to fully recover from protracted colonial and civil wars, and with a current unemployment rate of 54%. The government had imposed a price rise of 30%, for the cost of bread, part of the staple diet for Mozambicans, who earn on average about US$37 / £22 a month. The fall of the local currency, the Metical, by approx 43% in one year against South Africa’s Rand, its principle trading partner, also exacerbated the plight of the urban poor. Added to this was the recent increase in both the cost of electricity and water.

Here in Freetown during the last month we have read in The New African and The Africa
Report of Mozambique’s economic success with growth rates of above 6%-7% for three consecutive years, a figure above the 5% threshold considered necessary to make real improvements in standards of living. Foreign investment in Mozambique has increased by approximately 44% between 2007 and 2009 but nevertheless, 40% of the nation’s budget is dependent upon foreign aid, as the country remains 175th (close to the bottom) of the United Nations Human Development Index.

It would appear that, following the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008, the attention that was then being given to the alarming increase of the cost of food on the world markets, had been largely ignored, as multi-national finance houses and western governments were desperate to establish their own economic survival. That is, until the fires which scorched Russia and much of its grain harvest caused President Putin to ban the export of wheat which, in turn, reduced the global supply of wheat by 8%. This has raised the profile of the talks called for by the African Green Revolution Forum held in Accra this past week on the production of food on the continent of Africa.

“This is the time”, Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, insisted, “to invest in the thousands of small scale farmers that exist in all countries”. The appeal coincided with announcement of Standard Bank Africa’s support of 100 million $US for 750,000 small scale growers of cash crops, including cocoa and cashew nuts in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. The African continent possesses 60% of the world’s land available for agricultural development and over the last decade food production in Africa in general has shown significant improvements in a number of countries, with the exception being those regions where conflict still persists. But the rise in level of food production in Africa has not protected those on the lowest incomes, who do not have the money to buy food, or have access to land to grow what they need to eat. Across the continent the increase in national populations and the rate of urbanisation have both contributed to the phenomena of poverty, made even worse by a fall in the world’s grain supply.

In Sierra Leone, we have noticed and have commented upon the rise of the cost of living caused by the introduction of a sales tax at the beginning of the year. Now in September, we are reaching the end (if the predictions are correct) of the heaviest rain-falls for the year , when the effect of the wet season creates food scarcity and increases costs. People in Freetown are never heard to complain about excess rainfall, knowing how much they will need in the dry season and those with land have been planting in earnest for while. Living as we do on a compound with gardening land available, we ought to be growing wheat. However in the wettest part of West Africa that is not an option and we shall continue to have to buy bread locally made from imported grain. But with the departure of the goat herd, we have planted sweet potatoes and cassava, for their leaves as well as their roots, spring onions, pineapple, okra, a variety of fruit trees including bananas, pawpaws, oranges, lemons and guava, as well as nursery of herbs. There are still various seeds to go in, such as corn and beans, and as we sit on our veranda at dusk, and wait for the owls to come out, we call to mind the words, “ Give bread to those who are hungry and a hunger for justice to those who are fed”.