By Scovin Iceta/Media4All

MOYO, 5^th March 2024: The culture or social behaviors of local communities living in predominantly rangeland areas setting bushes on fire during the dry season affect the lives of birds and animal production in the Madi Sub-region.

However, Ms Elizabeth Amen, the Obongi District Tourism Officer, says this has been an ongoing vice. According to her, bush burning is not a new thing in the Madi sub-region because it is often a thing people do intentionally to clear ground in search of delicacies like bush meat, which they use as food.

“The bush burning acts have devastated the tourism sector in the region in very many ways. First of all, trust me, tourism in the Madi subregion is developing rapidly. We have a lot of bird species in the West Nile region, particularly fish-eating birds along the Nile belt. Most of them travel to search for food and when you look at bush burning, often people don’t know the impact it brings but the variety of bird species are affected”, Elizabeth observed.

“When there is bush burning, you will find out that they move away from their natural habitats because the edible fruits are being destroyed for them as much as others in swamp areas are affected. The smoke alone makes them uncomfortable to stay, meaning the bush burning makes the bird species that we have around find another location, and the region has a lot of tree species that provide delicacy for some of these birds, which means the feeding cycle for the birds are cutoff”, Elizabeth added.

Elizabeth also observes that the risk of bush burning doesn’t only affect the environment but also habitats in a particular place. Elizabeth now says that communities should be encouraged to desist from bush burning citing consequences like displacement of birds and other bush species. Engaging communities, Elizabeth advises, is also a platform to upscale conservation conversations and efforts.

 “For us to protect the environment, we need to allow people to earn from the environment because there is no way you can tell someone to protect the Environment without earning from it. The sense of ownership and Empowerment involving local communities in environmental projects fosters a sense of ownership and when people feel connected and responsible for their local environment, they are more likely to actively participate in conservation efforts and also adopt sustainable practices”, Elizabeth explained

Mr. Michael Koma, a resident of Oyajo village in Moyo Sub County, Moyo district, also says that bush burning should be regulated so that the adverse effects are avoided because alternatives include grass cutting for roofing and mulching is burned out. 

The bushes are burnt to encourage new growth for pastures because fire is used for clearing bushes based on its ease, quickness, and convenience for cattle farmers.

“Some bird species increase in number where there is light burning based on the increase in grasses that produce seeds which the birds later feed on. The habitats of small animals and bird may be temporarily destroyed by the bush burning fire and the nests of the birds. The nests on the other hand burn and food are equally destroyed”, Koma observes.

Mr. Koma also adds that “There is a need to continue Education and awareness creation to masses in matters related to environmental protection. Through, community inclusiveness drives, locals can disseminate information about the importance of environmental conservation, Sustainable practices and the impacts of human activities on the ecosystem and this kind of education can lead to behavioral changes like adopting eco-friendly habits and promotion of sustainable development within the locality”.  

Mr. Patrick Droma, the Moyo District Natural Resources Officer, also says the cyclic nature of fires in the district is evidence of increasing climatic instability and change in vegetation.

“Because of the persistent fires, tall vegetation has given way to shrubs lantana camara and Acacia Senegalese. These species suppress the production of accessible and palatable forage and affect the animal production and also put the life of our bird species at risk”, Droma reveals

He also adds that other semi-arid areas of the region found in the Cattle corridor of Adjumani and Yumbe districts also experience extensive bush burning and wind erosion during the dry season.

In response to the effect of drought, the District Production Department under DRDIP and other development partners are promoting rainwater harvesting, and different communities and Non-governmental organizations are also working hand in hand with the local government to promote tree planting programs.

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John Unzima/Media4All

ADJUMANI, Saturday 18^th, February 2024, at the teeming Awindiri food Market in Adjumani town, two trucks arrive from the Eastern Ugandan town of Mbale delivering a consignment of Cabbages, Onions, and Irish Potatoes. Within minutes, a swarm of retailers surrounded the trucks creating a scene of a mini – ‘gold rush.’ In a blink of an eye, the trucks are empty.

Not long ago, thoughts of commercial import of vegetables and other foodstuffs to the Ma’di region would be an outlandish imagination, but now it is a reality so normalized, yet unknown to the many local food shoppers, what they are facing is a shift from their traditional ways of feeding.

Contrastingly, for a community whose dietary culture is so distinct ranging from wild leaves, and nuts to fish, to turn to importing daily nutritional nourishment beckons a question, what has gone wrong?  The answers are somewhat obvious! Domestic food production plummeted lately! But why?

Mr. Ojja Francis, Adjumani District Forest Officer, says the line between crop productivity and reliability of rainfall is blurred, adding that one of its impacts of unreliable rain has had a direct downward effect on the local crop production capacity in the Ma’di Sub-region.

“Our rain season has become shorter, it rains a lot in a short period, this is a characteristic of Climate Change, and as such people prefer growing quick maturing crops that are not indigenous,” Ojja said.

On the changing food trend, Ojja says, traditional foods are cooked using local ingredients, where productivity is low. Due to Changing Climate trends, the ingredients are hard to come by, and the food culture had to change.

Whatever change they talk about, the reality is biting and disrupting the feeding culture of the Ma’di people who grew much of their food previously, are in a quick turn to importing food, so much so that some very traditional staple foods of the Ma’di people like millet and Sorghum are not on the market stalls anymore.

As bleak as it gets, for vegetable traders like Vincent Kidobi, from Mbale, it’s a boom, he trucks in cabbages and Irish potatoes thrice a month, making multiple folds in profits that he’s not willing to disclose.

Admittedly, a smiley Kidobi also says, “Awindiri is our best destination, here the market is ready!”

Whilst the traders cashing in, a study by Palm Corps, an Agro based Non-governmental organization puts West Nile’s net annual import of food at Seven (7) billion shillings, narrowing to Adjumani district, the Palm Corps survey counts three Trucks arriving daily into Adjumani with either Tomatoes, Cabbages or Onions.  

Alexander Andama, the Team Leader of Palm Corps Adjumani, leading the survey, among other factors, points to erratic Climatic Change that has driven many grassroots communities out of subsistence farming turning them into gross buyers of food for domestic consumption.

Dying Ma’di Culture   

In a 2016 documentary, titled Rainmaking; “Disappearing Practice”, Dominic Dipio a renowned filmmaker also Makerere University Scholar, singled out another aspect of traditional Ma’di life that is disappearing largely due to the ecological crises and Climate Change, rainmaking.

Rainmaking is a predominant practice among the Sudanic linguistic group, the ritual is centered around individuals who are bequeathed with supernatural abilities to rouse rain even in the wildest period of dry seasons, without any scientific footing, rainmakers were revered among the Ma’di people.

The ritual is performed around a specific type of tree, requiring herbs that have fallen prey to the runaway logging and Charcoal trade that is ravaging the Ma’di districts, just as it does to the rest of the West Nile region, exacerbating the climate crisis.

Dipio says, that beyond the rainmaking, the entire Ma’di heritage is at the critical stage of being deleted by ‘new ways’ of life as they adapt to changes in the environment, according to her the trend penetrates all ways of life, from social life to the economy, Ma’di culture is giving way at a worrying speed, yet little is being done to slow the changes.

She recalls, that Ma’di are avid cattle keepers but today, it astonishes her that a Ma’di family hands over their cattle to be looked after by other people.

“It is worrying, that people (Ma’di) no longer care about their culture yet culture is the reason for their very existence,”  Dipio said 

In the policy books

At the back, sitting well with the loud cry for cultural renewal echoing among the traditionalists, Uganda National Culture Policy 2006, is fittingly plain on the need to protect indigenous knowledge that includes food culture but despite its clear intent, the policy shares the plight of many, it is shelved.

Underscoring the importance of culture, the Policy reads in the quote “Although indigenous knowledge is useful to people, limited research, inadequate documentation of the indigenous Knowledge affects the practice of Culture”

The policy further states that “in some cases Indigenous knowledge, has been marginalized and threatened with extinction by modern knowledge and environmental degradation”, effectively driving home the predicaments of Cultural practices of the Ma’di people among other cultures in Uganda.

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