The first casualty of war is, without exception, food

The English writer HG Wells once wrote of this most perverse activity of the human race: “If we don’t end war, war will end us.
And what does “end” mean?
It doesn’t just mean death. Death is like a deep sleep.
Oh man! It is the suffering “before” dying that is dangerous, painful and horrible. Right now we are in June 2022. Forty-six years ago, on June 16, the Soweto Riots began. They started innocently with a student uprising, but started a movement that made us aware not only of what was happening in South Africa and its apartheid nightmare, but also of bold leaders such as Steve Biko. There is a film about Biko starring African-American actor Denzel Washington. Yes. Cry Freedom (1987) is as dense, intense as it is 100% uncomfortable to watch. Why?
Because of the war. Jamaican musician Bob Marley, now believed to be 77, once translated Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie’s speech into a classic anti-war reggae:
“Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior, is finally and finally discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war…”
War is dirty, and as I said at the beginning, if we don’t end war, it will end us. Citizens, what does “end” mean?
We humans need three basic things to live and survive. Food, shelter and clothing. Food MUST always be supreme. The first casualty of war is food, resulting in food shortages. The bullets are mean, but the lack of food is an eyesore. Famine offers signs of the “beginning of the end”.
Right now, as war rages in Ukraine, we have two things. All eyes are on and crying over Ukraine. Places like Palestine and Afghanistan have been forgotten. In the blink of an eye. According to UN reports, in May 2022, 11 days of hostility broke out. The Israeli army reported hitting around 1,500 targets in Gaza, killing 120 Palestinian civilians. Meanwhile, Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, launched rockets and mortars towards Israel, killing 12 civilians and seven Palestinians in Gaza.
See?
You may have forgotten. But the truth is that the current bloodshed of 2022 is not just about Ukraine.
Conflicts and wars continue to chew. The same United Nations also recognized at least 4,031 people cut down and murdered in Ukraine, including 200 children. In wartime, it’s not just about bullets, bombs and fire. There is a rape. Looting. Madness. Many forms of injustice. War is grim. What is war?
War is dirty, war is a monster.
Again, “if we don’t end the war, the war will end us”. HG Wells lived from 1866 to 1946. His books were about humanity and he had an anti-war stance. He was one of the first Fabians – a socialist philosophy that would have impressed our founding father, the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.
We humans like to fight.
As these 2022 wars rage on, three parts of the world have expressed concern over food shortages.
Lately, in Pakistan (which is said to be the biggest importer of tea), calls have been made to drink less tea. London’s Evening Standard said that in 2021 Pakistan imported tea worth £501million. “Drinking less tea per day would reduce the cost of Pakistan’s high import bills.” says the Standard.
War affects us in various ways, but food is always the first victim.
And in East Africa? Last week, an article in the Sunday Times alleged that people had started starving in northern Kenya due to a lack of wheat. Wheat comes mainly from Ukraine and Russia, according to the report, and Africans are feeling the pinch.
I felt a bit uneasy when the reporter noted that wheat is used to make ugali, an East African staple. Is ugali made from wheat or corn? What are these guys trying to insinuate?
If it’s bread, chapati and maandazi, yes. They are wheat-based. Ugali or sima as they say in Kenya is pure maize or maize.
However, this war causes food MISERY.
Earlier this week UK citizens were advised to start considering eating venison instead of beef. This is for two reasons. Beef means cattle and cattle means to destroy or harm the environment. Venison, i.e. deer meat, resembles bushmeat in Africa. Wild animals do not harm our precious living land space like cows.
Second, government advice is to think about food alternatives. Those who are disgusted or dislike overeating certain types of food will need to begin to rejuvenate and reconsider other options WHILE humans continue to kill each other.
I would say “Make love, not war”.
This 1960s slogan, created at the height of the Vietnam-US war, will always go strong, louder, louder.