Veteran journalist Charly Ndi Chia often joked that it is wrong to eat on an empty stomach. Literally speaking, he meant, rather oddly, that one must first drink (alcohol) before eating, a reversal of the popular maxim that “It is wrong to drink on an empty stomach.” By the maxim, not Ndi Chia’s sarcastic distortion, folks are advised to follow the normal sequence: eat before drinking (water or whatever else, if they must). It suggests that feeding is essential to the body but drinking (alcohol) is a luxury. In other words, business before pleasure.
Whatever was Ndi Chia’s intention in the sarcastic distortion, his “maxim” obviously mocks those who value the pleasure of alcohol intake more than the essence of food intake. It is not uncommon to see Cameroonians at bars gulping down bottles of beer in the morning and only resorting to a semblance of a meal to regain stamina to continue drinking.
My call on Cameroon (Cameroonians) to first eat before drinking is as much on the personal as on the political scale. It is partly in reaction to an otherwise credible leaked correspondence – yet to be disclaimed – suggesting that the Government of Cameroon (GoC) or the Presidency of the Republic in particular, ordered liquor from abroad to the tune of nearly 1.5 billion FCFA for end of year Government functions, including the 2020 New Year Wishes ceremonies. I mean, in other words, Cameroon, provide food to the needy before you offer drinks.
While there was public outrage at the mere extravagance suggested by the leaked letter instructing the Cameroon Financial Attache in Paris to pay for the drinks, the paradox is more vexing in that rulers of a poverty-stricken malnourished country would afford such luxury. Furthermore, the GoC neither showed remorse over the scandal nor have they attempted to contradict the scandal.
As it is probably true that the GoC wasted 1.5 billion FCFA on drinks alone and for just the end of year feasting, it can be guessed that that has been the practice across the years. Correspondences for other such purchases have simply not always been leaked. Also, that being for just the end of year feasting, there is probable that there have always been other purchases during the rest of the year, implying the country spends a lot more than just 1.5 billion FCFA annually. On drinks only!
Were this heavy drinking really about thirst, the GoC would bother about the masses’ basic thirst for potable water. But taps run dry all over the country. Cameroon is rich in natural water but poor in potable water. With millions of cubic metres of springs, streams, rivers, lakes and rain water draining away daily, hydrology is not the bane. Poor maintenance of water catchments and water treatment are to blame, and rusted and broken water pipes pour coloured and dirty, contaminated water into homes when they do not simply run dry. Cholera scares are not uncommon. Even in Yaounde, the seat of power, overhyped projects to materialise the dream of thirsty masses for more and better water in pipes have remained a pipe dream. Thirsty masses in Etoudi have to line up outside the Presidency (a water haven of sorts), to scoop a drop.
That suggests the GoC gets its priorities wrong. Its opportunity costs are necessities in favour of luxuries. Meanwhile, 40 per cent of Cameroonians live below the poverty line, that is, those who cannot spend more than one US dollar or just over 500 FCFA a day. This is a three percent increase from 2015, implying the situation is only getting worse. A low cost meal at a makeshift restaurant in Cameroon costs 500 FCFA. Those below the poverty line cannot afford that if they must cater to other daily routine needs like taxi fares and sachet “pure water”, talk less of cheap alcohol like local brew (palmwine, shah; mbu, afofo or odontol) or the very popular sachet whiskeys. The price of beer (at least 700 FCFA) is above the poverty line. This implies that if only for one day, the 1.5 billion FCFA poured into luxury glasses, could have offered over 2.3 million persons a life above the poverty line.
Paradoxically, alcohol consumption is high among the poor who supposedly seek to drown their sorrows. Sachet whiskey sold at 100FCFA is easily affordable to the poor, though its excessive consumption when hungry or in a malnourished system could be a more grievous health hazard. Deaths, sometimes instant, have often been reported from consumption of both sachet whiskeys and local brews like afofo or odontol popular in the forest south and bil-bil common in the sahelian north.
State of Cameroon Nutrition
The World Food Programme reports that Cameroon “faces serious challenges in achieving Zero Hunger and eradicating malnutrition by 2030 as required by Sustainable Development Goal 2.” The socio-economic standing of the country explains this. Cameroon is an Intermediate Income country. WFP’s 2019 report ranks the country 150th out of 189 on the Human Development Index. On the 2016 Global Hunger Index (GHI), Cameroon ranks 74th out of 119 countries. Rated at 40.0 points in 1992, Cameroon reached 22.1 points in 2017, which is still considered serious or of major concern. The ideal score is below five points on the global hunger index. On the Nutrition Commitment Index (NCI) Cameroon was 21st out of 45 countries. Cameroon is hungry but it drinks luxury. Cameroon drinks on an empty stomach!
The most malnourished regions are the sahelian Far North and North for obvious reasons of poor soil quality and climate due to advancing desert, as well as the savannah Adamawa and rain forest East regions though the latter two are mainly affected by shortage of food in quantity and quality due to the influx of refugees from armed conflicts in the neighbouring Central African Republic. Refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria have also flooded parts of the Far North region. Though malnutrition statistics from the South West and North West regions have not yet been factored in, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the Ambazonia armed struggle also account for the swelling numbers that worsen food insecurity in the four most affected regions.
Nutrition
The challenge is over acquisition and consumption of food in both quantity and quality. Faced with lack, eating to fill the stomach may defeat the veritable purpose of eating. Simply eating is better than not eating, but eating correctly is the way to avoid malnutrition to ensure wellness or good health.
Speaking recently in Yaounde at a capacity building seminar for journalists to report malnutrition and advocate for nutrition, Professor Julius Oben, a world renowned award-winning Nutritional Biochemist and the University of Yaounde I said we often eat for taste (because food is delicious) or because we are hungry, not in quest of nutrients. He said after we have eaten, we do not even know what our body is doing with the food. But, he said, what our body does with the food we eat and how useful that is for our health should preoccupy us. We should strive to eat a balance diet.
That is what nutrition is about. It is described as “The process by which humans choose, acquire, eat and process foods.” While socio-economic status could be a factor determining quality of food intake, Oben says one simple trick to defy cost is to have the maximum number of colours on your plate.
And, as alcohol (made from fermented cereals) would give you more carbohydrates than the most essential proteins, vitamins and minerals, if you care about nutrition, you would strive to eat before (or without) drinking (alcohol).