A New Discovery: Wild Yams

11.24.2024

By Tracy Blackmer, PhD

I have been in Zambia for three weeks now and have become more comfortable in a wide range of ways.  My ability to learn the language is remarkably poor but it does provide comic relief to many of the people I interact with. Last week I purchased a water dispenser that utilizes 5-gallon water bottles. It had several buttons, depending on whether you wanted cold, room temperature or hot water. I thought I would score some language learning points by using my language dictionary to label each button. The closest I could find to “room temperature” was “normal” and was the same word for either language. I then looked up “cold” and wrote the corresponding Nyanja word for “cold” – or so I thought. I didn’t read the dictionary close enough and used the word for “cold” as in “sickness” not the correct word for temperature. Given the poor water quality in Zambia, they instantly latched on that I was offering water to make people sick in my apartment.

No matter where I go, I draw people’s attention as I have only seen one other Caucasian “Muzungu” since I have been in Zambia. I was in the grocery store the other day and one of the children, about 8 years old, was really staring at me more than others. Her Dad was laughing and explained to me that she thought I was a giant. I would guess I am typically 6 inches taller than most and certainly fatter than most. I dropped to a knee and asked her name and if I could shake her hand. I gave her my name and explained I was from America where I am a farmer. I think she may have been just as amazed at the amount of food I had in my basket as well as my size. 

I am able to drive myself to most areas. Driving on the left side of the road was easier to adapt to than I thought. Only the largest of main roads have names or at least signs which is making it very difficult to navigate. When driving on the roads, automobiles are the in the minority.  People walking is most common, then bicycles, then motorcycles, then transport trucks, then cars. Free roaming goats, cattle and pigs outnumber people when outside the town and are not afraid to move in front of a moving car.  It is frequent to see a bicycle carrying another person or over 100 lbs. of cargo.  Women wear long skirts and sit side saddle on a rack mounted on the back of a bicycle. The rack is not much bigger than I remember book racks. Sometimes a person just pushes their bike but has a large cargo on the bike using it as a dolly or cart of sorts. Navigating all the people and animals on the road is the hardest to adapt to – especially in town.

The people here treat me so well. I am very humbled and frequently embarrassed that the people in such poverty offer me so much. One of the Pastors we work with raises his own chickens and gave me a chicken. He had creatively used a cardboard box with hole cut out for the live bird to stick its head out yet be contained – sort of.  The Pastor gave me the bird near the end of our field training day and it was placed in the back of my vehicle. Later I saw several people running across the field chasing the chicken. They finally caught it. I butchered the chicken in my apartment sink that evening and had fresh chicken!

I am continuing to learn more about what subsistence farming really means. I guess I never really thought much about it and just associated it with poor farmers. Here it really means farming to survive.  The drought of last year devasted so many of the poor rural people. These people grow a patch of corn so they have food to eat. Few grow enough to sell in a good year.  While doing the training, most of the workers are delighted that some of the Mangos are ready and one explained they now have food to eat.  Many of the trees have a stick stashed in the tree so they can reuse it to knock down more Mangos. I have yet to see a tree that has not had the lower branches picked clean. 

An incident last week was eye-opening, allowing me to better understand the villagers’ plight.  We had a group of about 60 people comprised of the scouts who receive intensive training and the villagers who are taught by the scouts.  One of the local villagers brought food she had scavenged, and many people were huddled around to share what she brought.  They offered me some describing it as “wild yam” or “African Yam”.  It tasted like an Irish (white) potato.  They explained yams can be found in the woods but must be cooked.  As I inquired more, the woman who prepared the yams led me to the wooded patch by her house to show me where she had been digging.  There were many holes dug about 2-4 ft from the trees.  The vines ran up the trees and some looked like they might be 20 ft tall. I left that day appreciating the backup food supply and reflecting on how much the people enjoyed eating the yams.  Upon sharing my observations with a couple of the pastors, I noticed their concern. They told me the yams are very poisonous. Cooking takes 24 hours and involves skinning repeatedly, boiling them, and continually discarding the water to remove the poison.  The bishop said he is aware of a family of 7 where they did not prepare them adequately; 6 family members died, and the 7th is in a coma. I now have a better understanding of how important corn is to the farmers. Poisonous yams are considered a viable food option when crops fail.

I am constantly amazed at how intelligent the scouts are that I work with despite their lack of fundamental ag knowledge. While I will write in more detail about this in future reports, I will say I am very energized about what this means for the potential impact of this project in the future.

One of the tools that has been identified as very helpful is the old one wheeled walking hoe or cultivator that many Americans see in antiques shops.  Before I arrived, I was unable to find anyone in Zambia who had seen or knew where I could purchase one.  Back home I chopped one up so it would fit in my luggage. When I arrived in Petauke, a local blacksmith welded it back together. After testing it in a few fields, its value was apparent. Working with the blacksmith we had several prototypes fabricated.  We are on our third version of it and just ordered 25 more to be made.  In short, these will make planting much faster and reduce the erosion significantly as it is really imposing a simple means of “strip tilling”.  We have had over 100 farmers test them out and trained them on how to use them.  My favorite comment is when one of the farmers declared to the group “Look at me, I am tilling with an invisible ox”.  I think our materials and fabrication costs are going to be around $50-$60 each for a fairly robust tool that can be used for both creating a seed trench and weeding.

I was so proud of the group Friday.  The 20 scouts we are working closely with set up a new demonstration farm.  They trained the local villagers in one day.  While they only had two weeks of training, they did a wonderful job with both plot establishment and the training of local villagers.  I explained to them I was not going to help; they must do it all themselves.  The training involved a radically different way of farming from their traditional method, but they executed well, and the villagers were excited and energized.  To me, this was the proof that the scouts are truly capable of teaching and therefore bringing about change.  If each of the 20 scouts did this next year in 5 more villages, one hundred villages could be trained next year.  I believe each scout could easily do more than 5 villages.

I continue to build relationships with the scouts and enjoy their sense of humor.  I could sense their pride in their accomplishment yet couldn’t resist poking fun at them.  At the end of the day on Friday, I told them they did very well, but I was disappointed.  I reiterated that at the beginning I informed them I was not going to help today, so I thought I was going to be able to take a long nap.  But they were so good and fast, I was unable to take the long nap I was planning. The translator interpreted it as “I was happily disappointed.” And they all laughed.

The support from home is much appreciated.  I am quite introverted and miss the normal interaction with people from my culture.  Even the simplest messages from home are a welcome surprise and are appreciated.  The high temperature was 97 here yesterday.  I liked hearing there was a light dusting          of snow back home.  I am usually emotionally and physically exhausted at the end of each day and have lost over 15 lbs. in my first 3 weeks here.  As I continue to better understand the situation that many villagers are in and see how the scouts can have impact, I am more optimistic and committed than when I first arrived.