Looking Back: Famine in Nyasaland

From June 1923

Famine in Nyasaland

(The following graphic account of the famine in Nyasaland is from the pen of Mr Frank W. Bowman, our missionary in Domasi. We would assure Mr Bowman and the Domasi staff that their action in offering their services for Famine Relief work has the cordial approval of the Committee. – ED)

For the past three months many parts of Nyasaland have been suffering from the effects of the short rains of last year. Famine has been widespread, and Domasi has been the centre of one of the worst districts. After our report of the conditions we found during our journey in the Chiuta District to the north, Government started relief measures in that district.

“In December it became acute in the Domasi district itself, and relief measures were begun by Government at Zomba. As there was no food to be bought in the country. It had all to be imported from Rhodesia. The sights in the villages were ghastly, and by the end of December the people were eating roots, insects and even grass and leaves. Many died from eating poisonous plants. It was soon quite evident that our village schools would have to close down, and at the end of December, or rather at Christmas, we closed them all and offered our services for Famine Relief work.

“The district between Domasi and the shores of Lake Shirwa, and also from Zomba to Chikala, were handed over to us, Government supplying so much maize per week for distribution to the hundreds of villages and started a weekly ration system. When more was given, it was eaten up in the first few days, and then the people were worse off than before. The Head Native Teachers in each district were used as investigators, to report the worst cases. We soon found that this method, while the only possible one for the adult population, was hopeless as regards the little children. Many were just living skeletons and could only be saved by careful feeding and nursing. By arrangement with Government, we took the worst cases into the Mission. In two days the hospital was full. We had then to use the large teachers’ dormitory, and very soon all our available accommodation was full up. We had at times 150 wee mites in all stages of starvation and emaciation. We had to employ four extra hospital assistants, while we had the help of several of the Nyasaland Native Police to look out for and report on desperate cases.

“Many of the children were too far gone when we got them, and several died after they were brought in, but the majority we managed to pull through. The number of deaths in the villages will never be known, but it must have been very great, from the number we heard of. Thank God, we have had splendid rains, and now the crops are ripe, and we can hear the oft-repeated words, ‘Njala yata’ (‘The hunger is over’). The depot here has been closed, and all the children are away to their homes except two, who are, I am afraid, tubercular cases.

“Our village work has been at a standstill for three months, but I think the work the staff here did during the famine was well worth doing. I hope that it will also have had a good effect with the people all over our wide district.”

Miss Low contributes the following interesting particulars regarding the help rendered by our missionaries during the famine:

“It was a pathetic sight – the quiet of the bairns was touching. They had not even the energy for a shout. They were in all stages of emaciation, from little ‘Oliver Twist’, with the hand of a baby of five weeks, the body of a child of five years, and the face of an old man of eighty, to the urchin of twelve who after being fed for three weeks was beginning to put on flesh, and was told he would soon be able to go home.

“Two hundred odds have passed through the hands of the Mission staff, and two hundred lives have thus been saved. “

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