The Hunter and his deer

On the same day as the cycle ride we met a man called Lawrence. He was a fine specimen of a human being; tall and athletic. He was wearing broken sandals, shorts and a rain jacket and carrying had a huge rifle. A little face of an animal just visible over his shoulder, carried in a drawstring bag on his back. Lawrence was a hunter and the animal was a dead "bisch". We think it is french for deer but I haven't actually checked that in a dictionary!

The evening before Lawrence had walked into the forest, about 15km from the village, in the direction of the Guinea Bissau border. He spent the whole night in the forest with a torch and his rifle waiting for a "bisch" to cross his path. Then as soon as it got light, he started to walk back. He was carrying no water or food with him. He could sell the bisch at the market for 5000CFA (£6.50). I got the impression, he made that journey too and from the forest a number of times a week.

The gun that Lawrence was using was illegally smuggled into the country from Guinea Bissau, so he was happy to pose for us with his bisch but not with his gun. I will upload the photo when I get it from Shani. We said goodbye and as he passed us I noticed that back of his shorts and legs were stained with the animal's blood, dripping through the bag.

The dependency on imported rice

On a cycle ride through the expansive rice paddies near the village of Oussouye in the Casamance I passed a man who was carrying a 50kg bag of rice from Hanoi, Vietnam.

Africans never used to eat rice. Only since the food shortages of the 70's have they started to import rice instead of using local cereals or tuber crops that take longer to prepare. Nowadays every single Senegalese traditional dish is served with rice! Senegal imports an average of 880 thousand tons of rice per year since 2000, and an average Senegalese person consumes 93kg of rice per year! The rice paddies I was cycling through only produce 15% of the country's rice demand. There are a few new incentives to increase local production - such as New Rice for Africa - "NERICA"

Oh, I just got quite interested in this subject... if you want to read more here are a couple of articles I've just read:
Rice imports in West Africa: trade regimes and food policy formulation
Drive to double African rice production
GAMBIA: Can farmers axe rice imports through ‘Nerica’?