Jadyn Snakenberg

10/1/17

Chapter 6 of Suffering Under Gods Environment covers peasant trade. Wolde-Mariam

clears up the misconception that peasants have lots to trade at the marketmany go to socialize
and end up spending less than one Birr in the whole day. There is often little to trade with
because one of the reasons for the deeply ingrained subsistence mentality of Ethiopian peasants
is the lack of confidence in the market. It is also shameful to buy or sell food and uncommon to
grow cash crops to sell for food. In addition, the market serves as a potent instrument of
extortion rather than as an institution in which free individuals exchange freely because of the
coinciding times of harvest and tax collection. Between 11%-14% of grain grown was sold in the
years of this study, and during the famine years, that grain sold was not surplus but subsistence.
It appears that peasants in the zones below 2,200 m are generally more inclined to sell crops
than peasants in the higher zones, possibly due to production amount and accessibility. In
1982-83 peasants lost 0.20-0.80 Birr per kilogram of grain on the average and 0.60-0.90 for
every kilogram of oilseeds they sold compared to the prices they paid for these same agricultural
products. Trade in livestock makes up a much greater percentage of sales. Peasants almost
always sell more livestock than they buy. Proportions sold of each animal depend on the
elevationthere is a significant trend of decreasing investment with increasing elevation in the
case of each animal type. Selling oxen is typically a pretty desperate move as they are needed
for farming.
Chapter 7 is about income and expenses. For most peasants the land is the ultimate
source of all income, and children start earning their stay at age four. Wolde-Mariam briefly
touches on the food-for-work programs that are more concerned about the environment than the
people living in it and promises to return to it later. The sale of animal products is usually greater
in high elevations. Figure 7.3 shows that families in all elevations struggle to meet the minimum
production for subsistence farming. It also shows that low elevations tend to do better than high
elevations in good years but much worse than high elevations in bad years. Why do peasants
sell food grains when they know they do not have enough for their own consumption? They are
forced to pay their institutional obligations at a certain time. On another note, the more mobile
people of the lower elevation zones could obviously escape tax collectors in one way or another
more easily than the more established and sedentary highlanders. Taxes did not go away in the
famine years but were used to pay for the governments celebration of its tenth anniversary. The
chapter closes with peasant perceptions of their access to schools, medical centers, roads, and
telephone lines, concluding that the distribution is not very even at all.
Chapter 8 is about food intake. Peasant food is not like food in urban areas, or like
Ethiopian traditional food in restaurants. In addition to injera and wet, there is qitta, nifro, and
qolo. 84% of people in the 2,800-2,999 m elevation zone said they eat a satisfactory amount,
with a general decrease both upwards and downwards from there. The highest negative
response was 70% from the 1,600-1,799 m zone. Like in previous chapters, these results were
obtained through interviews and questionnaires, and it is possible that the peasants answers were
not entirely truthful because they wanted to please the interviewers and maintain honor. Their
bodies, especially those of the children, certainly provide no evidence that food consumption is
adequate. Despite the beliefs of government and development officials, the Ethiopian peasant
has not reached the level of food security. The proportion of households who eat food other
than injera for dinner is symptomatic of some type of destitution. The highest consumption of
injera is for lunch and the lowest for breakfast. Meat and butter are eaten only about five times a
year, and asking this question is as embarrassing and as painful as asking a woman who wants
to have children but has none, how many children do you have?. The best things grown and
made by the peasants are not eaten by them. The chapter closes with, The majority of the
victims of the starvation are children. The relatively better food available is normally reserved
for the head of the household. One should not misinterpret this to mean that Ethiopian peasants
do not care for their children. The fact is they do love them. But the rationalization of food
consumption is associated with work that demands energy. They realize that the peasants need
food in order to work.
Wolde-Mariam still has a very negative view of the Ethiopian peasants progress, and this
is evident in these chapters. While he certainly wants the best for his countrymen, he points out
that what is being done now is not enough for real progress to take place.