Bitter Chocolate by Carol Off

Author:Carol Off [Off, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-37079-2
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2006-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

CHOCOLATE SOLDIERS

“Whenever there is cocoa there is trouble.”

—A COCOA FARMER IN SOUTHWESTERN CôTE D’IVOIRE

JUNE IS A DISTRESSING TIME OF THE YEAR FOR THOSE who live in the fallow farmlands of Mali. The air buzzes with heat and singed dust. Scrawny cattle nose around in the few clumps of greenery, seeking whatever is left to eat. As they await the rains that may or may not come in sufficient quantities—or at all—people take on an air of quiet desperation. Especially now, as the Sahara continues its relentless spread southward, transforming large expanses of overused and depleted soil into sandy, sterile desert.

Forlorn families sit listlessly in their yards, listening to the distant rumble of a thunderstorm that always seems to promise rain for someone else. Their fields can feed them only for about nine months of the year. By June they are reduced to eating just one meal per day. And still, in the cooler part of the morning and before the fatigue of hunger sets in, they bend once more over the exhausted earth to coax the tiny plots of land to life, just one more time, planting their meagre seed and asking Allah, please, to send the rain.

It’s at this time of year that Malians of all ages abandon the parched fields, pack a few belongings and wander off to look for work. But in June 2005, more Malians were coming back than going. They returned with terror in their eyes and with stories to tell that were beyond the imaginations of the listeners.

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