Sukumawiki

Sukumawiki growing along the roadside

near Tristan and Emma's School

Kenyans have several staple foods in their diet including vegetables like arrowroot, maize, cow peas and grains. Kale, which is called sukumawiki (sue-coo-ma-wickie), is eaten with many meals. It is cheap and full of vitamins. We see it growing throughout the country, in fact the grounds worker at our apartment building grows a large patch of it outside the gate to our parking lot. It has been an acquired taste for our family, but it is much loved by Kenyans. Sukumawiki is so popular that there are even poems written about it:

“All this I am saying
To all you listeners
Is in praise of sukumawiki, my love.

Whenever I am hungry, ready is sukumawiki.
Sukumawiki, my love, may the Lord bless you.”

Sukumawiki Kipenzi, translated from KiSwahili by Ezekiel Tsinalo

Food security is a major issue in Africa. Kenya has been near the top of the UN listing of the most vulnerable countries for food security. Along with soaring electricity and fuel prices, drought conditions, the civil unrest of early 2008 and the present world food crisis, the price of basic foods have more than doubled over the past nine months. This causes a major problem for Kenyans who on average live on a few dollars a day. While most rural Kenyans are able to live off of subsistence farming, the lack of rain in many areas is making this extremely difficult. Even this week, we have witnessed several Masai herdsman bringing hundreds of cattle through Westlands (where we live) to graze on the green roadside grass. While Nairobi has received a good rainfall, much of the surrounding land is bone dry and whithering.

The Sharing Way is currently working with Canadian Foodgrains Bank in a consortium to organizing food relief in the worst affected areas.