NAURU

READ

Nauru is a tiny island in the South Pacific with a population of fewer than 13,000 people. It’s no wonder, then, that finding a book to read for this country was challenging. When I was fortunate enough to find a copy of Stories from Nauru, by Ben Bam Solomon et al, in 2016, I bought it right away, and I’m glad I did. I’m convinced it was the last copy of the book available for sale anywhere on the planet.

Stories of Nauru was the result of a workshop sponsored by the University of the South Pacific in October of 1990. According to the book’s foreword: “It was organized so that a conscious effort would be made to encourage Nauruans to write and to record their folklore in the attempt to build a Nauruan literature.”

The eight stories in this short collection cover a variety of topics. There’s a creation story, accounts of personal challenges, and retellings of old legends. And inevitably, there are the stories of what Nauru was like before the arrival of the Europeans.

“Egade” is about an old woman who used to teach the people of the island about their culture – their traditions, laws, songs, and clothing. Because of her, the “people knew their identity and were proud of their rich cultural heritage.” But then the white people arrived, giving the people of Nauru trinkets and potions in exchange for their natural resources. Before long, the Nauruan people had forsaken their traditional way of life.

Another story, “Nauru: The Way It Used To Be,” says that “Nauru means Utopia.” The author chronicles the changes in culture, laws, and religion that came about when missionaries and foreign governments came to Nauru. Before the arrival of the Europeans, there was no religion and no marriage. There was no formal system of education either. Young people learned everything they needed to know by watching their parents and other elders. After the Europeans came, education became compulsory and children walked miles to school.

Stories of Nauru offers a quick glimpse into life on an island that is probably unknown to most people in the United States. Kudos to the University of the South Pacific for encouraging people to share their stories.

COOK

The story “Egade” tells of the wonderful things the Europeans brought the people on the island of Nauru. One of those things was “tasty food, in little tin cans, that would keep for days without going bad.” One tasty food in a can, which would not have been available at the time the original Europeans arrived but which has certainly become a staple since then, is Spam.

The last time I made a Spam recipe for this blog it was a Spam casserole from the island of Kiribati. At that time, there was no vegan Spam substitute commercially available, so I had to make one out of tofu. It tasted nothing like Spam. Since then, however, OmniFoods has developed a vegan Spam that is very much like the real thing. It doesn’t come in a can, though – I buy it in the frozen food section at Sprouts. And it’s perfect for the dish I made for Nauru – Spam-fried rice. I found the recipe on the Marty Made It website. It was very easy to veganize by substituting OmniPork Luncheon and JUSTEgg folded plant eggs for the Spam and eggs, and leaving out the fish sauce. It turned out great, and I’m sure I’ll make it again in the future. Vegan Spam – who’d have thought?

 

GIVE

Nauru faces a daunting future due to climate change, but I couldn’t find a single nonprofit organization working to address this issue in Nauru. GlobalGiving didn’t have any projects in Nauru, and I couldn’t even find a suitable GoFundMe campaign. Finally, I found an organization called Hope for Nauru, which helps refugees.

The refugees helped by Hope for Nauru aren’t seeking asylum in Nauru, however. They are seeking asylum in Australia. Rather than allowing these refugees to stay in Australia while they pursue their asylum claims, Australia has contracted to ship them to Nauru, where they are kept in detention indefinitely, often in squalid conditions.

Hope for Nauru puts together care packages for refugees, consisting of items such as clothes, hygiene products, vitamins, dried fruit, and nuts. According to their website: “We believe that a care package can help give a detainee comfort and hopefully some dignity. It also shows each refugee that they are remembered and cared about, and that many Australians are against immigration detention both on and offshore. For as long as there are innocent people detained on Nauru (as well as Manus Island), we will continue our mission.”

Information about Hope for Nauru is available at HOPE FOR NAURU.

 

NEXT STOP: NEPAL

 

NAMIBIA

 

READ

For Namibia, a country in southern Africa, I read The Purple Violet of Oshaantu, by Neshani Andreas. The title character, Meme Kauna, is a once-beautiful woman who lives with her husband, Tate Shange, and children in the village of Oshaantu. When she first arrived in the village, the townspeople “called her the purple violet of Oshaantu. She was so delicate and she came when these flowers were in bloom.”

The book is narrated by her best friend and neighbor, Mee Ali, a happily married woman with children. The husbands of both women work some distance away, which means they are rarely home and the women do all the farming and other work around the house. Mee Ali’s husband, Tate Michael, is good and kind, treating her as an equal, but Meme Kauna’s husband is a louse who beats her and cheats on her.

Mee Ali hears screaming coming from Meme Kauna’s home and runs over to see what the problem is. She finds Tate Shange dead, and Meme Kauna telling everyone that he had only arrived home half an hour previously and he had not eaten any of her food. She is afraid people will think she has poisoned him.

Throughout the rest of the book, Tate Shange’s relatives arrive and the funeral is planned. Much like in the book I read for Mozambique, Paulina Chiziane’s The First Wife, Tate Shange’s family immediately begins to quarrel over which of his livestock and other possessions they’re going to take. It doesn’t matter that Meme Kauna was the one who took care of the farm and the animals – her husband’s family lays claim to everything that was his.

There is also much gossip among the family and the villagers because Meme Kauna has not shed a single tear over her husband’s death. She even refuses to designate anyone to speak on her behalf at his funeral. Throughout her ordeal, her friend Mee Ali is with her and does her best to help in any way she can.

The Purple Violet of Oshaantu is a sad commentary on the treatment of women, and I can only hope that things have started to change in Namibia since this book was published in 2001. 

COOK

I finished reading this book a couple of weeks ago, but I had a terrible time finding a recipe I wanted to make. I could have veganized a beef and carrot dish or buttered black-eyed peas, but those both sounded mundane. I finally found a recipe for Guava Squares at Namibia (Namibian Recipes) (narod.ru). The recipe looked straightforward enough, but I ended up having to make several adjustments. For starters, I visited three grocery stores, and there was not a guava to be found. Instead, I used guava jelly. I made my usual veganizing substitutions – JUSTEgg and Miyoko’s cultured vegan butter. Many of the measurements were in grams, so I converted those, but I ended up with a crumbly mixture that clearly needed more liquid to hold it altogether. So I poured in more JUSTEgg until I had a batter that stuck together and could be scraped into the baking dish. Fortunately, the final product was pretty good, although I couldn’t even taste the guava flavor.

GIVE

The GlobalGiving website had several climate-related projects to choose from. I decided I wanted to help protect lions. According to the project description: “Wild lion numbers in Namibia are under threat due to factors such as loss of habitat, lack of natural prey and revenge killings from human-wildlife conflict. When there is a lack of available natural prey, the local farmers’ livestock are targeted as they present an easy option – especially when they are not herded and protected at night. Due to frustration from farmers, and a lack of alternative solutions, these lion populations are hunted down in retaliation to prevent further livestock loss.”

This project will help to reduce this conflict by “collaring lions and training locals to become lion guards.” Predator-proof shelters will be built for the livestock, and deterrents will be set up to keep the lions away. It is hoped that these measures will help stabilize the wild lion population.

More information about this project is available at Protect lions in Namibia from retaliatory killings - GlobalGiving.

NEXT STOP: NAURU