Dec. 82/Jan. 83 RAIN Page 8 ~1E:LL~ ~;.;~'''.....~ ~~ ~ ~ i?·r filt~~~ P . h '.Q.j 'i; ..- ~.:- I · ~~~. uppet S O\IV (??JP)~~ Our journey through Nile Province, Sudan, convinced us beyond any doubt of the urgent need to communicate to the people living there the importance of trees and to regenerate a respect for and understanding of the direct benefits that tree planting, nurturing and careful management can have on the quality of their lives. We visited an agricultural scheme which is protected by extensive shelter belts of mesquite trees. Immediately outside the shelter belts all plant growth stops dramatically. Then for many miles there is nothing but desert and villages, which obviously had trees fairly recently but which are now practically submerged in sand. Large date palms, dead, and stripped of all accessible wood, are a common sight and it is hard to imagine by looking at the landscape that there ever was enough water to support the pathetically thin strips of fertility. The resulting situation of a lowered water table making the drawing of water harder and harder, and having to tl.i..tvel further and further for firewood makes life increasingly difficult, particularly for the women. This causes a level of exhaustion just in coping with the most basic survival which would make the extra burden of, for example, watering a tree sapling because of its long term benefits an unlikely priority. And it is useless planting trees if the goats are immediately grazed on them and they are cut down for firewood. Therefore it is essential that the people who deal with the desert daily really feel that tree planting is going to help them. There is a strong story-telling tradition in Sudan, so after researching into the Sudanese folklore, we wrote a story using local archetypes and made puppets of all the characters, hoping that we had chosen the right ones. We were pleased to find that whenever we showed the puppets to people we met they seemed to identify readily with them; we decided to try a performance. We arrived unannounced at Shagalwa village with a forest ranger, five performers, John Agnew of 'Green Deserts: a sack of mesquite seeds, a pile of booklets (compiled by Sudan Council of Churches in simple language with illustrations) about desert reclamation, and a puppet show. The evening was an extraordinary success. We set up our theatre by the light of the headlamps in an open space in the village, and by the time we were ready to start (about half an hour), around 500 people had materialized from nowhere and were patiently waiting for something to happen. Set in a village on the edge of the desert suffering from creeping sand, the story was told as follows: "A lazy boy, Ali, is chastised by his Grandmother, Haboba, for not working in the fields to provide food for them to eat. Ali says that there is no point in his working, as the fields his Grandfather used to work are covered in sand. "WelL go and graze the goat by the trees," Haboba says, but Ali tells her that there is only one tree remaining, the rest having been cut down for firewood. She boxes his ears and sends him out anyway. Ali and the goat go to the only tree, Ali falls asleep in its shade and the goat grazes. The tree groans and complains when the goat nibbles its leaves, scaring it away. Then Abbas al Hatab (woodcutter) enters looking for a tree to fell, but every time he turns to swing his axe the tree dodges out of the way. Unaware of this, he stumbles around cursing, thinking he is losing his aim; he mutters to himself that if he didn't know that it was impossible he would think that the tree had moved. The goat pops his head up to say that the tree had moved, asking the audience to confirm this. Abbas is now really angry; he swings his axe one more time, but just as he is about to strike, the tree comes to life, revealing itself as a fearful looking ghinn, who grabs him by the neck. He flees in terror. Alone on the stage the tree speaks to the audience in verse about the benefits of trees and the many uses of wood. Noticing Ali sleeping in the shade, the tr~e speaks to him in a dream telling him to plant a shelter belt of
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz