Summary
This chapter describes the worsening maize shortage as December rolls in and food becomes even more scarce.
William's family began to only eat one meal each day, and the whole family ate together at one table, despite the tradition of men and women eating in separate rooms. Meals became a family activity, as everyone only had a few bites to eat for their one meal of the day.
In the midst of this hardship, William's mother Agnes gave birth to a baby girl. His parents didn't name her for several days after she was born because of the uncertainty of her survival, given the high rate of infant deaths at the time. However, when she seemed healthy against all circumstances, and especially considering the famine, they gave her the name Tiyamike, meaning "Thank God."
To help feed their family, and especially in response to the new mouth of Tiyamike to feed, Agnes began to make sweet cakes to sell at market and earn some extra income. The smell of their creation wafted around the entire house, and tantalized William and others, but the business did well in the market. This business idea brought hope to their family.
Another incident that happened during this time was Annie's elopement. One morning, the eldest child of the Kamkwamba family left with two school teachers and did not come back. It is revealed that she eloped with Mike, one of the teachers, and completely bypassed the typical traditions associated with courting and marriage, including the dowry and parental intervention. Trywell and Agnes were both distraught over this news, though her absence meant one less mouth to feed.
As the eldest and only son, William was tasked one day with going to the ADMARC building in Chamama, 15 kilometers away, to get more maize for the family. When William got to the building, the line in front stretched far past the building, despite the early hour. Many people were huddled there, hoping for some food, including crying babies and desperate mothers. As the day dragged on, the people got more impatient that the maize would run out and became aggressive, although William was able to escape and get to the front of the line. However, once the maize was roughly measured and given to him, he found out that he had been cheated of his money.
For many, in their desperation, selling their possessions was the only way to go. Along with the waganyu, or people looking for day labor, these were signs of people's desperation at the time. The market was filled with people trying to sell off their belongings for the hope of some food. The typical traders at the market, however, raised their prices so high that most people could not afford them. The maize mills, typically so full of people grounding their own maize, were now empty.
Furthermore, when Christmas rolled around, everyone was reminded of the bounty they typically enjoyed during the holidays, but were now sorely lacking. After eating his only meal of the day, William wandered and checked in on all of his closest friends and relations, with Geoffrey and Gilbert also experiencing the same hunger that the rest were. With Charity, however, the two cousins had the idea to get some kind of Christmas meat, and got goat skin from one of their trader friends. They cut up the skin, boiled it, seasoned it, and tried their best to enjoy the sticky, typically inedible skin. William even gave a piece to Khamba.
Analysis
This chapter is one of the darkest of the book. It is clear that the people of Malawi are desperate for food, and that they are willing to do anything to get it. The world seems to experience a series of reversals—the entire family eats together now rather than separately by gender, the traditional procedures of marriage are abandoned for elopement, and the smell of delicious food wafts around the family home though none are allowed to eat the sweet cakes. For each one of these incidents, William describes how tradition and custom would typically dictate their procedure, but now, everything is topsy-turvy, undermined and revolted against.
For example, when Annie elopes, William describes in simple terms how a typical courtship might happen. The language used in that paragraph is very matter-of-fact, referring to each party as "the guy" and "the girl" and using the future tense to show duty, but also that this is the way it has been done for a long time, and how it will likely be done far into the future (106). The word "will" here gives the sense that these are actions expected by the society around them, that these actions are certain to be taken, not options. However, Annie's elopement upsets the supposed simplicity of the tradition, a subversion that cannot help but be deeply linked to the famine.
Additionally, William's experience at Chamama cements the feeling that the affairs of the world are turned upside down. The chaos outside the ADMARC building, the refusal for government officials to properly give their people the amount of food they paid for, and the opportunities for exploitation that many took advantage of however they could embodies the chaotic energy of the time. The comparisons of the hoard of human bodies to wilted "potted plants" or the "great crash of knees and elbows" indicates the dehumanizing nature of hunger (108-109). People are stripped of any form of dignity during a famine, and Malawi is no different. The comparison to plants merely solidifies that point.
Christmas during the famine is also a time of particularly severe deprivation. Similar to other instances of subversion, William first describes what would happen during a typical Christmas, primarily the food that they would consume. Many luxuries would be indulged in at this time, from "delicious flying ants" to "sliced brown bread, soft and moist." (114) The adjectives here only serve to emphasize how Malawians are currently lacking in food, and a reminder of the shiny days of the past is the opposite of what they need now.
However, for William and Charity, the goat skin they try and treat as a meaty Christmas meal is a reminder of their desperation with the disgusting quality of food itself. Many of the descriptions for the food contain undesirable qualities, such as "gray and slimy," "sticky" and "terrible stench." (119) However, in the face of their hunger, all of these typically repulsive qualities are simply mentally replaced by the fact of cooking meat, no matter how terrible and difficult to eat it is. Even this disgusting meal manages to make them feel content.
