Chinese appetite erases donkeys from F/town
Lebogang Mosikare | Friday July 28, 2017 15:47
The Europeans, historians add, were driven by commercial interests among others, competing to plunder the continent’s resources. Many years later and the Chinese have joined the fray. Across the continent, the Oriental giant is muscling into economic, trade and aid relationships. Besides these, however, the Chinese are also interested in something else: the scramble for the African donkey.
The Chinese manufacture highly valuable traditional medicines from donkey products, in a multibillion US dollar industry in the Asian country. Countries across the continent have banned donkey exports and closed down abattoirs and farms, as the scramble for the humble beast has become frenzied, marked by callous treatment of the animals and drying up of populations.
Botswana banned the trade recently, but the trade has virtually cleaned out the City of Francistown. Prior to the ban, the huge demand for the donkey had increased the price of a donkey from about P150 to P550, according to farmers. In the past, before the Chinese started buying donkeys in bulk, it was common to see a lot of stray donkeys roaming in many parts of the city, even in the Central Business District (CBD).
Stray donkeys were responsible for causing car accidents and also contributed to traffic disturbances that were experienced in the CBD. In some areas of the city, the donkeys turned dustbins upside down when foraging for food, in the process leaving litter scattered. Fast forward to today. It is rare to see donkeys in many areas of the city since the Chinese began importing the donkeys to feed their insatiable appetite. Statistics from the Francistown City Council (FCC) show that there is a decline in the number of stray donkeys at the council’s kraal.
In the months of April, May, June, July, August, November and December 2016, there were zero, 60, 19, eight, 23, 22, 20, 67 and 16 stray donkeys respectively kept at the council’s kraal. Statistics from the municipality also show that numbers at the kraal between January, February and March fell from five to none in the months after that.
Although FCC’s senior spokesperson Joseph Wasubera could not with certainty say that the Chinese appetite for African donkeys may have played a role in the reduction of stray donkeys in the city, the factor cannot completely be ruled out. According to Wasubera, it is plausible that farmers are now taking better care of their stray donkeys since the Chinese started to buy them from locals, hence the reduction of donkeys in the city. For ordinary residents, the Chinese appetite and the resultant drop in stray donkeys has been music to the ears.
Ogone Rannona, a resident of Phase 5 in Francistown, said she does not even remember the last time she saw donkeys freely roaming the streets of Francistown. “I’m not sure whether the Chinese demand for the donkey has led to the drop but I cannot rule out that possibility,” she said.
The city’s eyes, however, are on a case in which a Chinese man will appear in court soon to face a possible charge of cruelty to animals after he was arrested with close to 500 donkeys at a farm on the outskirts of Francistown, that he bought from locals from across the country. Government officials later shot the donkeys to prevent them from suffering more because they had been found in a very poor state of health.
Donkeys, once a neglected domesticated animals by Batswana, are now in high demand because of their skins and other by-products in China. According to various news reports, many donkeys are at the risk of extinction because of the insatiable growing global trade that is wiping out donkey populations.
Across Africa, donkeys are being killed in growing numbers to feed the demand from China where the skins are used to make natural medicine believed to be a sexual stimulant with anti-ageing properties. The donkey’s hooves are said to contain gelatin, while the meat, consumed in many parts of China, is believed to be more nutritious than beef and is enjoyed in burgers and stews.
Botswana is the sixth African country to impose restrictions on donkey exports, following Niger, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Gambia. In those countries, however, the bans have triggered an underground black market for donkeys, where middlemen have enriched themselves even more and the animals are treated even more pitilessly due to the lack of official oversight. It remains to be seen whether the same will prevail in Botswana.