Cow Dung Economy

Mombasa Port.

The dockworkers stared curiously at cartload after cartload of goods being hauled aboard, trying their best to breathe as little as possible. Some even covered their noses and said, "Th-this year is truly strange! Even cow dung can be exported? Such a huge ship devoted to hauling cow dung—what is it for?"

"Cow dung is good stuff, but I've never seen so much of it being transported by ship. Mombasa has never shipped cow dung out in previous years."

"I heard these ships belong to Northern Province and Juba Province. Isn't that side all desert? Are they hauling so much cow dung there to use as fuel?"

"That really is possible. The desert lacks everything—there aren't even trees or grass. Then what do they use to light fires and cook?"

"Don't talk nonsense. I asked some old hands aboard the ships. They said this cow dung is fermented fertilizer, being hauled north to spread over the fields. Their agricultural experts say it is used to grow fruits and vegetables."

The workers at Mombasa Port discussed it animatedly. It was not that they had some special fondness for cow dung; the smell was simply too strong, a stark contrast to the cargo they normally handled.

As for fuel, Northern Province and Juba Province really were relatively short on it. However, they were not so desperate as to import cow dung from elsewhere for fuel. Local camel dung and timber felled in the west were the two provinces' primary sources of fuel.

Ancient Arabs had long been accustomed to using camel dung to start cooking fires. This tradition was still preserved in many Arab regions during the nineteenth century, and Somalia's two provinces under East African rule naturally retained the habit as well.

Moreover, besides the fifteen percent of forest