Going back to village won’t help

AMONG the many economic, health and social issues faced by the people during the Covid-19 pandemic, ethnic clashes over land disputes in the Highlands is inevitable.
If the government is urging people to return home, it may not work for everyone.
We have seen people in the informal sector complaining of not making enough money to put food on the table and meet other family needs during the Covid-19 lockdown period.
The betel nut sellers and street vendors are among the most affected.
If they are told to go back home and cultivate the land, what is the guarantee that every one of the settlers has a piece of land at home to cultivate?
Some of them have never been home in their lives.
They call where they live, home.
Others are second to fourth generation settlers who may struggle to accustom to the village lifestyle.
Their supposedly traditional land may have been grabbed and occupied by those who remain in the village and they can never be easily given back.
As population is growing and booming, land is becoming a scarce resource nowadays.
Where people populate an ecosystem, the surrounding useful natural resource are being depleted for human survival that force people to either migrate or find alternative ways to survive.
We see trees being replaced by savannah grassland.
The once black humus soil turn into red soil overtime where food crops grow pale as a result.
Children and pets are not fed well with home grown organic food and become malnourished.
Eventually, people are forced to find means and ways to survive the adversity in many different.
Thus, people migrate to towns and cities to engage in informal sectors to earn their living.
Most unemployed urban settlers in this case, endure the hardships through street vending and black marketing, while others survive through stealing, prostitution, etc.
They buy and sell to make a little mark up and that’s the easiest thing to do.
Toiling the soil is not in their dictionary.
Hence, the lockdown in the eve of Covid-19 is a real devastation for the urban settlers especially those who live by buying and selling.
Now they are told to go back home but I wonder if all of them have a place at home or if they will find it easy to survive.
Will they be easily accepted into the community?
Do they all have a piece of land to cultivate?
In their struggle to reclaim their traditional land, we expect some ethnic clashes and bloodshed to happen before they come to terms.
This is double trouble!

Joe Kuman