White Ant Season
Now that the rain has started in earnest, the landscape and environment of South Sudan is changing rapidly. One of the changes is that we now get to deal with mosquitoes and other insects in much greater quantities. Normally I would consider this a burden, but this week my African colleagues have helped me to find the silver lining.
Let me introduce you to white ants. They are extremely abundant here. When I'm in the field, I can look any direction at spot one of their massive anthills. During the dry season, the ant hills seemed abandoned, and it was rare that I even noticed insects. Now however, it is the larval season for white ants. Which means for about 24 hours, our compound in Luonyaker was over-run by the winged white ant larvae. For just one day, the ants develop wings, mate, and then lose their wings before returning to the ant hill. I'm not knowledgeable on the subject, but what I know is that this means hundreds of thousands of swarming, flying ants all over our base, and overriding any space that has a light on.
I can't even describe the excitement of the South Sudanese and other African staff when the ants appeared. Apparently, this is a special, seasonal treat. This time of year, people collect as many as they can, and fry them to eat. Everyone was hurrying around base, one person would sweep them into a pile, and the other person would scoop them up their hands and throw them in a bucket. Moses was even plucking them out of the air and popping them directly in his mouth. When Jen and I were surprised by this, he simply said that as a kid he loved eating them in Kenya. As we were scooping them up, all the staff were comparing the best way to maximize our catch. Someone suggested opening the door to one of the rooms and turning on a light to attract them all into one area. As we moved to one of the rooms though, we found there was no need to attract them, because the room was already filled. Somehow the ants had found the cracks in the windows and doors, and had rushed in to find the light source. Even more surprisingly, a chicken had also let himself inside, and was happily feasting on all the ants.
When the ants are scooped into a bucket, for some reason they stay put, they make no attempt to fly out. So it didn't take us long to fill the buckets. Simon was quite excited to bring them to the cook to prepare for the next day's dinner. He said we were in for quite a treat.
The next day I saw the cook cleaning the ants, basically just separating the wings from the body. Then, they went right into the fry pan with a little salt. Really, they weren't bad. Just a little crunchy and with an oily fried flavor. I would say they were similar to the grasshoppers I had in Tanzania.
The funniest part about this experience for me, was not eating them myself, but rather how excited others were to eat them. One team member was leaving the next day, and packed himself a to-go bag for the plane ride, and brought some to cook in Juba as well. Another person sent a package full of ants to his pregnant wife in Juba. Apparently she's been having pregnancy cravings for white ants, but they weren't available in the market in Juba.
Even though insects are a relatively common part of African diets, I also expect that these are seen as a good source of protein, at a time of year that most people only eat one meal a day. Because many people's food stores are running low, and this year's crops have just been planted, they won't have a harvest for a number of weeks. Therefore, many live off traditional food sources, like roots from the palm trees, or cows milk for children. In this case, I suspect that white ants may be a tradition beginning out of necessity, but now are a welcome addition to the local diet.
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| White Ant Hill |
I can't even describe the excitement of the South Sudanese and other African staff when the ants appeared. Apparently, this is a special, seasonal treat. This time of year, people collect as many as they can, and fry them to eat. Everyone was hurrying around base, one person would sweep them into a pile, and the other person would scoop them up their hands and throw them in a bucket. Moses was even plucking them out of the air and popping them directly in his mouth. When Jen and I were surprised by this, he simply said that as a kid he loved eating them in Kenya. As we were scooping them up, all the staff were comparing the best way to maximize our catch. Someone suggested opening the door to one of the rooms and turning on a light to attract them all into one area. As we moved to one of the rooms though, we found there was no need to attract them, because the room was already filled. Somehow the ants had found the cracks in the windows and doors, and had rushed in to find the light source. Even more surprisingly, a chicken had also let himself inside, and was happily feasting on all the ants.
When the ants are scooped into a bucket, for some reason they stay put, they make no attempt to fly out. So it didn't take us long to fill the buckets. Simon was quite excited to bring them to the cook to prepare for the next day's dinner. He said we were in for quite a treat.
The next day I saw the cook cleaning the ants, basically just separating the wings from the body. Then, they went right into the fry pan with a little salt. Really, they weren't bad. Just a little crunchy and with an oily fried flavor. I would say they were similar to the grasshoppers I had in Tanzania.
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| After returning to Juba, I learned that White Ants are just another name for termites. |
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| The finished product. |
The funniest part about this experience for me, was not eating them myself, but rather how excited others were to eat them. One team member was leaving the next day, and packed himself a to-go bag for the plane ride, and brought some to cook in Juba as well. Another person sent a package full of ants to his pregnant wife in Juba. Apparently she's been having pregnancy cravings for white ants, but they weren't available in the market in Juba.
Even though insects are a relatively common part of African diets, I also expect that these are seen as a good source of protein, at a time of year that most people only eat one meal a day. Because many people's food stores are running low, and this year's crops have just been planted, they won't have a harvest for a number of weeks. Therefore, many live off traditional food sources, like roots from the palm trees, or cows milk for children. In this case, I suspect that white ants may be a tradition beginning out of necessity, but now are a welcome addition to the local diet.
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