HOW THE SAHARA HAPPENED 



night after night they went away fully determined that 

 something must be done to remedy things, but not 

 knowing how to begin. Their spirit was willing, but, said 

 they, "We are old men and the work that you would have 

 us do would require an army of Morans." 



The Morans, or young warriors, for their part, lived 

 their happy-go-lucky lives, not worrying themselves at 

 all as to what became of their forests. If one talked to 

 them of the importance of tree-planting, they would re- 

 ply: "That is Shauri ya Mungu," God's business. It did 

 not occur to them that if all Mungu's seed trees were re- 

 moved, Mungu could scarcely be asked or expected to 

 replace a great forest. One could not punish them, for 

 they were too many; and how could one punish wrong- 

 doers totally unconscious of their crime? "Sufficient 

 unto the day" was their motto. It did not strike these 

 young men that the destruction of the forests had any- 

 thing to do with the decreasing rainfall, although their 

 fathers told them that in the old days, when their land 

 was covered with high forest, there was rain in plenty, 

 and that what few crops they grew in those days were 

 better than they were nowadays. Whenever there was 

 talk about this tree-planting, everybody agreed that it 

 was a very good thing, but the problem was to persuade 

 them to plant trees without paym-ent or compulsion. 



I had given long talks in many meetings with the na- 

 tives, but apparently the seed had not rooted and no ac- 

 tion had resulted, yet I would not lose hope for I felt 



^3 



