Mother's Day Series: 1.The Economics of African Mothers

African mothers can feed people in ways that economists should surely investigate, and pastors should envy. 

A visitor arrives unexpectedly at 7:17pm. Then another arrives "briefly" mbu dropping a wedding invitation card. Then two distant cousins appear from nowhere with phone chargers, mbu "there's no Uneme at ours." Uncle passes by "just greeting" and somehow remains long enough to eat. Three neighborhood children then come in, laughing with their playmate. Just like that, there are fourteen human beings in the sitting room and one saucepan of beans that already looked too little for even four people.

An ordinary person would panic. An African mother simply adjusts the mathematics. The tomato is made to work really hard, while the one onion does it's magic. Royco saves the day and the rice expands beyond its constitutional limit. Tea and Marie biscuits appear despite earlier announcements to you that "there is nothing in this house."

Then the famous sentence is mentioned while the kaveera of posho is emptied: "We shall all eat and get full."

And somehow… nobody leaves hungry. To this day, I do not understand it.

I am convinced African mothers are operating illegal food multiplication schemes from their kitchens. The World Food Programme should study them and FAO should consult them during food crises. If an African mother can feed twelve unexpected guests using one cabbage, half a cup of rice, and faith in God, she can probably balance the national budget. 

The confidence is what intrigues me most. "Mummy, this food is not enough." Mum responds, "It is enough."

Surprisingly, the food obeys her.

African mothers can stretch stew and you wonder. One chicken becomes wings for children, gizzards for respected visitors, pieces for everybody else, soup for all and leftovers for tomorrow morning.

Have you seen a mother performing miracles in African homes with bread? Like the parable of feeding 5,000 men in the Bible, four slices become breakfast for six people through techniques unavailable to modern science.

Visitors arrive unexpectedly and suddenly sugar appears from hidden reserves. Blue Band is scraped from corners using the tip of the knife and it spreads evenly on the bread.

Meanwhile the mother herself may not even sit down to eat properly. That is the painful part hidden inside the comedy.

African motherhood is not just cooking. It is crisis management, resource allocation, emotional labor, hunger prevention, diplomacy, infrastructure, logistics, all performed without applause.

From where my feet are, African mothers are among the greatest economists and strategists this continent has ever produced.