Addictive habit lifts sellers out of poverty
ON a tree-lined street in Papua New Guinea’s capital, Ruth sits at a small table covered in rows of betel nuts and mustard sticks for sale.
In Port Moresby, there is no shortage of buyers for the areca nut, as chewing the seed for its stimulating effects is a common daily ritual.
Betel nut consumption — or buai as it’s called locally — started out as a ceremonial practice.
Over the years, however, it’s become commercialised and widespread with about 80 per cent of adults in PNG chewing daily, according to the World Health Organisation.
Selling buai is one of the few options for financial stability for people like Ruth, who move from the provinces to Port Moresby only to find there is little formal employment.
“I don’t have a job but make money selling buai and smokes,” said Ruth, a single mother who moved more than 600 kilometres from Hela Province.
“It’s how I look after my children, their school fees, (their) bus fares. It’s our livelihood.”
Health issues and bans
The booming buai trade comes with all kinds of unintended consequences. Excessive chewing has been linked to mouth cancer, and PNG’s most famous musical export George Telek went public several years ago after he had a tumour removed from his mouth and almost lost his voice.
The buai trade has also put people’s lives at risk.
Manus lies more than 350 kilometres from the mainland, and betel nut doesn’t grow on the island.
The extraordinary demand combined with limited job prospects also means people take their chances at sea.
This is where many have drowned, and others have lost their lives to buai pirates.
There appears to be no easy fix. Over the years, there have been bans, including a partial ban in Port Moresby’s business district of Boroka last year, impacting sellers like Ruth.
“When the government banned buai, the police targeted us. Because of this, our income has suffered,” Ruth said.
From tradition to money lending
Belinda Kora comes from East New Britain Province, where betel nut is still steeped in tradition — it’s used in ceremonies, such as when chiefs gather to solve an issue, during bride price and during mourning periods called haus krai.
But like members of her family, Belinda also chews for recreation and regularly stops on her way from work at the ABC bureau to buy her buai from Ruth.
“My whole family chewed, starting from my grandmother, my great grandfather, so where I grew up in the city, everyone chewed,” Belinda said.
“You just get caught up in all of that while growing up, and so I started doing that when I was pretty young.”
Belinda has struck up a friendship with Ruth, whose situation mirrors so many other sellers.
Opportunities for formal employment in Port Moresby are decreasing while the population is increasing, Belinda said.
Meanwhile, there’s a growing demand for buai, and these women fill the gap.
“Most of the women that I know that are sellers are probably widows, or they’re single mothers who have the responsibility of looking after their grandchildren and other children.
“They can’t get a job because they haven’t gone through any formal education. It’s also led to a secondary income for some — money lending.”
They’ve realised they’re actually making a lot of money out of this, so what when they have a surplus, they’re able to lend … to a lot of people who are working in that area.
“They were making more money than public servants or permanent workers, but they shared it around,” Belinda said.
“They’re actually helping that person catch the bus to go to work, give lunch money to his children to go to school.
Punch to the mood
PNG rapper Sprigga Mek (Allan Aufamau) is from the village of Veifa’a in Central Province, one of the regions where betel nut is grown.
While buai is still used for cultural purposes in the province, recreational use is now a significant part of everyday life.
“People wake up first thing, they’re gonna grab a betel nut,” Sprigga Mek said.
“Like in Australian culture, coffee is big. Everyone loves their coffee. We love our betel nut.
“It gives you this extra kick or extra punch to your mood.
“And this daily kick is a financial lifeline to many in the province. In fact, the rapper’s grandparents were subsistence farmers, and the sale of buai enabled them to send Sprigga Mek’s father to university.
“You grow betel nut, you harvest, you sell. You make money. You help support yourself and your family,” Sprigga Mek said.
Last year, he released a track – 400 Naka — outlining the entire buai process, from harvesting and processing it to waiting on the side of the road for the bus to head to Port Moresby for sale and then back home again.
“And where I come from, the PMV (public motor vehicle – or bus) is the route 400.”
Is there a way forward?
Whether it’s ceremonial or recreational, people are chewing. But is there a way to combat health issues without upsetting the finances of growers and sellers?
“It’s going to be a real mission to get rid of betel nut sales in Papua New Guinea,” Sprigga Mek said.
“The government needs to come up with certain incentives on how to regulate or control the sale of betel nut.”
When it was banned, people started smuggling it, prices went sky high and impacted people relying on selling it, he recalled.
Belinda agrees. Many of her family are well educated and know the health risks involved in chewing as do betel nut sellers.
“I feel like if we’re trying to draw a line, and trying to control the amount and the number of people that are chewing, I really feel like the government should come up with more realistic laws and bans,” she said.
It would mean mothers and families could continue to sell in a manageable environment, and it would cut down on health issues and rubbish, she said.
“Right now, that’s not happening.”