Why eating bugs is so popular in Congo
Nov 16th 2019AT A MARKET in Goma, a city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, an old woman pulls the wings off live grasshoppers and tosses their wriggling bodies into a bucket. She collected the insects from the airport at 5am that morning, and will go back the next day. Grasshopper season has just begun.Throughout November dozens of grasshopper-hunters gather at Goma airport most mornings. It is one of the few buildings in the city with constant electricity, and the lights that mark the runway attract swarms of the bug. People stuff them into plastic bottles to take to market. Buyers season them with salt and eat them with rice or cassava.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address