Donkeys: A key factor in international relations?

Amitava Mukherjee

(The author is a senior journalist and commentator.

He can be reached at amitavamukherjee253@gmail.com)

 For so long, they were considered to be only draught animals used for carrying heavy loads. Among the livestock population, they never enjoyed any pride of place in public eyes. Yet donkeys have now become a key factor in Sino-African international relations. They are now in a position to put a spanner in China’s ever-increasing footprints in Africa.

In February this year, the African Union, representing 55 African countries, put into effect a 15-year ban on trade in donkey skin. On the face of it, the ban may seem innocuous. But beneath the surface, it has strategic connotations. China is heavily reliant on supply of donkey skins from Africa for manufacturing a ‘cure all’ medicine called ejiao, prepared from a gelatine gained from boiling donkey skins, which is rumoured to cure insomnia, dry cough, poor blood circulation, and raise male virility, although its efficacy has yet to be proven on any scientific touchstone. But it has already brought about havoc in the economic and social life of Africa. The largest part of the donkey population in the world can be found in Ethiopia, Sudan, Pakistan, Chad, and Mexico.

Let us have an idea about the destruction of the donkey population in the world. According to a study in 2016 by the Donkey Sanctuary, a UK-based charity organisation, the donkey trade resulted in the deaths of 4.8 million donkeys a year. The death figure continued to rise—5.9 million in 2021—and is expected to rise to 6.8 million a year in 2027 if a worldwide effective ban is not imposed on the donkey trade. Needless to say, most of the killings took place in African countries. Interestingly, it coincided with a 160 percent rise in the production of ejiao in China.

But China needed to explore the offshore donkey population as it has almost exhausted the native stock for producing the ejiao—from 11 million in 1992 to just 2.6 million today.

For this, Beijing has not spared India either. Although killing of donkeys and trade in their body parts is prohibited in our country India is steadily losing donkeys. According to the 20th livestock census released in 2019, India has 0.12 million donkeys now—62 percent lower than the 0.32 million recorded in 2012. Other equines, like mules, horses, and ponies, also experienced a decline in population.

Now Beijing is looking towards Pakistan, where government-sponsored schemes to boost the donkey population are going on. The equines’ fate is predictable: most of them will be killed, and their skins will be shipped to China.

This donkey poaching has international ramifications. 300–600 million people all over the world, mostly poor, are dependent on donkeys and horses for their livelihood, with 158 million of them being from Africa. This continent alone has 13 million of the world’s approximately estimated 53 million donkey population. So banning the donkey skin trade is a must for African countries, while drying up the supply of raw materials for the production of ejiao will cause social discontent in China.

Rearing donkeys can be a money spinner for the poor all over the world, although scientifically unfounded Chinese belief in their traditional medicine is standing in its way to a great extent. Ejiao’s efficacy is yet to be scientifically proven, but the beneficial properties of donkey’s milk are well known. While one litre of cow milk costs between Rs 70 and 100 in India, the same amount of milk will cost USD 1.80 in the UK, USD 1.12 in France, $ 2.36 in Germany, and $ 1.98 in the USA. In most other countries in the world, the price is on either side of one dollar. Not much, really.

But what is the price of one litre of donkey milk? Hold your breath, reader. In some places, it is between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000 in India. Calculate the rate in international proportion. The price of cow milk comes nowhere near it.

Donkey’s milk is rich in vitamins A, B, B1, B12, C, and E. Its immune-boosting capacity is widely recognized. It contains proteins, omega-69 fatty acids, lactose, amino acids, and several minerals like calcium and iron. It is highly effective against asthma and some other kinds of respiratory problems, like bronchitis. Therefore, it is often taken as an ideal substitute for cow milk or better than that.

So the rearing of donkeys holds out good prospects for the poor people of the world, and in order to reach fruition in that direction, the China-bound trade in donkey skins must stop. But will China really accept it? The big question mark hangs over. On the other hand, Beijing may use the carrot of ‘debt relief’ to bend several African countries, as a good number of the poor African nations are finding it difficult to pay back Chinese loans.