He sits under a tree all day and his wives bring him beer and food and tend his fields, his children take care of the cattle, and he doesn't have to lift a finger. In the eyes of his neighbour, he is very well-off. The problem comes when that man himself sees the apparent affluence of city dwellers and hankers after western 'wealth'. Suddenly he is poor and resentful . Western standards and values have corrupted the African balance.
Subsistence farmers chop out acacia trees to grow maize and feed the stalks to the cattle.
The soil is soon exhausted and the cattle grow thin. So expensive western fertiliser is needed or more thorn trees are cleared for more lands. But the thorn trees themselves enrich the soil and feed the cattle. Both the leaves and the pods are good fodder. The fat grey velvety pods of the camel thorn, Acacia erioloba , provide more than double the crude protein contained in maize stalks.