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Three Days into the Internship

Xristian
May 22, 2015
4 min read

Introduction

At the end of my first official day in Koutoura, I have learned quite a bit about the place already. Things are now clearer as to what I might be involved in. I can hardly wait for summer activities to start at the site, because here, just like in most of the country, farming activities are based on whether it rains or not. The rains just started here, and the weeds are just starting to sprout in anticipation of the lush vegetation that gives the sahel its prairie clothing.

A motorbike repair shop on the roadside

Stranger in my country

Just like most places I go for the first time, I woke up earlier than usual, and while I was taking a shower, a group of “apprenants” (learners in French) knocked on my door to offer me what will be my breakfast. It is needless to say that I brought the bare minimum in order to study the living conditions here before I head back to the city to get the supplies I need… apart from the personal aspect of things, I learned very interesting facts about this place.

A group of young students whose soccer game I just interrupted

First impressions

First of all, because it is a centre for informal education, I was suspecting it was an all-boys boarding school. Turns out about twenty of the seventy-two residents are girls. This might not sound like a lot, but I find it quite impressive, given the fact that most women from this side of the world are not encouraged to partake in farm activities. It was a pleasant surprise that women are getting more involved with farming. In my opinion, this will not only change the face of farming, but also shape the structure of the family to allow women to assume positive role for the well-being of their family. Sometimes, you might find that I do not make a big deal out of it, and that would be due to the fact that people from in my tribe do not traditionally allow women much responsibility for farm activities.

Division of labor: women’s role in subsistence Agriculture

Growing up in a society where gender inequality is as common as sunrise and sunset, this is the role that I saw women play in farming, and in the family, in general. There is what the industrialist would call division of labor. For instance, in the farm, at soon as it rains, and the soil is still wet, the men in the family will make sure that the field is plowed and all cleared up, and it is up to the women to make sure that the seeds are sown into the ground and safely covered up. Once these seeds sprout, the younger boys in the family will have to make sure that they wake up early enough to attend the field, and to make enough noise that wild birds do not eat and unearth the seeds for breakfast. Women don’t usually stop here, since these are the main crops, they will come in later, and plant some secondary crops in between, usually pepper, okra, beans, rosela, and so forth. There are also nuts from the shea tree that will fall during the month of July which can be sold directly or transformed into shea butter before sale… Women are also responsibility for harvest, while men are usually there to help with the peeling of corn and the transportation.

At home, the basic structure is that men are responsible for make sure there is grain in the granary, and it is the women’s duty to put food on the table, in the sense that the dried corn kernels on the cob needs to be peeled and ground up into corn meal. Women oversee most of this. And sometimes, the family can afford to pay the fees at the mill to grind stuff for them. Some women still grind their corn using a big wooden mortar and pestle.

Now how this plays out in the daily running of the family depends on each particular family. When the acreage is big, and there are not many boys in the family, the men will end up with a bigger burden. But when there are enough boys and there is at least a pair of plowing oxen, the boys will usually spend less time working the fields, and will have an easier time during the rainy season. Sometimes, there is only one girl in the family, to help the mother in the sowing process. This can be a truly stressful condition, but it is sadly the daily story of many girls.

All of this is to say that the twenty young ladies here on campus, will not be available to help their parents this season, or the next for that matter, but when they finally go home, they will have mastered a completely new way to getting the same thing done. Usually, it requires significantly less acreages of land, but is much more profitable.