John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series AFRICAN HABITATS : FOREST, GRASSLAND AND SLUM Studies of the Maasai, the Luhya, and Nairobi's Urban Fringe |
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Markets : 177-198 | Pottery : 199-206 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series AFRICAN HABITATS : FOREST, GRASSLAND AND SLUM Studies of the Maasai, the Luhya, and Nairobi's Urban Fringe |
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Markets : 177-198 | Pottery : 199-206 |
Click for full-screen images
Markets : 177-198
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| 177. In such a productive agricultural area, markets play an important role, offering farmers a means to dispose of surplus foodstuff and buy items they cannot produce themselves (and also talk with friends). (Luanda market) |
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| 178. With few exceptions, both the buyers and the sellers are women. They bring in the produce, market it, and carry home what they have failed to sell and/or have purchased. |
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| 179. Those who have failed to grow enough corn to feed their family can buy more here. The market at Kakamega is like an open-air supermarket with each section occupied by a particular product. |
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| 180. There are a range of beans and peas on offer too. |
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| 181. Another aisle was stocked with a variety of vegetables and fruits ... |
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| 182. And there was a special section reserved for bananas. |
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| 183. The livestock offering was usually dominated by chickens. |
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| 184. But at the Luanda market there was a range of fish to choose from. Some of it was fresh, but in the absence of refrigeration most of it was dried. |
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| 185. A large area was devoted to clothing, of course. |
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| 186. Most of it was secondhand but some of the dresses were new. |
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| 187. People buying pots wisely gave them a tap to see if they sounded right, but there were “seconds” available for those who could not afford quality. |
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| 188. The baskets on offer are for carrying corn -- as flour in those that have been smeared with cow dung to close the gaps. |
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| 189. The metalwork available included jikos (stoves burning charcoal) and woks, |
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| 190. Also oil lamps, and funnels to fill them ... both made from recycled tin cans. Paraffin and charcoal can be bought here also. |
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| 191. There were a variety of building products on offer including, besides these woven mats and screens, a variety of doors, sawn timber, bricks and even window frames. |
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| 192. There were ropes made from sisal. |
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| 193. And items of furniture, also made locally. |
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| 194. A few men had imported bazaar goods for sale, and others garden hoes. |
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| 195. In addition to market places, many communities have small shopping centres, open all week long. |
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| 196. Here stores sell the variety of tinned foods, soft drinks, cooking oil, and toiletries found in corner stores worldwide. |
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| 197. Some centres will have roadside barbers also, usually in the shade of a tree. |
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| 198. Customers can choose the style they require, at the price specified, and later use the mirror to see if they’ve been given what they wanted. |
Pottery : 199-206
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| 199. The leatherworkers who prepared hides and sewed them together for clothing in times past have been supplanted by textile and garment manufacturers, and most local blacksmiths have been displaced by factories producing metal products: but two important crafts remain -- pottery and basketry. (Local metal products.) |
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| 200. Women make a variety of pots for domestic use. The body of the pot is made first and left to dry for a few hours before the neck and the mouth are added. |
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| 201. Most women work without wheels, using “coils” to build up the sides of each pot. |
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| 202. The sides of the pot, inside and out, are smoothed using a curved scraper (typically half a seed pod). |
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| 203. And a pattern is added to the outside -- often by rolling a piece of knotted string over the surface. Agnes Ombwanga buys her clay from a landowner 3kms from her home and is charged 5 shillings for as much as she can carry (on her head). Her only other expense is the wood used for firing. |
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| 204. Her pots are left to dry in a storeroom for 5 or 6 days before they are fired. |
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| 205. She makes five different pots for different purposes. In order of increasing size they are for cooking fish, cooking vegetables, cooking ugali, carrying water , and storing grain etc. |
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| 206. After firing her pots are packaged in readiness for being carried to market. With clay on hand she can produce 15 pots a day. She sells these for 5 shillings each, most of them to a trader who gets four times as much for them in Nairobi. |
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