Farming

Everyone in Navrongo and Lawra is some kind of farmer: full-time or part-time. Teachers, bankers, policemen all have farms on the side. Most people farm one or more of the following crops: millet, guinea corn, corn, groundnuts (peanuts), rice, okra, onions, and tomatos. Below are some picutes I took of our good friend Victoria on her farm.

This is the right way to weed your groundnut field. Straight legs and back with a steady pace on the hoe. A good farmer can go hours without taking a break. Some women also sing songs to keep them working in a nice and steady pace.

This is the wrong way! Look at my bent legs and humped back. You can see I'm practically giving Vic an anuerism from laughing because of my goofy and feeble attempt at weeding.

Vic is now harvesting a bundle of groundnuts.

She's now washing off the dirt from the groundnuts so that they can be dried and stored for the year.

Here's Vic carrying home a large headpan full of harvested groundnuts.

Sometimes thieves steal groundnuts from other peoples fields. To ward off thieves, Vic placed this wooden cross with a bundle ("juju") in her fields. She assured me that this "juju" wasn't really loaded with a curse. However, she did want people to think that this "juju" might inflict a curse on any theives. Sure enough, after the "juju" went in her fields the thieves stopped pilfering her groundnuts.

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