Family Futures

[

] 71

dvancing

ocial

ntegration

and

ntergenerational

olidarity

in search of work elsewhere.

Of the 95 households surveyed,

168 former members were found to have out-migrated, a trend

concerning 71 per cent of the sample and a warning for a critical

level of dependence of the local economy on external remittances.

Widespread polygamy often results in a multiplication of

split widow-led households where, in an already difficult envi-

ronment, women must fulfil all family needs. The massive

outmigration of work-age men is significantly increasing the

number of female-headed households.

Twenty-four per cent of the households surveyed are

female-headed, of which 70 per cent are due to widowhood

and 30 per cent due to the outmigration of the household

head. In 38 per cent of the households, women entirely or

partially contribute to children’s educational costs, and in 46

per cent they do so for health care expenses.

While legally recognized as equal to men, rural women are

still disadvantaged in many ways. Most of them suffer from

marginalization, social and cultural discrimination, and illiter-

acy. The low level of education among women directly affects

their ability to access information, agricultural extension

services and inputs, improved technologies and decision-

making. Where ownership or usage of land is concerned, men

habitually claim priority and hereditary rights.

Striving with often uncomfortable situations, women have

learned to come together and share burdens and difficulties.

Traditional forms of solidarity and collaboration among Fula

women in the FDH imply mutual assistance in case of need

in terms of both exchanges of food and resources and of

labour for agriculture.

Image: P. Ceci

Women of a market garden group and villagers in Fello Férobhè, Bantignel

Family farming in the FDH

Seventy-five per cent of the households surveyed

acknowledged agriculture as the main source of livelihood

and 38 per cent of them practice both rainy- and dry-season

agriculture. Farming is often complemented by small-scale

livestock rearing. Due to the mountainous topography of

the area, several types of land are exploited for agricultural

production. They include kitchen gardens, delimited by fenced

perimeters surrounding the houses and cultivated exclusively

by women, as well as external fields in the valley bottoms, the

plains and on the slopes.

Typical crops of kitchen gardens are maize, cassava, taro,

sweet potatoes, groundnuts, beans and vegetables for daily

consumption, including tomatoes, eggplants, chilli peppers

and okra. On the slopes, mountain rice and fonio, but also

cassava, maize and groundnuts are cultivated with the slash-

and-burn system. In the plains, fonio is mostly cultivated. In

the fertile bottom valleys, where dry-season agriculture is more

easily practicable due to adjacent streams, the main crops are

tomatoes, cabbages, eggplants, onion, chilli peppers, potatoes,

sweet potatoes, beans, okra, lettuce, paddy rice and maize.

With the exception of lowland vegetable production, all agricultural

stock produced is destined for household self-consumption.

Land, if not personally owned, is allocated to villagers by the

most influential families – the descendants of those who came

first to the area during the Fula colonization of the highlands.

Normally, one tenth of the seasonal agricultural production is

due to land owners in exchange for land use rights.

Work division by gender assigns to men the heaviest tasks,

including preparation of wooden fences, clear-cutting, cleaning and

burning, ploughing, sowing, harvesting and threshing. Common

women’s tasks are weeding, sprinkling and winnowing, while

children deal with surveillance and the carrying of tools and crops.