Blacksmithing and pottery, tough but unprofitable trades – 2024-09-02 16:11:11 – 2024-09-02 16:11:12 – 2024-09-02 16:12:22 – 2024-09-02 16:13:40 – 2024-09-02 16:16:22 – 2024-09-02 16:16:45 – 2024-09-02 16:18:41 – 2024-09-02 16:19:23

Mainly dependent on forging and pottery, the natives of the Nyarurambi site in Cankuzo commune and province deplore that their trades do not allow them to cover family needs. The forge suffers from the lack of iron waste and pottery comes up against the population’s disinterest in clay objects. They are demanding arable land to replace their disappearing trades.

We are in the Nyarurambi site of the commune and province of Cankuzo. This site is home to the natives who live mainly from forging and pottery. Their houses, deprived of doors, are surrounded by huts serving as blacksmith workshops. Inside this workshop is a furnace used to heat metals using coal and bellows. On the other side, women and girls are busy with pottery.

“Forging is an activity reserved for men while pottery occupies women on this site,” says François Nzisabira, a blacksmith encountered in his hut practicing his trade. He emphasizes that forging is a very tiring job that requires a lot of strength. However, he deplores that they are living the ordeal because the income from their jobs do not allow them to make ends meet. According to him, the blacksmith trade is currently colliding to a problem of iron shortage because the waste containing this metal is now exported abroad.

“Since a large number of people who participate in the collection of metal waste and export it to Uganda, Tanzania or the DRC, our profession has gone bankrupt,” laments Nzisabira before indicating that currently, it is difficult for them to find axes, braziers, knives, bicycle stands and other essential tools in the daily lives of Burundians that they can take to the market to earn a penny, whereas it was the only source of income for them. However, he indicates that in this province the population needs its useful objects in daily life.

As for pottery, this old man in the forge says that with the development and introduction of modern iron pots, people are no longer interested in clay pots. “It is a hard but unprofitable job, for example my wife left the house at 5 am, she will return at 5 pm. However, the value of a more expensive pot is 1000 BIF,” explains Masengo.

Léa Ndereyimana, a Mutwa woman and mother of 8 children, agrees with Masengo: “We only earn enough to buy a sweet potato to calm our children’s hunger.” She says that many of them get by by soliciting daily work in surrounding households.

Batwa demand arable land

“We are asking the administrative authorities to give us arable land to replace our disappearing profession,” Arlete Nzisabira said. He shows that they live on a plot of 20 meters by 25 meters and that there is no other activity that allows them to generate income. “It is a space to contain a house and a toilet simply.” Evoking the slogan of the Burundian Head of State: “Let every mouth have something to eat and every pocket have money”, Nzisabira said that if they owned arable land, the Batwas would find something to eat. like other Burundians.

Adelin Masengo, the site manager, said that this question had been addressed to the administrative authorities but that it had remained unanswered. Contacted by telephone, Pierre Claver Nakumuryango, the chief of staff of the governor of the province of Cankuzo, said that the granting of arable land to the Batwa community is the responsibility of the Ministry of National Solidarity. He added that this ministry is looking for land for all the indigenous people deprived of arable land.