Many young people are attracted to different professions in the province of Rutana. Some work as drivers of car taxis, motorcycles or bicycles while others work as seasonal workers in the fields. However, there is a profession that is attracting more and more young people: milling. Reporting.
The operation of the mills is a good business for the millers who charge 100 FBu for a kilo of husked rice, or 100,000 FBu for a ton.
School dropouts affect all regions of the country. The causes of school dropouts are multifaceted. These include household poverty, disinterest, the search for seasonal work and unwanted pregnancies. Despite the implementation of school canteen programs, schoolchildren still avoid going to school and go in search of economic opportunities. The Moso region is suitable for growing cereals including rice, cassava, beans and sorghum, tubers such as cassava grow without problem. Intensive agriculture and related activities (ploughing, pest monitoring, harvesting and conservation) keep many young people busy. As an illustration, the worker earns an amount of 4000 to 5000 FBu per day. This means that the reflexes of earning one’s own money cause a certain lack of interest in school among students.
During our stay in the Muzye zone of the Giharo commune, we met a lot of young people outside of school while it was in the middle of the first term exams. Conversely, they manage differently to earn their living. To cope with unemployment, many young people work in various professions. Some engage in paid transport of people on two wheels or by car, others in fishing (border regions with Malagarazi), still others run the mills. These machines are widespread along the rice fields of the Mutsindozi River marshes. After the harvest has dried, farmers in the marshes and watersheds will grind or hull significant quantities of their produce. This is a good deal for millers who charge 100 FBu for a kilo of husked rice, or 100,000 FBu for a ton.
The good old days
The woman and the traditional mill (urusyo) is a long love story. Every evening, the woman would have to kneel down to traditionally grind the grains. It was a tedious job that marriage candidates should learn about. The technique consists of placing the carefully roasted corn kernels on a piece of pot (urujo) between two rough stones of different sizes.
Those who have practiced this profession always remember the back pain and the pimples that develop after exercise. You will find the prototypes of this hyper-important traditional tool in households at the Gitega National Museum. Currently, tourists have fun taking photos with this perfectly cut stone. It’s a whole profession that has disappeared.
Long live technology!
The arrival of piston engines to hull and grind cereals freed them from this yoke. Now, in a short time, you have the flour whereas before you would have to put in so much physical effort. Imagine the fate of a woman who worked all day. In the evening, she did not pound the cassava. She had to suffer a great punishment from her husband who returned from the pub. It was a factor in aggravating domestic violence.
It took time for this technology to become popular. Until the end of the 1990s, people traveled tens of kilometers to grind corn, wheat or cassava. Around the mills, there were crowds or long queues. Sometimes customers left their bags with the miller to collect them the next day. Woe betide anyone who was caught in the rain along the way without a waterproof bag. He arrived home with a big “muddy” mess.
In traditional Burundi, each household made its own common household objects such as stakes, sticks, cereal pestles, hoe and knife handles and others, because they do not require any particular know-how. On the other hand, other woodworking that requires more sophisticated technical knowledge and experience such as spear handles, bows, arrows, quivers, wrist discs, milking containers, bellows, shields and cereal mortars are made by specialists who exchange or sell their products, we learn from the book Barundi by the German explorer Hans Meyer. The traditional mill is among the tools made by specialists.
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