Embedded Files
The work crew is clearing the land of low-growing brush (featured in 044-49v Brushing") in the first stage of what is known as slash-and-burn or fire-fallow cultivation. The brushing" is done in the dry season and is followed by the burning of the dried out plants that have been cut down. After the burning of the area, the rice is planted, rice being a staple food of the Sherbro people.
049v Brushing4.mp4121v Rice harvesting.mp4A video (from 121v Rice harvesting) illustrating the harvesting of rice in a swamp. Both upland rice and swamp rice are grown in the low-lying area. Alhaji Will of Moyeamoh explains that farming work is tough, "Ma ŋkath!" ('It's hard!') but returns to it readily. Often small groups of men will be assigned a certain area in competition with other small groups. The group to finish first will receive a reward.
burning_the_farm.mp4Transporting rice shoot bundles.mp4threshing rice.mp4Women hauling chaff.mp4075v Dicing cassava.mp4080v Tilling swamp.mp4059v Processing groundnuts.mp4
The little girl holds a breadfruit, the fruit of a non-native tree in Sierra Leone originating in the South Pacific. The spread of the starchy fruit around the world has been attributed to its planned use as a food for slaves during the late eighteenth century by British colonists. It looks something like bread when cooked but is not a favored food of the Sherbro people, though breadfruit trees are found in many villages. The little girl had picked up the breadfruit from where it had fallen on the ground.
Some animal husbandry is practiced among the Sherbro people including the raising of fowl such as chickens and ducks as well as ruminants such as goats and sheep. Cattle are usually kept by a distinct ethnic group, the Fula. The picture features a pen or house for goat and sheep, where goats and sheep are kept at night. The meat from both goats and sheep supplement the protein side of the local diet usually supplied by fish.
A banana tree with several bunches of unripe bananas hanging down. The fruit comes in different sizes and colors; the variety featured here will become yellow as it ripens. Bananas and plantain (a hard species of banana that must be cooked) supplement the local rice- and cassava-based diet.
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