In the Basankusu district of the Democratic Republic of Congo, at the first cock crow each Saturday morning, women from Lolungu, Boyela and Wala villages wake up to prepare for a 15-kilometres walk to the CCP (Compagnie de Commerce et de Plantation) centre to sell their cassava. The cassava they sell has been harvested and dunked into water for around a week to remove the cyanide before it is ready for human consumption.
This cassava emits a detestable smell as it continuously leaks while being carried in a colander basket. For a long time, it has been the only source of income for these women. Hence, they must carry this foul-smelling substance for those fifteen kilometres, while it drips down their backs, thighs, and feet.
I remember walking with my own mother to sell cassava, and I now realise how humiliating it was.
When the women arrive at CCP, they are met by a frenzy of other women buying cassava. Once they have sold their load, it is time for another 15-kilometres walk back to their villages.
Each woman’s sale of cassava earns her less than 10 dollars. With no other source of income, this tradition has been going on since CCP started more than a century ago.
In 2021, Lingofe’s project started with a vision to change the life of people around these villages. As a matter of principle, we dedicated sixty percent of our workers’ capacity in our palm nurseries to women and we pay each person a salary of eighty dollars a month. In Congo, this is more than half the salary of a qualified teacher.
The palm nursery needs to be watered in the morning and evening. This left many women with time and the opportunity to go work in their farm or go to the forest to forage and then back to their home after having completed their work. This, as one woman describes was a dignified liberation from fifteen kilometres walk carrying stinky cassava.
With more cash in their hands, many women are now able to sponsor their children education and send them to school far away from the villages with knowledge that the children will be well supported financially.
Another woman who works in our farm managed to save money and bought herself a bicycle which she uses to cycle once a month to take food supply to her children studying around ninety kilometres away from the village.
As our project starts bearing visible social benefits, we have come to the realisation that expanding our activities will benefit more people. Palm nurseries is a temporary work. As palm tree are panted, this work ceases. A better, much more permanent and long term approach to alleviating these issues is needed.
We are working on a plan to introduce a system where villagers stop relying on foraging by providing a guaranteed food supply. We want to do this by starting a pig and chicken farm run by women. As women acquire theses farming skills, the sale of meat will add more to their source of income and reduce bush meat consumption that is dangerous to their health.
We believe that with small consistent changes like these, many women and villagers will be liberated from humiliating chores, consistent foraging and positively orient their lives as they will come to possess a reliable source of income.
Join us in empowering village life, removing unnecessary chores and squashing lasting humiliating women duties while providing source of income to support children’s education.