Harvest day: who feeds the workers?
In Thiobo, while the peanuts come out of the ground, the women cook ochache in the village. At midday, the food goes out to the field — and everyone sits down together.
By Rita · · 3 min read · Thiobo, Senegal
Harvest day is long. In Thiobo, out in the field, everyone pulls the peanut plants from the ground. But who feeds all these hands?
In the village, the women are busy too. They pound, they cut, they light the fires. They are cooking ochache — the meal for everyone working in the fields.
Pounded by hand, cooked over a wood fire
No gas, no electric cooker. Big pots cook over wood fires, and the smoke rises between the huts. Cooking for so many people is work too — and the women do it together.
The harvest is a ganikél too
Here too, nobody harvests alone: this day is a ganikél gan thiamera, communal work with the mask — the same name as the work you saw in the rainy season.
Lunch break in the peanut field
At midday, the pots, the bowls and the water cans go out to the field. People sit in the shade, on the ground, and share the same bowl. Then, back to work.
Real people. Real stories. Real life.
Nobody eats alone on harvest day. Watch the video, and tell me — what do people eat where you live when there is hard work to do together?
Written by Rita
A Bédik woman from Kédougou, Senegal. About Rita
