Exchange

Street Food in Dakar & Suburbs (4): The Construction

On every street corner, too, various street food outlets compete for customers with other types of businesses. These places are either "canteens" or garages of houses transformed into catering spaces with a large table and wooden benches around for customers, or metal or wooden kiosks glued to a wall or by the roadside.

The materials used are numerous: stainless steel or plastic or glass containers, spoons, dishes, a gas bottle or coal furnace, plastic basins for laundry, a few 20-litre oil cans recycled into water reserves and a stack of newspaper used as packaging.

Ajrak: A textile without borders?

The two textiles shown side by side, are Ajraks-- the blue silk one is from Karachi, Pakistan and the blue-red is a wool-silk scarf produced in Bhuj, India. While deeply visually similar, the textiles are produced in two countries, that though border each other, are divided by political conflict that does not allow trade or travel between the two countries-- even to conduct research. The blue silk scarf is mine and the blue-red scarf belongs to Meera Curam. 

Red Tomatoes, Green Houses

At an altitude of 3000 meters, Khamje is a tiny village with a handful of houses in the Solukhumbu region of north-eastern Nepal. The mountains in Nepal are not considered hospitable to a variety of food, and most of the country’s food production is centered in the hilly region and the Terai (Southern Nepal). Dawa Phuti Sherpa (woman pictured here) is seasoned in mountain farming and animal husbandry, and has spent most of her life in Khamje. The red tomatoes, and the large pumpkin shown here are grown in her recently-built greenhouse.

Tabaski Twenty Twenty (2)

The first activity on the feast day tabaski is group prayer in the public squares. Otherwise it will led in the mosques by the Imams who will be the first to slaughter their animals. After the immolation of the Imams from each zone, the rest of the community starts to slaughter their animal. Following the mechanical skinning of the animals, the meat is distributed at three levels: firstly, the share of the disadvantaged first, then the next of kin and the third part is for the family. This meat is consumed in different dishes, at least within the families.

Tabaski Twenty Twenty (1)

The feast of Aîd El Kébir or tabaski is a Muslim feast. It involves prayers and the slaughter of animals (preferably sheep). This year, it coincided with the Covid 19 pandemic and its consequences. This explained the soaring prices of sheep in the market. The animals were exposed in the parks and on the streets to customers. The prices varied between sixty thousand (60,000 F cfa) to four hundred thousand (400,000 F cfa and up). Because of the high price of sheep, within twenty-four hours (24 hours) of the event, some Muslims could not have the sheep of their choice.

Farmers and Loan Money “Amadaw Kyay” Under BSPP

Daw May Myo Khine, 49 years old, who once lived in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine, and whose grandfather and father owned many rice farms explained that under the Burmese Socialist Programme Party, some farmers grew two different kinds of rice. They grew low quality rice, which they would sell to the government at the prescribed price and good quality variety, which they would eat themselves. The government gave farmers loans called “Amadaw Kyay”  for growing rice. In return, the farmers had to sell the harvested rice to the government.

The Prayers of the Talibés (2)

yalna laa baay laate, dugal la ci poosam yobu la aldiana !

yalna nga àjji màkka 

yalna nga giseek seriñ tuuba yoomalxiyaam 

yalna la borom bi bindal tuyaaba

yalna nga amm ay seex 

yalna nga tabbi ci teenu xaalis ñu lay gene ngay bañ 

 

May God make Baye Lahat put you in his pocket and enter with you into Heaven.

May God give you the grace to perform Hajj in Makkah

May God make you meet Serigne Touba in the afterlife

May God record this good deed for you...

Learning While Walking in the Forest: Where the Village Practices Shifting Cultivation

Every day, the youth of Huay Hin Lad Nai community go into the forest to find food. The forest serves as the local supermarket. Accompanying them into the forest today are students from Chiang Mai University, who are part of school's Ethnic Studies and Development program. Both the students and the youth group woke up early at 5:00 a.m to go and learn in the forest together. The local youth shared stories about shifting cultivation, properties of variety of vegetables and herbs, and their way of living with the forest and nature.

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