HARVEST TIME

Sorghum is the staple food for Cameroonians in the Far North Province. Harvesting a household's food supply engages the entire family. Men and women have each their different tasks at the various stages of the process. A field may have produced enough to feed the household, but poverty drives many to sell off a few bags to pay for the various family needs. Speculators exploit this situation and buy up large stocks to create artificial food shortages. They drive hereby the prices up, only to bring the stocks back on the markets once the families have run out of their food supply.

In the field
Field of yellow sorghum	Farmer cutting the stalks	Stalks are put in sheaves to dry	Using a sickle to reap the cobs
On the threshing floor
Gathered on the threshing floor	Flailing the cobs to remove the grains		Separating the cereal from the chaff, a task reserved for the men
Chaff scattered before the wind. Note the separation of grain, chaff and dust in the air		Women reap the last kernels from swept up left overs of the threshing floor	Children fill the bags
Sowing the bulging bags closed	Balancing two bags on a donkey	A wagon is a more time efficient means	Clearing the threshing floor
At the marketplace
Selling off sorghum to take care of family needs. One bag feeds a family of six for about a month	Speculators roam villages and trading markets to stock up	Retail on the village market	Bil-bil, a popular locally brewed alcoholic sorghum beverage