Niger Currents
Exploring life and technology along the Niger river

The midday sun beats down on Mike and me as we walk the two kilometres inland to Tongorongo from where we parked our pirogue. Mike Gallant has joined me for this last stretch of the journey, now that Eli has returned to Canada. The heat is oppressive. It seems that past Mopti the area around the river turns into an oven. But despite being baked by the sun, we are both excited to visit Tongorongo.

There is a lot for us to be excited about. Tongorongo is home to a Multifunctional Platform (MFP), and so part of the project Mike and I both worked on through Engineers Without Borders Canada. It is also a village known for its pottery makers. I'm interested in learning about pottery techniques and also more about the project Clement, another Engineers Without Borders Canada volunteer, has undertaken with some of the local potters.

When we arrive in Tongorongo, our translator, Amadou, finds us a willing teacher and a place to stay. Fofomen Samou Sekou is a young mother in her early thirties who is from a family of expert potters, and Mike and I will be staying with her and her family for the next two days.

When we arrive at the house, the family is in action. Sedou, one of Fofomen's nieces, is mixing a large pile of clay with her feet while the young boys take turns breaking clay from a large pile into small chunks with a stick.

Fofomen's mother in-law, Yakoma, is patching a spot in the floor just inside the covered area by the main entrance to the house. As she spreads small bits of clay into the small dent, it occurs to me that I've never seen anyone devote such painstaking attention to a problem most people wouldn't even notice. As she continues her work she uses a small stone to pound and flatten the surface until it is completely smooth. Mike and I are both flabbergasted when she pours what looks like peanut oil into the dent. Sedou then brings in the bottom half of a large clay pot and balances it in a small bowl. Yakoma manoeuvres the concave bottom of the bowl into the depression and starts to spin it. We've just witnessed the construction of a local pottery wheel without having a clue what was happening!

"Yakoma has been making pottery her whole life," Fofomen tells us. As we watch Yakoma build a water pot up from the pre-made bottom piece, her skill is evident. Yakoma starts by adding material to the already-finished bottom half. She rolls the clay into a strip about 12 centimetres long and then adds the material to the pot by pushing a small amount into the its rim with her index finger while spinning it. Fofomen uses a variety of tools - a wooden scraper, smooth stones, and a sponge - as she shapes and smoothes the soft clay. When she is finished shaping the pot she puts two small bits of clay on opposite sides at the top of the pot. She then makes the handles, placing them on the pot and using the marks to make sure they are evenly spaced. The whole process happens so smoothly that I'm surprised when she's done in just about 20 minutes; like many skilled craftspeople, she makes it look easy.

Yakoma repeats the same process three more times while Fofomen explains that they make a batch of four or five pots in a day. It takes four steps to make the pots - forming the base, lower bowl, upper bowl and handles and then finally the neck of the pot. Between each of the steps she lets the clay dry in the sun for a few hours. When I ask why it takes four steps she tells me it would be hard to make the pot at once; it can easily lose its shape or collapse if done all at once. Mike and I are excited to try it out for ourselves, but that will have to wait until Fofomen starts work the following morning.

It's now late afternoon, a busy time for the Multifunctional Platform, and we're both itching to see it in operation. As we walk towards it I can hear the characteristic put-put-put of its Lister diesel engine. There is a group of women waiting at the entrance to grind their grain for the evening meal, and the operator is busy at the grinding mill inside.

The MFP is the centrepiece of small businesses that offer agricultural processing and other energy services. It's owned and operated by a women's group in the community - because women are the primary users of the services it makes sense that they be in charge of providing the service in their community. The MFP itself consists of a small diesel motor that is mounted on a steel chassis. The chassis allows various different pieces of equipment to be mounted and powered by the motor, most often to process foodstuffs - grinding mills, rice dehullers, equipment to process shea butter and other devices. The MFP can also provide electricity for welding, lighting and refrigeration. In Mali, there are even some communities with tap water thanks to water pumps powered by an MFP.

After seeing the MFP in action, we sit down with some members of the Women's Management Committee and a few of the MFP users to find out what the women think about the MFP. They start by telling us they would like to add a rice dehuller. This would allow rice grown around the village to be processed in Tongorongo rather than have to be sent outside. In northern Ghana, where I worked, many women make money processing and selling rice in the local market, so I am of course enthusiastic about the direction they want to take.

We ask what changes they have felt because of the MFP. The women all agree that the most noticeable benefit has been a reduction in their daily workload. In Mali and many other places in West Africa, women traditionally pound grain into flour by hand before each meal. It's difficult and time-consuming work. When I tried it I held out for about 45 minutes before tiring and I barely produced enough to feed myself, let alone the whole family. Most women spend a few hours each day pounding grain. With an MFP this can be reduced to a 30-minute visit to the grinding mill every few days. One of the women sums up the sentiment of the group: "With the machine it's like I didn't do any work to pound grain." Women in rural Mali normally work from early in the morning right up until the end of the day; saving a few hours and avoiding some of the more strenuous work is a big benefit for them.

We also talk with the women about what they do with the extra time and energy they have as a result of the MFP. Some of them tell us they use the extra time for a well-deserved rest; others engage in income-generating activities. One of the women tells us she uses the time to do more pottery. We ask her if we can come to see her work. She laughs and tells us we have already seen it. "I'm Yakoma!" she says. It's getting a bit dark and she is on the way to the mosque and dressed in a head wrap, but we should have recognized her nonetheless. Mike and I excuse ourselves for the embarrassing mistake, and curse the obscuring darkness that is fast descending upon us.

We walk back to Fofomen's house thinking about the MFP. The MFP has had a great impact in terms of giving women free time. The big question now is how the MFP can help women make use of this free time and support them in their income-generating activities.

Pottery is a major business for many of the women in Tongoronga and other communities around Mopti - this area is known all around Mali for its pottery. Clement, another volunteer with Engineers Without Borders Canada who has spent the summer working with the MFP program in Mali, has been investigating whether a pottery wheel powered by the MFP would be beneficial for local potters.

Mike and I sit at Fofomen's house that evening talking about the complexities of trying to test out a new technology. How much time can a motorized pottery wheel save? Will the women be interested in using it? How would use of the wheel be organized? We both have a lot of questions - I wish Clement were in Tongorongo at the same time as us so that we could talk about his project, but for now I have to content myself with just observing. One thing Mike and I both agree on is that Clement's project has more social than technical challenges. It's important that he design a good pottery wheel that will suit the needs of the users. But the reality is that social marketing - presenting the pottery wheel in a way that women are actually interested in using it - is the real difficulty. At this stage, Clement's job isn't so much to design a pottery wheel as it is to work with the women to figure out whether a pottery wheel makes sense, given the type of work they are doing.

That night Mike and I sleep under the stars on the roof of Fofomen's house. She wakes us first thing in the morning, and it's clear she has a program in mind for the day. After breakfast we watch as several women prepare to fire a batch of pots. There are a number of them helping to carry pots while a few others place straw on the pile. There is a huge mound of pots and straw by the time the fire is finally underway, and the heat is intense.

I'm interested in how the women organize the business: it seems that with so many people helping out there must be some kind of cooperative. Fofomen explains that most women usually produce in groups of two or three,, usually organized within a family. Firing the pots is a big job, so the women are willing to pitch in to help each other - but there isn't any formal organization.

Mike and I finally have a try at making pots when we get back to the house. Mike goes first and does an admirable job of producing the bottom of a pot. Fofomen steps in at a few of the trickier steps, but for the most part Mike seems to have it down. I encounter more difficulty, and after a few failed attempts at adding the material I give up and let Fofomen take over. I redeem myself somewhat when it comes to smoothing, but all in all I am clearly hopeless when it comes to pottery.

As we work with Fofomen, she explains that most of the women sell to middlemen who then take the pottery to Mopti, a large city about 30 kilometres from Tongorongo. Other women take their pots to Mopti themselves, but Fofomen says it's generally easier to sell to the middlemen. "They will buy whatever we can make and often ask for more than we have." It seems there is no lack of demand for these women's pots.

Before we leave Tongorongo, we decide to ask Fofomen what she thinks about using a motorized pottery wheel. The idea is new to her, and she isn't quite sure what the benefit would be, but she is interested nonetheless. "We only know the way we make pots. If you have new ideas we are happy to hear them," she says. I'm pleased to hear this - Clement has at least one eager partner who is willing to try out the wheel. Fofomen seems keen enough to try something new. She may be an ideal "champion," someone to help promote a new idea by adopting it herself.

We leave Tongorongo wondering how Clement's trial will go. I hope he's ready for a slew of questions when Mike and I get back to Mopti!