Relaxation Under the Sun

A sampling of the local livestock.
Photo: Emily Babin



A Peace Corps volunteer grabs a nap in the shade.



The rainy season in Burkina Faso lasts from June to October or so, and Burkinabe farmers work hard throughout. Somewhere between 80 to 90 percent of the population are subsistence agriculturalists, meaning they rely on the cereal crops they grow over the summer to feed their families for the entire year. Acres of land are tilled by hand, or donkey powered plow for the particularly rough terrain. Then the farmers, the term including men, women, and all but the smallest children, dig holes, plant the millet and sorghum seeds, weed the land, and pray for rain. If it falls in sufficient quantities, the year will be prosperous. Children will eat and industrious cultivators will be able to sell some of their crop for a profit. If there is little rain, or none at all, then there is famine. Thus, the people take their farm work seriously.

Aside from the odd holiday, people spend nearly every day, morning through evening, out in the fields throughout the rainy season. By the time they arrive home, most are too tired to do more than eat and go to sleep, and repeat the process the next day. So there is no question that people stay busy during the summer months. But what about the rest of the year? After the crops are harvested, and the rains won’t come again for six months or more, how do people fill their time?

Most people do have some kind of secondary economic activity in the dry season, be it gardening, small commerce, masonry or other jobs. But these are less labor intensive than farming and frequently do not take up the entire day. Thus, there is ample time for recreation.

The children, of course, find plenty of ways to amuse themselves. They play soccer, shoot slingshots, and make up games with whatever kinds of trash they find lying around. Many also enjoy pestering Peace Corps volunteers. I have a gang that is known to spend hours outside my door chanting, “Bonjour, Madame!” Their grasp of gender nouns isn’t perfect but being called Madame is preferable to “Nasara.” Nasara is the Moore work for white person and is the label favored by most children as they run screaming either toward or away from the white man on a bicycle, depending on their level of fear versus their hope that they will receive candy or some other gift.

So much for the children. It would also be prudent to note that when speaking of free time and recreation I am referring to the men, not the women. Dry season or otherwise women are still responsible for collecting firewood, pounding the cereal seeds into flour, preparing the meals, collecting water, cleaning the courtyard, taking care of the young, the old, and the sick, and any other menial task that come up. That they do all that while working in the fields all day during the rainy season is nothing short of a miracle, as the tasks still fill most of the day even when there are no crops to be cultivated.

It is the men, then, with time to spare. As far as I have been able to observe there are three primary leisure activities that all Burkinabe men enjoy: searching for shade, drinking tea, and yelling at livestock.

Finding shade is self explanatory. If you are going to sit under a tree for two to seven hours, the sun is going to move across the sky and you need to move in the opposite direction or risk getting cooked. At 120 degrees direct sunlight is no joke and a big production is made every half hour or so of getting up, moving the mat and tea making equipment and positioning everything just right so everyone can enjoy the maximum amount of shade.

The preparation of tea is a more complicated process. A big wad of loose Chinese green is stuffed into a small tea kettle with water and left to simmer on coals for a half hour or more. Massive amounts of sugar are added, and when deemed ready the tea is poured from kettle to glass back to kettle, over and over in order to cool it off. Holding the kettle up high,several feet above the glass while pouring without spilling is the sign of an experienced tea maker.

When sufficiently cooled, the drink is served in shot glasses. The proper way to drink it is in three to five slurps, the noisier the better. Since the kettle is small, one round isn’t enough to satisfy everyone under the tree so the process is repeated two or three times. Good conversation and a radio are generally at hand to fill the interludes between rounds. The tea is reused and a popular diversion is to argue which batch tastes best, the first time through the tea leaves or the third?

The third activity, yelling at livestock, is the most interactive and therefore my favorite. In a Burkinabe village, animals, and especially sheep and goats, are everywhere. They aren’t as much of a problem during the rainy season because they are minded by small boys who keep them out of trouble. During the rest of the year, however, when the small boys are in school, the stock is liable to get into the garden, the cooking, the tea, or anything else left unattended. It’s up to whoever is nearby to chase them off. Usually the task can be accomplished vocally, with a guttural grunt or maybe a hiss. If the animal is persistent, or has committed a particularly egregious offense like knocking over a tea kettle, a few thrown rocks combined with vigorous arm gestures usually get the job done. It’s a good way to stay alert when you grow bored with the shade shifting and tea tasting, and sometimes I think the goats enjoy the game as much as the humans.