ABSTRACT
A child is perched precariously atop a donkey laden with a sack of sorghum seeds, a digging stick, and a couple of hoes. She steadies herself and rides surely along the canals as the sun rises. It takes nearly an hour to reach her family’s field. She and her brother and sister will spend the morning planting part of their family’s farm tenancy in sorghum while their father clears the irrigation ditches nearby. Punctuating their work at irregular – and to their father annoying – intervals, this girl and her brother will set up a home-made net trap in an unsuccessful attempt to ensnare some of the birds that descend on the area during the rainy season. On other days they may succeed in trapping a dozen or more small birds which the boy will kill, following Islamic practice, and the children’s mother or older sisters will cook for a family meal. School is out during the rains, mainly to allow teachers to return home from rural areas which become inaccessible and difficult to live in during this time. Partly by design, but mostly by coincidence, this schedule also allows all children, including students, to assist their households with the heavy burdens of agricultural work. As the children make their way to the fields, they cross paths with a number of herdboys leading flocks of small animals out to pastures just turning green with the arrival of the rains.
