Spinning is something that any Fulani woman over fifty here is familiar with. Before the markets became mile high with European cast-offs and cheap synthetics, clothes were spun and woven by hand using locally grown cotton. Times have changed and there are few ladies who still practise the skill. But in a wuro (a family’s…
Sahelian women know a thing or two about resourcefulness. How else could they raise six children (the national average) and live in one of the world’s harshest climates? Take Maryama Tamboura for example. Every rainy season, she grows three or four cotton plants. They provide just enough cotton to spin into yarn for fixing her…