A Story worth Sharing
Envisage a typical day in the life of mama Masumbuko. It is 4:30 am, and the earliest rooster crows. Mama Masumbuko wakes up to start her daily chores. With her eight-year-old daughter, Wamani, she leaves her four other children and husband in bed to set off for a 2-mile journey to catch the first fresh waters from the community pond before it becomes turbid by cattle and other animals. By 6:30 am, they return home with jerrycans full of water on their heads.
She prepares breakfast for her family and does other house chores, including sweeping the compound and tethering the goats. By now, it is coming to 9am. Mama Masumbuko straps one of the babies on her back and the youngest to her chest. Together the family heads out carrying hand hoes to till the 2-acre field to prepare it for season’s planting. After half-days’ work on the farm, she returns home tired but cannot take a rest. She has to make lunch/dinner for her family. It is 6pm, Mzee Masumbuko heads to the trading center to catch up with the latest gossip and have a drink with friends. He leaves mama Masumbuko to bathe and put the children to bed, by the time she is done, it is coming to 8pm. Knock Knock goes the door. It is Mzee Masumbuko, he is drunk! And he needs some special time with mama Masumbuko. But she is too tired for anything, and this makes Mzee mad. He gets abusive, forcing her to comply.
The next day, her house chore routine is the same, and the only difference is that there is no salt to add to the food, and she has to ask her husband for the money. In response, she is brutally beaten! Mama Masumbuko is bruised and embarrassed in front of her children. So you might be asking yourself why she asked him for money! Well, she is a woman; whose roles are mostly limited to home jurisdiction.
Because they are subsistence farmers, her only source of income is from the sale of the harvest of which the proceeds are always spent by Mzee on alcohol.
Many of us are probably wondering why mama Masumbuko takes her daughter to farm with her instead of school! Well, Wamani is not going to school because my society still believes that the girl child is better off married and taking her to school is a waste of financial resources. She is only empowered with household roles for the parents to earn a higher bride price. Like in many societies, many women in Tanzania’s rural communities depend on agriculture and have had limited access to educational opportunities. For a long time, they have relied on rudimentary agricultural practices to grow and raise livestock. As, a result, they get poor quality yields that fetch low prices. Access to better markets is a challenge, as they are often exploited by middlemen. This is where Goldenpot Limited comes in to support and empower hardworking and enterprising women like Mama Masumboko.
Goldenpot Limited; a food logistics company that partners with female out-growers to provide reliable markets for their crops. In Tanzanians, 75% of the population are farmers, of which 80% are women. We work with maize farmers to access better market for their output. Maize is the main staple food crop grown in Tanzania.
At Golden, we partner with female farmers to add value to the corn by training them in better scientific agronomic practices. We assign our agronomist to consult with the farmers every two weeks, we provide market for their harvest. We add value to the maize by processing it into flour, Instant Maize Cereal, Cornflakes and the byproducts are converted to animal feeds. By doing what we do at Golden, this mama Masumbuko, which means Mama Struggle is now Mama Furaha, which means Mama Happiness.
If we all stand together add Value to our staple crops, not only will mama Masumbuko become Mama Furaha but we will be working towards more families accessing healthy meals and ensuring food security to our future generation.
Our Favourite Quote “If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire.” African women, are hard workers and enterprising. They endure a lot and lack resources to actualize of some their dreams. Lets partner and engage them in working smartly rather than working hard!
Let’s join forces, let us turn Mama Masumbukos to Mama Furahas across Africa.