Photo 10 – UBB-HAA-217

Weeding millets. During “beer-work parties” (Fur: “tawisa”, Arabic: “nafir”), an individual cultivator (man or woman) mobilizes neighbours (men and women) for work by serving them beer (Fur: “kira” Arabic: “merissa”) and sometimes some food. Refusal to accept an “invitation” is taken as an indication of an “unfriendly” relation.

Western foothills of Jebel Marra.

Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1969

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Photo 12 – UBB-HAA-227

A big beer-work party (Fur: “Bambani”)  arranged by a man to honour his mother in law (Fur: “iya mare”, Arabic: “naseeba”) by inviting a large group of people and providing them with ample amounts of beer (Fur: “kira”) and entertainment for those who participate in the work. One man is blowing on a kudu horn while another one is drumming.

Western foothills of Jebel Marra. Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1969

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Photo 18 – UBB-HAA-525

Men drinking beer (Fur: “kira”) during a break in communal house building. Beer is a product that the wife makes for her husbands from millets taken from his granary. It is shameful to sell millet beer. In daily context, men and women generally consume it separately. Otherwise it is used as a major way of mobilizing neighbours for individual undertakings like house building and weeding.

Umu village, Jebel Marra, Western Darfur.

Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1969

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Photo 47 – UBB-HAA-15

A beer-work party is organized in connection with house building. The workers are constructing the wooden frame of the conical roof that will be covered by thatch. What is emphasized in the beer-work party is solidarity among equal neighbours, instead of the hierarchy implied by paid work.

Jebel Si area, Northern Darfur.

Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1969

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Photo 50 – UBB-HAA-333

Drummers entertaining participants in a house-building party (Fur: “tawisa”). The festive character of communal works like house-building and agricultural tasks is further emphasized by lavish provision of beer (Fur: “kira”) and food. Provision of beer is not seen by the Fur as payment for work but as part of egalitarian relations between neighbours.

Village in Wadi Saleh area, Western Darfur.

Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1965

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