Women clearing a hill slope for sowing millet (Fur: “sona”). Men and women have separate fields that they cultivate individually and store the yields in their separately owned granaries (Fur: “nonum”, Arabic: “Dabanga”).
Jebel Si area.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1969
Two women winnowing millet (Fur: “sona”, Arabic: “dukhn”). Note the terraces for rainy-season cultivation in the background. Terraces in the Jebel Marra region are mainly used as a technique of soil conservation, and they are only to a very small extent used for dry-season irrigated cultivation.
Umu village, Jebel Marra, Western Darfur.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1969
A Fur woman grinding sorghum (Fur: “marga”, Arabic: “durra”) on a well-used grinder (Fur: “dida”- lower grinder, “manang” – upper grinder). Millet products are of special symbolic importance in Fur society. Millet flour mixed with water is in Fur language called “bora fatta” (meaning “milk white” – mother’s milk) and is used as a blessing on several ritual occasions (e.g. circumcision, rain rituals, war rituals, treatment of diseases, weddings).
Sarar village, Southern Darfur.
Photo: Randi Haaland, 1973
Selling agricultural crops provides cash income for local Fur farmers. Most selling takes place at the weekly souq (Arabic for “market”), but sometimes in the home of a cultivator. In this photo, a Fur is selling millet (Fur: “sona”) to an Arab trader.
In a village of the western foothills of Jebel Marra, Western Darfur.
Photo: Gunnar Haaland, 1965
