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Home > Africa > Focus on Africa Magazine |
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| ETHIOPIA: Business |
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| Published January-March 1998 |
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A
Woman's Burden
Bent double under their back-breaking loads, the fuelwood-carriers of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, face not only an arduous life, but a dangerous one too. Alice Martin reports. There is nothing so distinctive as the smell of eucalyptus burning. It mixes with the smell of incense from church services and from coffee ceremonies which take place daily in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It even strikes newcomers as they step off the plane at Bole airport and catch sight of the Entoto hills, silver-green with eucalyptus trees, which surround the capital. It was on these hills that Emperor Menelik II founded Addis Ababa little more than a hundred years ago. And it was thanks to the fast-growing eucalyptus tree imported from Australia that the city remained put, defying a centuries-old tradition of moving the seat of power once the royal army had devoured and destroyed all in its path. But the tree that has given such life to the metropolis is also the cause of a dangerous way of life for more than 15,000 women and girls who are the fuelwood-carriers of Addis Ababa. Every day they journey around 30 kilometres, many barefoot, to collect and carry branches, twigs and leaves that may weigh 35 kilogrammes or more. Many carry more than their own body weight. Some are as young as seven, others as old as 70. They feed the high demand for cooking and heating fuel for an estimated 90 per cent of households in the city. It is a back-breaking and dangerous task. It is also illegal. Yeshi Alemayu started carrying fuelwood when she was 12. She is now 46 and has become the leader of a group of 20 women who are involved in the fuelwood business. "I will never be able to forget the hardships of our job. When it rains the roads are slippery and wet. You get soaked through. And you have to travel a long distance carrying that bulk. It's terrible. We face confrontations especially with the forest guards. That is the hardest part." The two main eucalyptus plantations near the city are state-run, and faced with increased encroachment by illegal forest users. The government has stepped up the level of policing but the forest guards are poorly paid, and the women, who have no other means of supporting themselves, often have to pay a bribe or risk losing their bundles which may cost them a crucial 4 birr (roughly 60 US cents) in lost earnings. Because what they are doing is illegal, they are vulnerable to the many dangers of forest life. "All sorts of problems are taking place in the forest," said Yeshi. "The worst one is rape. Sometimes we face beatings by the forest guards. Sometimes we fall down and break our legs or hands. We are working with all sorts of dangers." As a result, women and girls usually work in groups, but not so large as to be conspicuous. The Women Fuelwood Carriers Project, organised by the International Labour Organ-isation (ILO) and based in the Ethiopian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, would like to make the carriers'work legal, pointing out that sustainable forest management needs to "integrate illegal forest users rather than confront them". The Project has a number of sites including a tree seedling nursery and a shop selling textiles hand-made by former fuelwood-carriers, which recently won an award in Ghana. At the Yeka site in the eastern part of the city, Zerfie Wordofa is the elected leader of 38 women, all former carriers, who run a tea-shop, bake local bread (on fuel-saving stoves) and even run a table-tennis and video club. "One of the indications of how well things are going is that we have completely stopped firewood collection," she explained. "But some women are forced to go to the forest because they are poor and there is a great demand for firewood." Zerfie, who is a single mother with six dependents, pours tea, holding the pot high and aiming accurately into a nest of tiny glasses. "If it was legal the forest would have been finished by now. On the other hand the guarding of the forest has restricted women who have no other means of livelihood. So here is the conflict." Zerfie is luckier than most, but her change in fortune does not mean there is one less woman carrying wood down from the hills. Officials at the Fuelwood Carriers Project pointed out, "Anyone abandoning this task will immediately be replaced by a new carrier. The long-term strategy is for the Project to advocate consideration of both the women's needs and the sustainable management of forest resources." They hope city planners are listening. |
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