Young people are abandoning their villages and children for the bright lights, leaving their mothers to pick up the pieces
Like many grandmothers, Kouassi Akissi Jeanne doesn’t know her age but has an identity card with a date of birth which may or may not be correct. Jeanne has two sons and two daughters. She has a disability that keeps her from working, although she can manage small household tasks such as going to the communal pump to collect water.
“I can barely cope, I couldn’t manage them all, so I sent Divino, temporarily, to my sister. My granddaughter Kouffia was our only source of income. She used to sell sweets from a stall outside our front yard, but business is slow, so I have now sent her and Samira to a restaurant to do dishwashing and bussing tables. They work there six days a week from 8am in the morning to 6pm in the evening and bring home 500 francs , enough to buy rice and some vegetables to make a sauce.
Kouassi Akissi Jeanne’s granddaughter sells sweets from a stall outside their home while revising and doing her homework Bokwaya Angel Naonou: ‘My oldest grandchild was asked to leave school because I could no longer pay the fees. I borrow money that I repay at 50% interest a year’ “My oldest grandchild was asked to leave school because I could no longer pay the fees. I borrow money that I repay at 50% interest a year, and my only hope is that the rice I produce maintains the price. I don’t have the money to pay for a mask when I spray my fields with pesticide.
The smallholding is several kilometres from the village and the path is busy with families heading to and from their fields. Tralou Trana Jeanette, 64, passes a field where a group of girls are being paid 750 francs a day to clear the field of weeds. The early morning heat is already getting to them. They swing their machetes without purpose and stoop mechanically to pull the weeds from the earth. When they right themselves, they start to chat before returning to their task.
There’s almost no shade during the nearly hour-long walk and some of the bridges have been swept away by recent rains. “I have to ferry the youngest across the streams,” says Jeanette, who scolds some children farther along the path for playing in the water, where there are leeches. Israel, her eight-year-old grandson, tells me: “We help grandma wash the pots and pans, harvest the peanuts and collect the water because she doesn’t have a daughter to help her.”
The villagers thought the new road would change their lives for the better, but it has brought another layer of impoverishment – the road workers are renting homes, which is driving up prices and the cost of living. The roadside stalls that have recently opened are run by outsiders as local people can’t afford the rents. The food and meals are sold at prices only the road workers can afford, making produce that was once affordable too costly for the villagers.
“Studying is so important for your future. When you put them through school, they progress, you get a diploma, but then they don’t want to stay in the village, they don’t want to work in the fields. Those without diplomas but who work well want to earn a decent living which is no longer possible here, there’s no longer enough available land.
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