BUDGET 11

Kengeran

Kengeran is a granddaughter of the Føn and one of the inherited wives of Fai-o-Djem. She is in her late forties, is frequently ill with coughs and fever, but is a keen and skilled farmer. Her household is a large one and includes an adult daughter, Mbaina (who has a son aged about 3 years), an adolescent daughter, Kisife, and a younger daughter, Wisiiy. Two grandchildren also live permanently with Kengeran; finally, there is another adult daughter who spends periods of 3 to 4 months at a time in the household. Kengeran, Mbaina and Kisife cultivate 17 plots, all on Djem land and totalling 4.5 acres. During the rains in 1947 Kengeran bought her youngest daughter, Wisiiy, a hoe and began to teach her to farm. Kumi, son of a deceased brother of the Fai, occasionally helps with the heavy clearing and receives gifts of food.

Kengeran receives a little salt and oil from her husband, but this is insufficient, and she disposes of plantains in the market to gain cash for necessaries, including utensils and tools. The actual selling is usually done by one of the daughters, but Kengeran decides what is to be purchased with the earnings. During my absence from Kimbaw, Kengeran's budget was recorded by the son of Vincent Kwangha, but there was little information on gifts in kind. However after September 1947, I returned to Kimbaw and kept complete records. Unfortunately, I was unable to record the budget of the Fai, who was extremely evasive about sales and purchases; but I counted his kola trees, raffia stands, and goats, and estimated his cash income was about £15 to £16 a year, and was derived from the sale of kolas (£10), paimwine (70s.), raffia poles (10s.), and goats (20s.). Cash gifts from affines were, I think, small and possibly balanced by the fai's outlay on gifts for his own wives' kin.

NOTES

(a) Kengeran had a very large farm and did not require to buy staples during the rains. She bought 8d. worth of beef in March, 1947, and 1s. worth of fish and 6d. meat in June, and 3d. worth in February, 1948. From her husband (see footnote (v) below) she received 8d. worth of fish in March, 1947, and 8d. worth in September. During the dry season her daughters caught 12 bush rats worth about 2d., and nine little fish worth about 1d.
(b) The expenditure on oil was heavy but the household was a large one and received only about one penny worth from the fai each week, or about 4s. worth a year.
(c) The cost of salt was small but Kengeran received about 1s. 10d. worth a year from her husband (most men would have given more), and occasional gifts from friends.
(d) Kengeran bought a hoe for 2s. 6d. for Kisife, and a small one for 1s. for Wisiiy. Usually the provision of such tools is the husband's responsibility, and the same applies to the raffia store-bin listed below.
(e) The camwood was bought for the young girls of the family when they attended marriage ceremonies.
(f) Kengeran wore only a baft pubic covering, as did her daughters with the exception of the second eldest who occasionally visited the family. The necklace was purchased for Kengeran.
(g) Kengeran gave Kisife 6d. worth of salt and 9d. worth of flour to take to a sister's daughter who had just borne a child in another village.
(h) Kengeran received 6d. from a friend and bought with it a calabash stand which she then passed on to a fai. He was a friend who frequently helped Kengeran with gifts of food in times of scarcity.
(i) Kengeran spent some time looking after a sick daughter in another village. Her son-in-law presented her with 6d. after each visit and her own daughter made gifts in kind. See footnotes (s) and (t) below.
(j) Kengeran received small sums in cash from various friends.
(k) Kisife and Mbaina (Kengeran's daughters) went to three marriage ceremonies and took gifts of maize flour, see footnote (n) below. They in their turn received on one occasion 11d., and on another 6d. which they spent on groundnuts, camwood and bananas.

 

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(l) Kengeran depended mainly on the sale of plantains for her cash income; but she had a good crop of beans in 1947 and sold 9d. worth. With this money and an extra 3d. she bought fish for the household.
(m) On the 24th February, 1947, Kengeran had 5s. which she had received from a European.
(n) Kisife attended three marriages: that of a relative of Kengeran's co-wife, Yuliy; that of her sister's husband's sister at Melim; and that of a maternal relative. On the first occasion she took 6d. worth of flour; on the second, 1s. 6d. worth of flour; and on the third 4d. worth.
(o) Kisife took flour when she went to greet a cousin who had borne a child.
(p) One of the wives of the Føn bore twins, and Kengeran, along with other relatives of the Føn, took food to the palace. She received oil and salt at the feast.
(q) Kengeran gave flour to Elizabeth-Bika of Djem who was a daughter of Fai-o-Dzem. The latter 'cooked' mfu, and his relatives and their friends contributed food for the feast in his compound.
(r) Although Kengeran was a pagan she distributed beer (6d.) and food to Christian friends at Christmas. She received gifts in kind - cloth, meat, salt and oil - from me but I have not recorded these items in her budget.
(s) In October, 1947, Kengeran visited her daughter at Melim and stayed a few days. She took 1s. 6d. worth of flour and l 1/2d. worth of plantains. She was given fufu, kolas (3d.) and camwood (1d.) to bring home.
(t) When her daughter was ill Kengeran stayed with her. She took 5d. worth of trifoliate yams, orchid root (1d.) and maize (2d.). When she left, her daughter gave her a farm-bag (8d.), meat (3d.)) camwood (1d.), and tobacco (1/2d.). Her son-in-law gave her 6d.
(u) Kengeran, with her daughters, went to help her married daughter at Melim harvest guinea corn. She took with her yams (4d.) and cocoyams (l 1/2d.). Later she helped clear a new farm for the daughter, and brewed 8d. worth of beer and cooked 3d. worth of porridge for the workers.
(v) As I did not record the budget of Kengeran's husband, the Fai, I have included here his contributions to her household. The value of the salt and oil is an estimate based on my observations over a period of weeks; the actual value of the meat was noted in Kengeran's own budget.
(w) From her farms Kengeran (and her daughters) obtained 21 vegati of maize in September, and 8 vegati of finger millet in January.
(x) Kengeran sold only 1d. worth of sweet potatoes.
(y) The amount cited here is exclusive of 9d. worth of dwarf beans sold to obtain money for the purchase of fish.
(z) Kengeran had such good crops of cereals and roots that she was not so dependent as other women on plantains to augment household supplies.

 

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