Anna in Senegal

Anna Chotzen reports on her sustainable agriculture adventures in Africa.

It was my first time on a charrette – a two wheeled horse-drawn cart. Fun as they look when they pass me, they are a little more awkward to ride on than I expected. One has to make sure not to lean too far this way or that way, for fear of either sliding off the end or sliding into the horse’s rear, neither of which is a choice option when clip-clopping along a dusty, weathered, rut-ridden dirt road at a generous pace for any two wheeled vehicle. Luckily our driver was quite commendable (except when we barreled over a huge pothole without so much as a hesitation, or when we had to flatten ourselves horizontally to avoid being lacerated by the vicious thorn bushes that infringed on our road space).

We were driven about two kilometers out into the rice fields. It was just after three o’clock, and the heat of the day endured. We had been invited to accompany a villager out to her rice fields to help with the harvest. When we arrived, there were already many people in the fields, working on various stages of the harvest process. They stopped working when we arrived to share in the big bowl of theibu diene that we had brought them. Presumably they had been working non-stop all day, paying no mind (necessarily) to the sun, dust and flies that are inevitable.

My name is Anna Chotzen, I am a graduate of Youth Initiative High School, and former baker at the Viroqua Food Co-op. Now a student at Hampshire College, I study international relations. I spent this last semester in Senegal studying with the organization Living Routes. Living Routes works in affiliation with GEN (Global Ecovillage Network), a large United Nations Eco-Soc non-governmental organization (NGO). The principle mission is to promote the idea and practice of sustainable development around the world.

Sustainable development is understood as development that is concerned with social, ecological and economic impacts. In Senegal alone there are about 45 ecovillages working to transform themselves into sustainable communities. Organic agriculture, alternative energy resources, water sanitation and education are all examples of sustainable practices.

During my 31 month stay, I worked with other American and Senegalese university students to research and apply elements of sustainable development. Throughout the semester we conducted service projects in a rural village in Northern Senegal, Guédé Chantier, to encourage the village’s sustainable aspirations. Meanwhile, we contextualized our fieldwork with the general and theoretical study of sustainable development in West Africa.

Meanwhile, I was lucky to have the opportunity to live with a host family. Each day I would come home to all the little girls running to greet me, with Maman Dior and Papa Isa, Yaboye and Soxna always encouraging my limited Wolof. Living with a family really helped me integrate into the Senegalese culture.We ate all together at each meal, sitting on the ground and sharing from one large plate. I found Senegalese dishes to be quite delicious, many of which start with a base of rice. Thiebu diene is spicy, red rice with vegetables and fish, eaten nearly every lunch. Yassa is an onion sauce eaten with rice, pasta or bread, and any meat. Niébé is a bean dish slightly resembling chili, eaten often with bread. Maffé is a peanut sauce served with fish or meat and vegetables over white rice. I came to recognize a few very distinct Senegalese flavors found in almost every dish. And each time I ate a meal, I thought back to my day in the rice field.

When it is time to harvest the rice, the men come with small scythes and handful by small handful cut it all down. Once the rice is cut, it is hit against the belly of a large barrel to detach the ripe grains. The coolest part of the process comes now. All the empty, discarded stalks are strewn around the work area, creating a straw-like bed that covers the muddy wetness in which the rice grows. As the day goes on, the dry workspace grows. By the time the sorting of the rice begins, the final step, a straw island has been created in the middle of the harvested rice field.
For the novelty of it, I got to try my luck with the scythe and cut about a square meter’s worth from the field. Then I took the rice to the barrel and hit it until all the ripe, little grains let loose. After sifting through the extraneous straw and sticks, there remained no more than one kilo (about two pounds) of rice.

I worked for about a half hour in total for a meter’s worth of rice. Imagine harvesting hundreds of acres. And after the harvest, the rice still has to sit in the sun for a day before being hulled.
Guédé Chantier is largely a rice-producing village, so it is the livelihood of many villagers. The villagers who work in the rice fields choose to receive pay in cash or in rice, and as the staple food, rice is often more valuable.

For them, this was just another day. For me, it was a glimpse of the process of production of their most important food source and if nothing else, gave me such an appreciation for my thieb diene.

Within the last decade, farmers in Guédé began experimenting with organic agriculture, and I was surprised to find such overwhelming interest. However, they are challenged by a lack of means to support it, and minimal knowledge. I spent the semester working in the domain of organic agriculture, researching methods to encourage its promotion in Guédé. As a result, I conceived of the following idea:

There I was in a small village in northern Senegal, watching the first steps of organic agriculture come to fruition, observing all of the difficulties faced. It cannot be entirely a coincidence that I come from the Driftless Region of Wisconsin, one of the richest havens of organic agriculture in the Midwest. Why not connect expert farmers, for whom organic agriculture is not only a livelihood but also a passion, with the farmers of Guédé, for whom it is a goal and a challenge? Farmers from the Driftless Region could come to Guédé to work with the farmers there, while at the same time experiencing rural, Senegalese life. This could be an opportunity to exchange techniques and ideas, as well as cultural values and differences.

I invite you to give this proposition some serious thought. Financial and logistical issues have been largely avoided in this proposition, simply because this is the first step, the only one I can really take on my own. The groundwork has been laid in a small, African village. It is up to us to see it through! Please contact me with feedback. email

To read more about Anna's African Agricultural Adventures, visit her blog