Ahmed Salkida
26 September 2007
Abuja — In the mainly agrarian community of Damboa in Borno state, a culture of girls owning their own bicycles as they become housewives has evolved over the last fifty years.
What an interesting ride.
In most parts, especially in rural settlements, of Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State, when a girl is about to get married, her parents ensure that they buy a brand new bicycle for her, not just as a gift to satisfy their pride, but because it is the most priced possession that will consolidate her rightful place in the matrimonial home.
On the part of the girl, if she is hardworking, either by engaging in group commercial farming, Barema, with her peers, or by selling fruits, that is if she is not in her parents' farm, she can buy herself a bicycle to take to her matrimonial home. This feat will justify her expression of special pride among her peers that she was never lazy during her spinsterhood. This means she will be escorted to her husband's house with two bicycles instead of with the only one bought for her by her parents.
On the part of the husband, he pays the bride price, buys a bed, cupboard and cloths loaded in a box or more, depending on his means. But one thing is certain: as a farmer, since farming is the pre-occupation of about 80 percent of the population of the area, the suitor is bound to provide whatever is expected of him because, the girl he is about to marry will not only be a companion and a potential mother to his children but, "a cheap source of labour" in his farms.
The culture of women carrying bicycles to their matrimonial homes is a phenomenon of less than five decades. It was not practiced in the early 20th century.
"Our people are mostly farmers and when the population began to grow very fast, farmlands became scarce. Therefore, people have to travel for about 20 kilometers to their farms. This is where the culture of bicycles came into existence," Habu Hon, the Caretaker Chairman of Damboa Local Government Council, revealed, observing, "Our women are very hard working, they are equal to the task with men, especially when it comes to farming activities. So, bicycles are the only cheaper and easier means of transport for them."
According to Bintu Bukar told this reporter while riding her bicycle to the farm in Damboa: "I have two bicycles. I use one to go to the farm and the other, to attend ceremonies." She expressed exceptions on the possession of a bicycle by a wife: "You see if you are going to marry someone who is not a farmer, there may not be the need to buy a bicycle. My husband is a farmer, that is why I have to buy two bicycles but for my sister she married a teacher who said she will not be going to the farm," adding that when her sister bought her only bicycle she hadn't the slightest idea of whom she was going to marry. "If she had known, she would have bought a stove with the money to save herself from the smoke of fire wood while cooking."
According to Bintu, her sister is luckier than many of the girls in the village. "If you see her palm it is so smooth, but look at mine" she showed this reporter the scurvy and desquamated skin on her palm as a result of prolong handling of crude farming tools to cultivate large farmlands almost on a daily basis. "My sister only rides to the market or to occasions," said Bintu.
The story of women cycling cannot be complete without visiting Kauji Kura, a Village about 10 kilometers south of Damboa. Kauji is known for its droves of bicycles mostly owned by the women.
Kauji seem more like a village than a town despite the reality that it houses about 30,000 persons, some of whom live in clusters of houses around the main village.
"There is no household that does not have at least 2 to 3 bicycles," said Lawan Yerima Kauji, the village head of Kauji Kura. "Bicycles have become a way of life here, just go round here, you will see girls and women on bicycles, either parked or moving. In fact, most of them are not here, they have gone to the farms," he said.
Many people in Damboa town believe that Kauji parades a larger collection of bicycles than any other village in the area. "It is due to our growing population and the fertile land here that many people come here to settle," the village head explained, adding, "I cannot tell you the exact number of bicycles in this village alone, but let us put it at 40 percent of the population of nearly 30,000."
In front of a thatch house, Daily Trust counted 47 bicycles. When asked why the big heap of bicycles in front of just one house, "a woman has just given birth and her friends and relations are in the house to prepare for tomorrow's naming celebrations," replied one of the village residents.
When ever there is an event, mourning or celebration, women of all ages come out with large procession of bicycles in the village. Interestingly, about four girls were riding back from the farm at the time of this reporting trip. As soon as they sighted a visitor they started to soft petal, and the chaperon together with this reporter, asked the girls to go and rest for a while and come back for a reporting ride.
According to the chaperon, someone can easily become attracted to a girl by her brilliant cycling skills. A good rider can make the cycling exercise seductive, as the chaperon explained. The planned cycling ride was cancelled, but not without a gift to the girls that wore their best bicycles and clothes, in order not for this reporter to retire in Kauji.
This seemingly interesting cycling culture has its bitter side. In a neighbouring village called Jingin, the district head, the late Mai Jalo, banned women in his domain from riding bicycles, which attracted mixed reactions. According to Mai Jalo, who died about three years ago, it was very difficult to draw a line between a girl that was defiled and a virgin on her wedding day because riding bicycles ruptures the hymen.
When the complaints became too much, Mai Jalo banned women from riding in order to revive the ancient virginity test in his village. Consequently, women began to trek long distances to their farms "which became unbearable to many women in his district," said the village head of Kauji. Also, there was the complaint that many women that ride bicycles during early pregnancies risk miscarriage. But when Mai Jalo died, his successor and son lifted the ban.
"You cannot stop women from riding bicycles because our farms are far away and we cannot trek. Moreover, men value us not because of our womanhood but for how helpful we can be in their farms" said Bintu.
However, in Damboa generally, women constitute more than half of the population and are said to be more hardworking than the men in some respects. Yet, they are rated among the poorest. They suffer more from the absence of basic infrastructures and healthcare in the rural areas. "Whenever, my people are sick, especially women on labour coming with complications the traditional birth attendants cannot handle it, we carry the sick on motor cycles and during the raining season to hospital in the town. As you have experienced yourself, you have to stop at many points, and three to four men must carry the woman across the streams before proceeding to Damboa for any healthcare," said Lawan.
"Many have died on their way, while those that cannot afford the cost to travel leave their fate to traditional medicine in the village," said Lawan, who appealed to the government to come to their aid, as he also corroborated the claim that women and children in his village are at the receiving end more than men.
"For a girl, you begin life by going to your father's farm, when you are about to get married he hands over a bicycle to you to facilitate your movement to the farm when you are in your husband's house. This is a clear indication that you are bound to remain in the circle of farming, since you are either not privileged to have good education or even have no education at all", said Hajja Iya Monguno, a gender advocate in Maiduguri.
Yet, according to Monguno, the proceeds of the farm always end up with the men who often use it to marry more women. "These women carry their pregnancies and babies, and they are the ones that are engaged in the bulk food production. Yet, they don't have access to healthcare and credit facilities to own either a farm or businesses of their own. This is unfair. "They don't seem to care because most of them don't know the outside world," Monguno bemoaned.
Apparently, many of the rural women have been hampered by the socialization they are stocked with since they were born. Economic empowerment is not in their wildest imagination. Bintu, who lives in Damboa town, envies her equally illiterate sister marrying a primary school teacher. To her, if only she can be born another time, she will insist to be educated. Now that she is 24 with four children. Schooling "is too late," she said.
The men in the area are more enlightened, with a handful of them now educated and ensure that many of their children go to school. None who spoke to this reporter expressed optimism over the future of their children in the village schools. "Even in the urban areas the schools are not different, with many graduates searching for jobs without success", said one villager.
"What you have seen is only in the rural areas. Most of these things don't apply to the towns or people from Damboa that are educated and are in high places in our society today. Moreover, this government is doing a lot and plans to do more to reach out to the rural areas with the basic infrastructures," said the council boss of Damboa.
All these promises are only a dream to the rural women of Damboa who are not mindful of fuel hike, power failure and other troubles in the townships because their bicycles do not require fuel, and their lives are so simple. According to Bintu, cycling eases labour during child birth. Therefore, before many of her peers in the rural areas can access antenatal care, cycling will continue to be their best bet at child birth.
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