Process: Charcoal Production & Cassava Production

Charcoal Production: So as I describe all the farm labor, imagine it in the most primitive form possible….as in no vehicles, horses, or even dogs. The charcoal production starts when the trees are cut, generally by one man. 

Making the Charcoal

Cut Acacia Trees

Some of the tall trunks are driven into the ground in a rectangular fashion and the rest are chopped into more manageable pieces and tightly stacked inside the upright stakes. 
Then the laborers mound dirt around the outside, set them on fire, and cover them with sand. 
After a month of burning, the laborers tear away at the sand piles to reveal the charcoal. This charcoal is then stacked into bags that are loaded onto a large truck for sale in Kinshasa.

Finished Charcoal

  

Covered Cooking Charcoal

Stacked Acacia Logs

Cassava Plants

Cassava Production: Cassava takes an entire year to mature. Behind the house was a large stack of freshly harvested cassava roots, then a pile of the peelings from the work done that day. 

Harvested Cassava

Peeling the Cassava

The peeled cassava was thrown in large vats of water, dug out of the ground and lined with tarps. 

On the Drying Racks

Soaking

The cassava soaks three days then they rinse it and lay it out on raised stick platforms to dry for a minimum of 5 days (longer in the rainy season). 

From there it is loaded into sacks to be shipped to Kinshasa. I think they also were able to ground it at the cooperation, but most of what I saw was ground by hand by the families who bought it.

Grinding the Cassava

Inspecting the Fields