Reject Online Issue 32

Page 1

January 16-31, 2011

ISSUE 032

A bimonthly on-line newspaper by the Media Diversity Centre, a project of African Woman and Child Feature Service

Scavengers of the gold mines By FRED OKOTH Recently five gold diggers died while prospecting for Gold in the Macalder mines of Migori County. Even with their deaths, it remains business as usual. However, there is also a second breed of gold prospectors who are risking their lives every day all in the search for the elusive mineral. They might be living in what could be the richest gold mine in the country but to the women living around Masara mines in Migori District, in Western Kenya have been living a life that can simply be described as scavenging on what men have left behind. Every morning, a large group of women leave their homes and head straight to the mines to join their men. They stay there until late in the evening when, together with the men, eventually make their way back home.

Inequalities At first, there is nothing out of the ordinary about this. Men and women walking to the mines and staying there until late in the evening. But that is as good as it gets. A closer look into what happens in the mines exposes serious inequalities and how deeply disadvantaged the women are. While the men go straight inside the mines and start the chore of getting the ores from the mines and crushing them, things are completely different for the women. Here, they have to wait for the men to finish before they can venture into the mines to see how much of the precious mineral they can get. A walk through the area and one will encounter small groups of women waiting for the men to crush the ore, take away the gold deposits, then throw away the useless sand.

Scavengers However, it is at this point that the women get into action. Like scavengers, the women quickly move into the ‘useless sand’ and, armed with mercury, run it all over again to see if there is something left by the men. “We have to accept that unlike men, we cannot go inside the caves to look for ores” says Milka Awiti, a mother of seven. They have always had to wait until the men threw away the sand to try their luck. “Our work is simple. We take the sand thrown away, run it over water mixed with mercury and see if there is any trace of gold left behind by the men,” explains Awiti. As she talks, a group of women are busy carrying away the sand to a nearby wood structure where it is repeatedly run over water and all this time, their eyes are firmly fixed on the wood to see if there is any chance that they will get something. The entire load of sand is eventually washed out with no trace of gold remaining on the small mercury they had put. There is an obvious sigh of frustration on their faces but just for a moment. Continued on page 2

Women looking for gold from sand thrown away by the men who are the main diggers. These women risk their lives while rushing to collect the dust from which gold has been mined in their attempt to find any left over ore. Pictures: Fred Okoth

Read more Reject stories online at www.mediadiversityafrica.org


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.