by Joan French

Many arguments are advanced for the declining representation of women in agriculture. Hannah's story is about one woman who loved her work on the land, who fought hard to stay in it, and who finally gave up, unable to withstand the forces against her. Let us hear the story in her own words.

"I started farming at 16 years old. My mother was a farmer and I got to the stage where I felt I should have my own garden. So I got somebody to cut the land and then I started farming. I love it a lot. I love to be in the garden.

"I started planting bananas. I would dig 25 banana holes, rest for a while, then I would dig another 25.1 was making 50 holes a day, and not getting extra tired. So I kept on planting bananas.

"But there came a time when the struggle in bananas became grave and hard, and that was when I had to go to the boxing plant to sell it."

In academic studies they refer to this grave and hard struggle as "transportation and marketing difficulties". How did Hannah live and feel these difficulties?

"The road was very bad. I had to take two bunches of banana on my head. The children were too young to help me. Once I wanted to make a short cut because the road was so bad and the rain was falling and the load was squeezing me and the mud, all the mud and you slipping. And I walk and walk because I thought the track was shorter but actually it was longer and I felt so bad I almost vomit with the bananas on my head.

"Sometimes I would have 25, 30 or 40 or so bunches to carry. Then I would reach the end. I got a lot of rejects, because I had to lift them up by myself, and sometimes I tie two together to bring them out, and sometimes they got bruises so I used to have lots of loss."

Well, Hannah got her bananas to the plant, so you would expect that to be the end of marketing story, right? Wrong. In addition to all of that she had to contend with the unfair practices of the men in getting her bananas in.

"Most of the time when you came to sell, one man would get number one, because maybe this morning you had a little breakfast and it keep you back a little so this man get number one. And I would be standing there with my clothes wet from the sweat of carrying the bananas, and many other women would be waiting too, and then when you hear the number one reach on the seven hours before a woman could even pass two bunch of bananas. Because all the other men giving this one man all their bananas to weigh. One handing to the other as soon as this one finish he call another and he is taking that one's bananas, an' so it go. Men passing all the while.

If you lucky you might get somebody to slip you in, or if you are in the line somebody may do you a favour and pass you on nearer the top so that you can sell a batch. Most times I stay there till five and the children at home, small, with nobody. When my mother was alive she used to give me a little help, but after she dead there was no help."

Between the marketing problems and the rejects, Hannah was in a jam. She tried to find a way out, and still continue her first love, the cultivation of the land."When I saw the bananas couldn't really help me, I couldn't put out to really sustain the children or look after myself, I asked a road driver for a job and he gave me a cooking job on the government road. I say, well, alright, during the week I will do it and on Saturday I will look at my bananas. Banana days I will leave early and go and fix up the bananas.

"The cooking job was hard.

"Most times I would have to roast plantains and I would have to roast breadfruit and make bakes, and do cucumbers. Everybody want something different, and they need it for 9 o'clock.

So I would have to cough myself taking in a lot of smoke. My eyes running, my nose running, and I have to make sure I prepare everything. After a while I said to myself, I'm going back to my back-garden."

By now Hannah's son was bigger and stronger, so he would help her lift the load onto her head, and take a small bunch himself. One day he went to school and didn't come back home for lunch.

"Who give you lunch?"

"Me father."

"Where you know your father from?" How come father can give you lunch? I left your lunch for you, why didn't you come and eat it? Don't eat no father lunch. Don't eat no mother-in-law lunch."

But he kept on doing it till finally he decided to go and live with his father.

"It grieve me a lot because he was the strongest one to help me. The doctor already told me I was carrying too much load. I was pregnant and he said that anything I was doing I should sit down. But I had no-one to help me, so I continued carrying the load. But one night I got really sick, and this time I had to hear the doctor. When I had the baby, he stopped me from getting anymore family, because my womb was slacking.

"After a while it was too much for me. Maybe I start too early with it. Maybe all energy went in it, I couldn't see any real success in it, because it was just me and the load. I still had plenty bananas, but sometimes I just used to cut up a lot and throw them out, because selling them you could just barely get something to buy bread. I jus' decide I mus' stay home because there is no energy left to fight with bananas. I cannot think bananas anymore, because there is nothing in it."

So what does Hannah do now?

"The Methodist church has a class run by the Minister's wife. They teach us to do different things like roti, fry rice and baking. I have been to the class now for nine years. I'm doing some little cakes and getting them off my hands, and sometimes I get a little cooking job and 1 occupy myself with anything else.

"We have formed a ladies' group at the church. The church leaders come and talk to us and it is a great spiritual upliftment. Right now we have a campaign to revive the church. We find it is making progress."

Hannah still loves the land, and is strong enough to work it. The land produces well. But the road from the land to the market has forced her to hand it over to her son. Few young people now remain in farming. Will the road from the plot to the market make him leave it too?

Joan French, Consultant to Sistren's Workshop Team, is currently involved a two-year research project, "Women Caribbean Agriculture," initiated by the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA). The research is being conducted in Dominica and St. Vincent with support from Small Projects Assistance Team (Dominica) and the Committee for the Development of Women (St. Vincent).

Source: Sistren Newsletter Vol. 10, No. 1/88 Published by Sistren Theatre Collective 20 Kensington Crescent 80 Kingston 5, Jamaica