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History and location
Since ancient Egypt the
fonio was appreciated and used for the ritual divinatory.
Africans cultivated and preserved it particularly in
arid savannas of the sahel. This cereal is one of most
usually cultivated from Cap Verde to the Lake Chad. In
certain areas of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal and
Nigeria, it remains an integral part of people’s diet.
Some fonio varieties reach maturity quickly - from 6 to
8 weeks; they can therefore be consumed before the
maturation of other cereals cultivated in the Sahel.
A “vital”
cereal for farmers’ economy
During the few critical months of “hunger gap”, fonio becomes “the seed
of life”, and so ensures a vital food transition for the populations
when the other cereals are still immature and when the reserves of the
previous year are exhausted.
Despite its old age, the extent of its production area, and its
importance to contribute to farmers’ food safety, fonio still remains
less known compared to other sorghum, millet, corn and other cash crops
that provide revenues (coffee, groundnuts…). This is surprising , given
the importance of fonio for African farmers. Some thirty scientific
short articles only were written on fonio since some twenty years ago.
Together with farmers organisations, GAIA company and l’Orange Bleue
Afrique decided to work for the promotion of fonio, on the one hand, its
promotion in Africa for local consumption and, on the other hand, in
Europe for a trade solidarity, by inviting consumers to support the
development of the producing communities of organic fonio.
As an important cereal for African farmers’ food safety, it is also in
the heritage of the biodiversity. The consumption of the fonio deeply
decreased since colonization and suffered from the competition with
other import products like rice, wheat, corn, and finally, was minimized,
even neglected, and its culture reduced to an almost marginal level.
Fonio at the heart of the African cultural
heritage
Considering its role in all West African Sahelian regions for its
contribution to farmers’ food safety, fonio is subject to a particular
respect. Its culture, its harvest, its threshing and the shelling done
by the women with the traditional mortar is the occasion for many
Community festivities. It represents the most suited cereal for marriage
ceremonies, naming ceremonies, initiations and ritual and propitiatory
ceremonies. It is at the heart of many cosmogonies and founding myths
for the Bambara of Mali, the Coniaguis and the Fulani of Guinea, the
Senegalese Bassaris, the Bobo and Senoufo of Burkina Faso. The
anthropologist Griaule, in his famous studies on Dogon tribes, had
revealed the key role of this cereal in the founding myths of this
famous Mali ethnic group. |
