Queens of the Mud Stove Age

Recently I led my first series of formations, teaching Dave’s women’s group how to build mud stoves. Mud stoves are an example of Objective 1.2 of the SED project plan for Burkina Faso, which is to train target population members in or improve their standard of living through the use of appropriate technology skills. The “technology” part of that goal is in the sense of the application of practical knowledge. The “appropriate” part is that the technology makes sense within the context of culture and resources. Mud stoves represent an improvement over the most widely accepted method of cooking, which is to place three rocks on the ground in a triangle and light a fire between the rocks, with the pot atop the rocks. Wood is fed to the fire between two of the rocks, but this method also allows fire to escape out of the other two sides of the triangle, thus wasting lots of heat and consequently lots of wood. The walls of the mud stoves insulate the heat and direct it exclusively towards the pot, which allows the operator to use less wood than the traditional stove. The advantages of using less wood are tri-fold: less money spent on wood, less time allocated to retrieving wood and environmental benefits (less deforestation).

During the first session of the formation, the women gathered 4 pails of dirt, 1 pail of hay and 1 pail of fertilizer. These were all mixed together with water and then left in a mud-like consistency in a pile covered with straw and a tarp for one week. During the second session of the formation one week later, the women sized three rocks and planted them in the ground according to the measurements of the pot they planned to use with this stove (unfortunately the mud stoves are not scalable). Then we formed the mud into logs and built a circular stove around the triangular rock foundation. We continually used the pot to measure the stove to make sure it would be properly insulated. Once satisfied with the construction, we smoothed the sides of the stove with water and covered the stove with straw to protect the stove while it dried and hardened, a process which takes about a week. Next, the women had to build a mud stove on their own with the remaining mud to ensure they understood the process. To my surprise they chose to build a huge stove for a pot with 3 times the capacity of the model we used for the first stove. They did a great job and proved themselves to be quick learners and expert masons.

The next day, the stoves had dried enough for us to cut the door on the stoves, which is where the wood is fed into the hearth. After the next 6 days, the stoves had dried completely and were ready for use. All told, 15 women and 1 man were trained in mud stove construction. I worked especially hard to prepare all three formation sessions in Jula, using a combination of a guide from an environmental agent in Bobo, an activity write-up from a SED volunteer from a few years ago, a French – Jula lexicon and a (limited) English – Jula glossary. I wanted to conduct the formation in Jula with this group of women because they spoke both Jula and French, which meant that we could revert to French if they couldn’t understand my Jula. Thankfully that scenario only happened a few times, but now armed with the corrections I can perform these formations with groups that do not speak French, which generally are the populations who can benefit most from appropriate technology.

Awni barra! (“Good work” in Jula)