The image of African women gracefully carrying water on their heads is iconic, representing strength, resilience, and cultural heritage. This practice, deeply rooted in history and necessity, continues to be a vital part of life for many women across the continent.
Woman carrying water in Ethiopia. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Historical and Cultural Significance
My ancestry and my heritage originated in West Africa. I’m proud of my ancestry and heritage. March is Women’s History Month and therefore it’s the perfect time to look back (Sankofa) and let my imagination influence my gratitude for my roots-my connection to my matriarchal ancestors. Ancestors that carried so much on their heads, shoulders, and in their bodies.
Author Watetu wa Gichuki says “Black women are used to juggling multiple burdens on their backs, heads, front, and shoulders both physically and metaphorically; thus, the concept of the water carriers was born.
Carrying on the head is a common practice in many parts of the developing world, as only a simple length of cloth shaped into a ring or ball is needed to carry loads approaching the person's own weight. The practice is efficient, in a place or at a time when there are no vehicles or beasts of burden available for transporting the objects. Today, women and men carry burdens on their heads where there is no cheaper, or more efficient, way of transporting workloads. It is also wide-spread in Africa.
Read also: Experience Fad's Fine African Cuisine
Many years ago, in the rural parishes of Grenada, women walked along the road carrying heavy loads on their heads. The practice or tradition of carrying heavy loads on the head comes from West Africa. In the West African culture, women carry loads on their heads, including water, produce from farming, wet clothes or firewood.
In Grenada, women would carry loads on their heads including wet clothes from washing by the river side. Another example was the carrying of agricultural produce brought from the lands such as nutmeg, cocoa and banana. Rural vendors also carried loads on their heads on their way to the market to sell on a Saturday.
The Kata: A Cushion for Heavy Loads
What is Kata? Kata is the cloth that serves as a cushion to protect the head from the heavy load. It is the carrying pad. The Kata is a round bundle of either cloth or banana leaves. The Kata fits nicely on the top of the head. The Kata serves t balance the heavy load on the head. Young girls learn to carry heavy loads using the Kata at a very early age, by either their mothers or grandmothers. In the picture below, the Kata is blue in colour and is used to cushion the load of the heavy basket on the head. The basket carries local fruits and flowers.
Woman carrying a basket on her head in Zanzibar. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Efficiency and Adaptation
Women in particular may have practical reasons for carrying on the head. For many African women it is "well-suited to the rough, rural terrain and the particular objects they carry-like buckets of water and bundles of firewood". The practice is usually not abandoned after migrating to urban areas where their daily routines, and socially accepted practices, are different.
Read also: The Story Behind Cachapas
Researchers speculate that training from a young age may explain this. Up to 20% of the person's body weight can be carried with no extra exertion of energy.
A study found that African women can carry up to 20% of their body weight on their heads without increasing their rate of energy consumption. The study shows that a 130-pound African woman can walk with a 26-pound load on her head and burn up no more energy than if she were carrying nothing at all. The load, in effect, moves for free.
Heglund speculates that the women, who begin carrying what he called “pretty darn decent loads at the age of 12,” have made physiological adaptations to carrying the weight. He also speculates that they have developed balancing techniques that allow them to carry their loads smoothly. Non-jerky locomotion, Heglund says, wastes little energy.
Arguing for the bone-support theory, Heglund said, is the research finding here that African women can stand quietly with up to 70% of their body weight on their heads with no measurable effect on their energy consumption. This means a 130-pound African woman can stand around with 91 pounds on her head with “no metabolic cost.”
Heglund plans to return to Kenya this month to resume head-carrying research with University of Nairobi physiologist Geoffrey Maloiy, who led the original experiments here. He will bring along an accelerometer, a device that measures up-and-down and back-and-forth movement. The accelerometer will be attached to the loads when the women go on the treadmill.
Read also: Techniques of African Jewellery
“Women in Africa are not just women carrying water on their heads”
Health Implications and Challenges
Long walks with such a heavy load take their toll, notes Jo-Anne Geere, a lecturer at the Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia. In her work examining the health implications of water collection in South Africa, Geere has found that carrying these heavy loads on one's head is associated with a particular pain pattern, with discomfort in the upper back and hands and an increased risk of headaches. (She's still studying why, although she suspects it's because of the compression of discs in the neck.)
In one survey she collected data from six villages; 69 percent of participants reported spinal pain, and 38 percent complained of back pain. It's not necessarily a single trip for water each day that's causing these consequences. Depending on the size of the family and the household's needs - like laundry, for instance - women may make this trip multiple times on the same day.
Even if a woman finishes her water collection duties without aches and pains, there's a good chance she's exhausted, Crow adds. And there are still plenty of other domestic tasks on her to-do list. There usually isn't enough time to finish it all by bedtime, he says, which is why women often sleep less than men.
Water Funds and Empowerment
In the majority of African households, women spend more time with water than their male counterparts. In rural areas, millions of women spend hours each day walking to a water source. So it is women who are often more acutely aware of the water quality and quantity of the water available to them.
The Nature Conservancy launched the Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund to help secure water in and around Nairobi - a city of 4 million people that gets 95 percent of its water from the Tana River. In response to the new data, the Water Fund will provide even greater support for female farmers, along with farmers over 60, through a larger subsidy toward the costs of soil and water conservation measures.
Female-headed households, such as Elena Kinyuna’s small farm on the edge of the Mt. Kenya Forest, are generally more dependent on farming income than male-headed households. With support from the Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund, Elena built a rainwater harvesting water pan.
With the success of the Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund, our second water fund in Africa is already underway - and once again, we are going the extra mile to empower women to take the lead. Our ultimate goal is continental impact.
Table: Water Collection Statistics in Sub-Saharan Africa
| Country | Percentage of Women Collecting Water | Percentage of Girls Collecting Water |
|---|---|---|
| Liberia | 46% | N/A |
| Cote d'Ivoire | 90% | N/A |
| Average | N/A | 62% (girls) vs 38% (boys) |
