White Child with African Pestle and Mortar
This beautiful hand-carved pestle and mortar is used to pound rice. Pounding the rice breaks open the husk, but it is certainly not child's play. The pestle has to be hurled down into the mortar.
After it has been pounded, the grain is placed in a winnowing basket and is tossed repeatedly in the air. Again, this is business requiring skill. The idea is that the breeze should carry away the chaff whilst the rice falls back into the basket, but the tyro generally ends up tossing the whole lot onto the ground.
The end product is brown rice. It is, admittedly, somewhat battered and broken after its adventures, but it tastes just the same as the shop bought stuff and can be cooked in the usual way. Predictably, the wealthier West Africans prefer to buy white rice, imported form Asia.
Rio Cacheu, Guinea Bissau 1995