Fura da Nono pays my bills, says Sokoto widow

Since she lost her husband about three years ago, Luba, a well-known Fura da Nono seller at Majema area of Sokoto city has been fending for herself and her children. She’s had to rely on her trade for financial security, as that’s the only thing she has been engaged in, for about 15 years. “This […]

Since she lost her husband about three years ago, Luba, a well-known Fura da Nono seller at Majema area of Sokoto city has been fending for herself and her children. She’s had to rely on her trade for financial security, as that’s the only thing she has been engaged in, for about 15 years. “This is the only thing I depend on. It is my only source of livelihood and it has been empowering me,” she said.  
Luba makes making enough profit from selling Fura da Nono to feed her family, pay school fees for her six children who are attending both conventional and Islamiyya schools, as well as meet other needs. For her, the business has been a gainful venture. She disclosed that due to high demand, she has doubled the quantity she sells. She sells more during warm periods, as the drink is refreshing. She also added that on a daily basis she realizes between N1,200 to N3, 000.  
Luba employs one person to help, Malama Halima who pounds the whole of the 12 measures of millet used in making the Fura for N100 daily. Pounding is the most tasking aspect of the business, but Halima who has been with Luba for three years, says she enjoys her job. At 50, she doesn’t look her age, blessed with a youthful frame. She also confessed that any day she doesn’t work, she tends to feel listless and dull, hence her desire to do the labour at “A fee just enough to buy me Paracetamol.”
After the Fura is prepared, Luba gives some to children to hawk, while the remaining is sold at home.
The art of making Fura da Nono involves getting required amount of millet or guinea corn. The grain is put in a mortar and pounded softly, with water applied intermittently. After the initial pounding, the grain is separated from the chaff and water is used to clean the grain, after which it is allowed to dry before it is poured back into the mortar for more serious pounding until it turns semi-powdery. That’s then sieved with more purified flour mixed in with water. The sticky mix is shaped into balls which are boiled until well-cooked. It’s then pounded again. The Fura, now ready, is sold or served with cow’s milk, kneaded together with sugar added for a tatste Fura Da Nono-lovers delare as delicious.