The milk maids of Daura

If you visit Daura and its  outlying areas  you will  see many big red bulls as well as witness aspects of the milk trade, and this includes  milking, processing and sale of the final product in the heart of the town.     Milk Every morning women step out to milk the cattle in an ancient […]

If you visit Daura and its  outlying areas  you will  see many big red bulls as well as witness aspects of the milk trade, and this includes  milking, processing and sale of the final product in the heart of the town.  

 

Milk

Every morning women step out to milk the cattle in an ancient practice  known locally as Tatso. All you need is a bowl, a healthy set of fingers, and a willing cow, one must add. These are some of the simple pastoral sights you can find within Daura and neighbouring communities, if you are on a visit and are inquisitive enough to look around. Soon jets of creamy milk emerge to fill the bowl. Everybody smiles. This includes  the lady milking the cow, who seems to imply in a gentle mutter, that nobody had ever come to take photographs while she is doing Tatso. She smiles when someone says that very soon her photo will be seen all over the country.    

Trade  

At Sharifawa, we meet Hajiya Habi who has spent forty years in the milk trade. Hear her “I sell milk every day, and with the proceeds I buy feed for the animals. With the remainder I sponsored myself to Mecca, I have also educated my children from the profits.” She adds that she began with a single cow, but that she has fifteen cattle at present. She has bought and sold cattle over the years, she explains. Women milk the cattle  in the mornings,as well as in the evenings. Haji Habi harvests four litres every day, that is two litres every morning and evening.She makes one thousand two hundred naira every day, and this comes to a considerable sum of money by the end of the month. But this is the figure from just one cow. The amount is much higher. Hafsat Tanimu’s story is similar to that of Habi, and she has spent fifteen years in the trade. After the cattle are milked, the product  is taken through a local system of processing. One of the milk maids explains “The milk is sieved and this is to remove unwanted particles. Then we process it. If we want the processed milk to become more sour, then we put some of the old yoghurt in it. If we want it to be fresh,then we add just a little of the old or we leave it as it is. We incubate it for a day, and then we sell it in town.” But the women go to some pain while conveying the prepared milk from Sharifawa into the heart of Daura for sale.Sometimes, they are lucky to have the use of a commercial motorcycle, or alternatively, they walk  about five kilometres from the village up to the main road, where they will get a vehicle into the town.  

Widows 

Some of the milk maids are widows. Zara Yusuf is one of them, and the profit she makes from the milk trade has been a great help to her. She makes daily transactions worth three thousand Naira. Another widow, Amina Audu hails from Makkasauro near Daura, and  she has sold milk for well over forty years. “I sell fifteen to twenty calabashes every day and this amounts to six thousand Naira every day.” This becomes a handsome amount when multiplied by thirty days. On the other hand Bilkisu Halilu has been in the trade for forty five years. Like Audu,she too sells about fifteen calabashes every day. In Daura, there is a milk sellers section, and Daily Trust is told that milk is sold  there from early in the morning till about 10:00 pm.     

Bororo

It is mentioned that the rich form of milk found in Daura is traced to the type of cattle available there, and this is a reference to the red Bororo breed. “Most of the cattle here are red Bororo. They have very good converting abilities, and they can convert feed residue into milk and meat. The people here feed  their animals with high nutrient diets, ranging from groundnut cakes to wheat bran. Again, water is fresh water, and this is direct from the underground table. The weather conditions here makes cattle to drink a lot of water,” Daily Trust is told. 

Fulbe Brilliance 

The exceptional brilliance of the Fulani has been traced to a diet rich in milk, a point made to me some years ago by a famous professor in Nigeria,who is now late. A contact who is close to the nomads, adds “Medically and scientifically, during development the younger ones need  high sources of protein to facilitate their growth, that is, the development of the  important body organs such as  the brain and the heart. Milk contains everything a young growing child needs. If he gets all this at an early age, his brain development will be sharp and fast, when compared to those who don’t have access to it.”  

No association 

But there is no milk sellers association in Daura.Ali Ibrahim says “if they had an association, they would have sought government intervention for subsidies for their feeds and veterinary services. If they have an association, then they would have price control over the entire milk market, because they would have a voice. This would help them to standardize the business by improving the quality of the general milk trade. The milk sellers should be provided with secure and accessible milk selling points (Nono markets) within the city centre, because most of them are casually spread by road sides which is unhygienic and dangerous.” 

He adds “Government should develop and enforce ways of improving hygiene and the standard of local yoghurt selling. There should be construction of feeder roads to ease transportation of animal goods and services, as many of the milk sellers had to traverse over 5km distances on rough and sandy foot paths before they could reach motorable roads.”