Pangas, sickles and slashers

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Pangas, sickles and slashers

***** Location: Kenya
***** Season: Various, see below
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation


Panga, pangas

A kind of machete.




The panga (Swahili) is a vital domestic implement at the centre of almost all domestic functions in both urban and rural Kenya.

It is used in gardening and farm work for cutting and pruning trees, as well as in making holes for sowing seeds. The panga, which is called lipanga, elipanga, olupanga or opanga in the various Luhya dialects, is also used in hunting, skinning big animals and hacking chunks of meet and bones. It is also used to cut and harvest firewood without destroying trees. In this case, one has to climb the tree and just cut the dry faggots or branches.

Lastly, the panga is also used in defence during an attack either by wild animals or aggression from human enemies.

Patrick Wafula


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Sickle, sickles
topic for haiku

The sickle is a very prominent domestic implement in the rural Kenya. It is used to cut grass for thatching houses and for fodder; it is also used to harvest wheat.

The sickle has been there for many centuries and it is regarded as a traditional implement because it can be made by local blacksmiths by smelting iron. The sickle is known in Kenya as ringa (Swahili) or eringa (Luhya).

In the rural areas, many Kenyans, who cannot afford corrugated iron sheets for their roofing, construct mud-walled and grass-thatched houses. The tall grass used as thatching material is carefully cut using a sickle and then dried before it is used. Such grass is long and cannot allow a person to squat or crouch as they carefully sickle the grass. The reason why the sickle is among prominent domestic implements is because grass-thatched roofs tend to be worn off either by stormy rains or violent wind, hence the thatches require frequent repair.

During the rainy seasons, small scale dairy farmers use the sickle to harvest grass for animal feed (fodder).

During the rainy seasons, small scale dairy farmers use the sickle to harvest grass for animal feed (fodder).

The sickle is a topic for the long rains, when it is used to harvest the tender grass for fodder and the mature grass for thatching and for thatching repairs.
It is also a topic for the short rains and the early hot dry season, when the mature brown grass is cut for thatching new roofs or repairing old ones that have been damaged by wind and rain.

Patrick Wafula


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Slashers, grass slasher



A long metal rod, at the bent end of which is a rather deadly wide knife, which workers swing to cut grass while themselves remaining in an upright position. Slashers are most commonly seen being used by local authority workers in public parks -- but they are also used along roadsides, in the open spaces within housing estates and in the smaller private gardens containing a piece of lawn. As Kenyan grass can be quite hard, the slasher is more effective than a lawnmower.

The season when the slasher is most used, is from the middle of each of the two rainy seasons, up to and including the start of the following dry season. This is when grass grows fastest, and it is therefore when grass needs to be cut -- not only for the sake of beauty and pleasure, but also to prevent snakes, insects and caterpillars from hiding within the grass.

Slashers are used by both women and men. Local authorities employ many women to slash their grass, normally working together as a team. This is normally done wearing one kanga as a skirt, and another on their hair, as grass flies all around while being cut. It is common to see men working with slashers in other locations. Injuries caused by slashers are unfortunately not entirely rare, and may be caused by slashing one's own or another person's legs, or from blisters on one's hands.

Slashers are sharpened by the same people who work their way round housing estates sharpening kitche knives with the help of bicycle-wheel contraptions.

Isabelle Prondzynski



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Worldwide use

Japan

. SICKLE (KAMA, ..GAMA 鎌)



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Things found on the way


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HAIKU


long rains --
I dig maize seed holes
with a machete

~ Anne Wairimu


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mob riot --
a man throws a machete
through the glass

~ Brian Etole (Peacocks)

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Idd ul fitr-
a muslim man sharpens
his panga knife

Brian Mulando in August 2012

. Idd ul fitr - Ramadan ends .


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Related words

***** Grasses and Weeds of Kenya



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