Where God Goes For Salt
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Author:Jarmila Kovarikova
Photographer and photojournalist. Capturing reality in a compelling way without the photographer’s interference is her favourite field of photography. In the last five years she’s made journeys to developing countries documenting social issues. Among the most notable are her features about the problems of AIDS in Southern India, orphans living in the sewers of Odessa in Ukraine, the lives and the training of wrestlers from poor backgrounds in Senegal and The Gambia.
Introduction
From the perspective of a satellite the volcanic lake in the El Sod crater on the border between Ethiopia and Kenya looks like a black eye staring out of the parched red landscape. Yet the satellite does not see the hundreds of people submerged in the black water, mining high quality salt here every day.
The journey around the crater rim takes one and a half hours, the descent into the crater forty-five minutes. The walk back up to the rim takes around one hour, and that is if you are in good shape. However, a stroll in the volcanic sand between the black cliffs is not the reason why dozens of the residents of the South Ethiopian village called El Sod (literally “House of Salt”) wind their way down the narrow path to the crater floor every day. The two-kilometre descent takes them to the black lake with a diameter of several hundred metres and which conceals a deposit, several dozens of metres thick, of culinary gold: salt. The shallow water is so saturated with salt that within a matter of minutes the miners’ black bodies become animated alabaster statues.
The relationship between the miners and the salt water is bittersweet. Although it harms them and takes their lives, they know that they cannot live without it. They would like to escape, but they have neither the means nor anywhere to go. A return to the pastoral lifestyle their fellow tribesmen lead is practically impossible, because they would need too much money to establish their herds and gain the necessary respect. Neither can they find employment elsewhere, as they only know who to do one thing, and do it well – mine salt. Even after sixty years of working every day in the boke, Momino still puts salt on his dinner. “I simply like salt” he says with a smile.
Text: Pavel Dobrovský
Photographs: Jarmila Kovaříková
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/ El Sod
The actual mining of the salt is just as traditional – with the miners’ bare hands and without any contribution from technology. Mining knowledge is handed down from father to son.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
A lot of miners of salt crater in El Sod in Ethiopia are children.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
The time spent in the aggressive salt water is the cause of a series of health problems, which only gets worse as the years pass. Scratches and eczema are the most painful.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
One of the most respected miners is Momino Hussien. Every morning he picks up his wooden stick polished by time and descends with deliberate steps to the black lake.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
The mining in the boke (salt crater) is not directed in any way by international salt companies and every miner is actually his own private mining and export company.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
“I first entered the boke – salt water – almost sixty years ago. I was then fourteen years old and we used to load the salt onto camel caravans that took it to Kenya. Today the camels have been replaced by trucks, but apart from that nothing much has changed,” says the now seventy-year-old Momino Hussein.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
The daily rhythm of life in the boke has changed so little over the decades that you could set your watch by it. In the morning the first miners use sticks to break up the salt that has condensed overnight on the surface of the lake and tread it to the bottom so that they can collect it with shovels and their hands. At the same time as the miners are breaking up the salt crust, caravans of donkeys are starting the climb up the crater weighed down with dozens of kilos of salty gold, which is then placed in simple open storehouses to await the arrival of the trucks from Kenya and Ethiopia.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
One hundred kilos of black salt is worth around three dollars, crystals go for ten dollars and white salt is worth around five dollars.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
The two-kilometre descent takes them to the black lake with a diameter of several hundred metres and which conceals a deposit, several dozens of metres thick, of culinary gold: salt.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
9
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/ El Sod
The journey around the crater rim takes one and a half hours, the descent into the crater forty-five minutes. The walk back up to the rim takes around one hour, and that is if you are in good shape. However, a stroll in the volcanic sand between the black cliffs is not the reason why dozens of the residents of the South Ethiopian village called El Sod (literally “House of Salt”) wind their way do the narrow path to the crater floor every day.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
When looking at the crater, any European would imagine that it is all simply a matter of bringing in a few pieces of heavy equipment, installing a conveyor belt system and industrialising the mining. They know it, but here is their home and some of them really love their job. And they know very well, that existence of El Sod is conditional on the presence of salt in the crater – without the salt the life would quickly go out of the village.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
As soon as the sun’s rays strike the walls of the crater with full force, donkeys and, sometimes, even people collapse during the climb.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
The shallow water is so saturated with salt that within a matter of minutes the miners’ black bodies become animated alabaster statues.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
The whole day miners expend in very aggressive salty water. Skin ghastly itchs so nothing is better than after work wash the body in less salty lake.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
After work the miners go for a bath to a small lake with not so briny water.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
It is difficult for miners to make enough money to be able to move to a larger town to find work. Once you start with the salt, you will die with it.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
Hard work every day – from sunrise to sunset. But most of the miners don’t want to change their lifestyle. Industrialising the mining is precisely what the original inhabitants do not want. They see technology as a threat to their futures.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
For extraction miners use hands or plastic colorful wash-tubs .
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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/ El Sod
Miners in boke look like animated alabaster statues.
Photograph by Jarmila Kovarikova / © Jarmila Kovarikova . All Rights Reserved.
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Displaying 4 Comments
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Added Fri, Jul 30, 2010 - 12:04 am by TL Bradley
Congrats on the feature. This is wonderful.
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Added Fri, Jul 16, 2010 - 09:28 am by Victor Acquah
One of the goals of African Lens is to serve as a platform of advocacy - for stories that need to be told. This is one of them. Hopefully, this story will generate enough interest to spur more action / help towards the street kids here.
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Added Fri, Jul 02, 2010 - 04:17 am by Thomas
What a beautiful report story !! Congratulation for your job.
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Added Tue, Jun 15, 2010 - 01:02 pm by Marcello
This is an awesome Photo story! Thanks for sharing it, currently only watched the photos, but definitely wanna read it!
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