Goma by Theodore Trefon Noël Kabuyaya

Author:Theodore Trefon,Noël Kabuyaya
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: National Book Network International
Published: 2017-03-12T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

EVERYBODY LOVES BEANS

A MARKET FULL OF LIFE AND DRAMA

Mrs Bernadette Mpunga is a complacent owner of a small wholesale depot selling Kivu beans in the local Alanine market in Goma’s relatively bourgeois Himbi I district. Born and raised in Goma, she knows the city well and the different characteristics of its many markets – especially Alanine, where she has been a fixture for the past twenty years. The people of Goma love mahalagi (beans) and consider them a staple, so keeping up with demand keeps Bernadette busy. It is a competitive trade so she has to be clever in making sure she has the quantity and quality of beans to satisfy her customers. As her main challenge is keeping her depot well-stocked, she has to adapt to seasonal supply shifts, in addition to monitoring security problems in the Goma hinterland where she buys her mahalagi.

Most Congolese cities, large and small, have a main central market, such as Kinshasa’s Grand Marché or Lubumbashi’s Marché de la Kenya, where shoppers from even relatively distant neighbourhoods go to buy the ingredients for their meals, consumer items and other household products. These central markets are where the best deals and prices can be found. In Goma, however, there is no such market: every district has its own medium-sized market that caters to the shopping needs of local residents. Although rather laconic by nature, Bernadette can become quite the chatterbox when it comes to beans and markets.

The Goma local markets have everything you need: new and used clothes, hardware stuff, fruits and vegetables, our famous Goma cheese, smoked, salted and fresh fish, makala, fresh meat and even live animals. From fancy stuff imported from Dubai to kitchen utensils – you name it, you’ll find it. The markets in Virunga, Murara, Katoyi, Ndosho and Katindo all look a bit like Alanine: prices are comparable and the range of goods for sale is about the same. So someone from one neighbourhood wouldn’t entertain the idea of going shopping in another. Even in the bustling area of Birere, where I grew up, there isn’t a main central market. And Birere is a really busy place, with lots of wholesalers, where people from Goma, the outskirts and even our Rwandan neighbours come to fill their baskets.

Even though the different neighbourhood markets are not laid out exactly the same, there are a number of common traits. They have both covered and open-air sections. The municipality, together with local associations, usually takes the initiative in constructing the rudimentary covered parts of the market, which are little more than a roof on steel columns. A quick walk around reveals that goods are clustered in categories that may seem incoherent but are in fact understandable to the initiated shopper. Dried cassava tubers, for example, are not sold near cassava flour, which is sold next to corn or wheat flour. Local foodstuffs are usually laid out in the open-air sections and sold on the ground, placed on either tarpaulins or burlap bags or in plastic basins.

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