Lizzy’s Story: Stone crushing in Lusaka

17th July 2007
by The Editors

Photography and photostory production by Mwilo Mumbi

1 of 11: My name is Lizzy and I am 29 years old. I am married with four children. My last born is 3 years old. I went to Primary school in Lusaka, but dropped out of school in Grade 5 because my parents could not afford to pay towards my academic education.

2 of 11: My day begins early in the morning at 06:00hrs and I do household chores such as fetching water, washing clothes, washing kitchen utensils and cleaning both inside and outside the house.

3 of 11: At 08:00hrs I walk to my stone-selling site along Mungwi Road and commence work. Poverty led me into the ‘Stone Crashing business’.

4 of 11: I was introduced to the stone crashing business by my mother in 1995. At that time, I was already married and had my first-born child daughter. Before venturing into the stone crashing business, I was involved in the business of supplying fresh vegetables to Katambalala market in George Compound in Lusaka. My business suffered great loses. This is because vegetables are perishables and so if I sold less then the remaining stock it would go bad. Therefore, I started borrowing to cover the business loss. Eventually I could not pay back the money I borrowed. This situation led me into the stone crashing business.

5 of 11: I pay money for my selling space from people who claim to come from the Lusaka City Council. All stone crashers here pay them K20,000 (€3.62) per selling space per year. We have never been given a receipt regarding the payments towards the selling space. I only pay them because I fear to be kicked out of my selling site. I begin by ordering big lumps of stone from a man known as ‘ba Chairman’ and break the big lumps of stone into the required small size. A wheelbarrow of the big lumps of stones costs K30,000 (€5.43). ‘Ba Chairman’ gets the big lumps of stones from area known as ‘Mushatine’ near Kanyama Compound and delivers them to me and I would pay him accordingly.

6 of 11: I spend most of the time breaking the big lumps of stones into the standard size stone (smaller stones) at this site using big hammers and huge stones known as ‘sokawes’. The sokawes are used as the bases for crashing big lumps of stones into required size with hammers. After crushing the stones we pack them in heaps using the empty bags of cement.

7 of 11: I sell the stones at K800 per heap. In a good day, one can sell stones worthy K200, 000 (US $43) or more. Sometimes it would take me months before I can sale a single heap of stones. Despite the hard labour and other hardships involved in this business, it has an advantage over the vegetable business. The reason is that stones are not perishables and hence, they could be at my selling site for months and I can still sale them.

8 of 11: When I am exhausted, I usually hire children (between the age of 10 and 15) to assist with my work. Thereafter, I pay each child according to how many standard heaps of standards sized stones they break. 1 heap costs me K300. (0.14 cent). An average child can break 20 to 30 heaps of stones per day.

9 of 11: I usually have my breakfast and lunch here at my selling site. My breakfast is composed of ‘vitumbuwa’ (fried dough) and tea whilst my lunch is usually of Nshima (staple maize meal) and Kapenta (small dried fish) with vegetables. I usually knock off from work at 18:00 hrs with my friends.

10 of 11: After knocking off, I return home to prepare food for my family.

11 of 11: This business of crashing stones is very dangerous not only for me but for anybody else. Many people have lost their eyes here. It’s a very risky business. This business is all I have for my living. If the government was to stop this business, there is no doubt that my family and I will suffer terribly. I hope to start up a business of selling second hand clothes at City Market. I would be very happy, if this dream came true.

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