By SILVANO YOKWE ALISON
Sweat streaming down her cheeks, Mary Likiya bends slightly, and struggles for balance as she tries to offload a saucepan filled with steaming potatoes off her head. “Come help me my neighbor, please,” Likiya, a widow who sells cooked food alongside the road in order to take care of her five children. “This thing is hot.”
The market is a beehive. Taxi conductors shout at passersby. Custom. Custom. Konyo konyo. Konyokonyo. Juba. Juba.
When Monica Egbawaro alights from a minibus, she stares at the steaming potatoes.
“Whoa! These potatoes look nice. Look at the table set: It’s beautiful with the blue cloth cover,” Monica tells to a friend, as she gives Likiya 10 SSP for a piece of cooked sweat potatoes that she puts into her brown handbag. “We come from work late. Buying fresh potatoes or cassava is expensive; it’s cheaper to buy here.”
BREWING SHIKO
Long before she was widowed, Likiya had always shouldered the burden of taking care of her family since 1992.She started her first business with only 100 Dinars by brewing alcoholic beverages known asShiko(Juba Local Arabic). ”The little that I earned is what we lived on,” recalls Likiya. The husband didn’t do anything for a living. “To make
it worse, he’d drink a lot of shiko,” Likiya says. “He was the father of my children; what could I do?”
That was only part of the challenge. Other people would drink on credit and not return to pay. “They drink and disappear,” Likiya recalls. “Customers would quarrel in the house when drank.”
The little Likiya earned saw her children through school. Her eldest daughter, Josephine Gamba,22, is now a candidate for O’Levels,
Linda Kiden,7, in class 2 and Martin Logoya,10, in class four. But the alcohol that had become the livelihood of the family soon turned into a source of tragedy. The husband died in 2014. Health workers said it was due to excessive drinking. Likiya switched to selling cooked food alongside the road in Munuki. “That is why changing to this business is okay,” Likiya adds.
She started with less than 300 pounds in capital, but made margins of 100-150 pounds daily, more than quadruple the 20-30 pounds from Shiko. She starts preparing for work from her two bedroomed house in Munuki Block C.
LONG WAY TO WORK
One windy evening in April, Likiya is preparing to get her food to the market.
“Come here, Martin,” she shouts out to her youngest son who is running to help bring a spoon. “I’m busy reducing the fire wood. The fire is high.”
Likiya is struggling to fan out the fire. The kitchen is hot. Likiya emerges from behind a cloud of smoke, sweat running down her
face. “It is time to go to the market,” Likiya tells Martin. “It’s almost 6:00PM. Make sure your younger sister takes a bath.”
Likiya tries to not miss a day at the market.
‘’There are many widows struggling to survive and for me, I am comfortable with selling cooked food,” Likiya says. “Even though it rains, I still come to the market. It is important to retain your customers and attract more customers.”
At the market, as the night darkens, the weather becomes windy and the candle burns down slowly.
Customers are rushing for the Likiya sweet potatoes, cassava and groundnuts.
“This cassava looks great,” a female customer says. “I like it.”
“Welcome. Are you happy with the service?” asks Likiya.
“I like it,” says the client.
“There is a little price increase by 5 pounds,” Likiya says with a smile and an awkward laughter.
Aha! Aha!
The food slowly sells out.
“What a day!” Likiya sighs. “God has been always good to me.” she says. “I can now go and lay down in peace.”
