Carrying firewood

Community Commentary

Community Commentary by Ajetunmobi within research project: 'Rethinking Relationships and Building Trust around African Collections' 2021

This picture was taken by Stanfield in 1962. The location is not known. The picture shows a mother and her two kids coming from the farm. The mother and the eldest daughter had firewood on their heads and the younger child had basket on their load. The basket on the head of the young child might contain the equipment used on the farm. It is the lightest of the loads. The mother and the older child carried firewood meant for cooking. In rural communities, firewood is the most used means of cooking. The firewood is drawn from the villagers’ farms and taken home for use.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk