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Most fallow land around Abura-Dunkwa has rested for less than
five years, a short fallow of2-3 years being most common. Any piece ofland
which a farmeullowsto reverUo-bushiswithin a few_months ahundantly
covered by a yellow flowering plant known as the fofo plant, and the
designation for land under short fallow is mfofo.
The area which a farmer may put up for the season's clearing averages
between one and two acres. Limited as such an area may be, the farmer
has difficulty in facing up to the task on his own. Even the clearing of one
acre of mfofo land requires 12 man-days of work on average, and he is thus
likely to look for the assistance of three or four colleagues. Labour
requirements for clearing odoto are about 50 percent higher as it also
involves the cutting down of trees; this is not only heavier wor k but also
requires special skills. 4
Although a Mfantse farmer does not consider a cut-down tree as
timber, it is firewood, while the bigger branches are frequently used in
charcoal-burning. 5 Occasionally the trunk of a big tree may be used for
making a dug-out canoe and the smaller ones for making paddles. But with
the distance to a passable road often exceeding a few miles, the farmer may
well have to leave the trunks to rot in his field.
Contrary to what Polly Hill has reported to be common practice in
a neighbouring rural area, namely, that trees were felled before the clearing
of the undergrowth,6 Abura-Dunkwa farmers invariably clear and turn the
underbrush before they get down to felling the trees. They give as a special
reason for this sequence of operations .that the burning dehydrates the living
wood of the trees to some extent so that it is more brittle under the axe. The
ashes resulting from the burning of the bush are used to fertilize the soil.
To this end, the hoe is applied for mixing the ashes with the top-layer. In case
of 'odoto' land this cannot be done straightaway, because the burning is
incomplete and leaves a debris of branches and twigs. The reaping of this
debris - known as apam7 - and its stacking into heaps at the side of the
plot to enable it to be burned properly, adds to the labour requirements of
clearing odoto. These tasks differ from the other work, however, because
they can be performed by women.
Bush clearing is considered men's work and is mainly carried out
with the cutlass, the male implement. Planting and especially weeding are
done with the hoe and are seen as women's work, the hoe being the female
implement. All the same, some women participate in clearing, especially
of mfofo, the lighter bush, which is anyhow the type of land on which by
preference women farmers make their own farm plots. In one instance,
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