（带文稿）0321VOA 非洲布基纳法索金矿上的半边天

张老邪叨哔叨：

看到单身母亲到处找活糊口的话题就觉得沉重。之前有推荐过NHK纪录片《女性贫困》（还有我最近在看的贫困纪实文学《看不见的美国》），首当其冲的正是未受过高等教育早婚早育或未婚生子然后孩子老爸拍拍屁股走人剩单身母亲独自抚养一个或多个小孩的那种。我不是怂恿大家不要去恋爱或者批判处处是zha男之类的，而是希望大家在自我成就达到足以立足脚跟之前，暂且不要急着把自己的窘境延续到下一辈，一个小孩不是有了生命就会快乐。 而进入一段关系的最大考验恰恰是提前最坏打算：没了那个人，你是否还有资本撑下可能比从前独身时还要负重累累的日子~

Tene Konate, 42, a truck driver, talks on a radio as she sits in her truck at the gold mine site, operated by Endeavour Mining Corporation in Hounde, Burkina Faso February 10, 2020. (Reuters/Anne Mimault)

Transcript

        Tene Konate’s family cannot believe how she earns a living.

       She drives a huge truck around the Hounde gold mine in Burkina Faso.

        The 42-year-old single mother is one of 111 women working at the mine. Most of them were trained for jobs that more traditionally would go to men in West Africa. These jobs include carrying rubble, blasting and breaking up rocks, or driving heavy vehicles.

Rosalie Guiro Kulga, 30, excavator-conductor, poses for a photograph beside her engine at the gold mine site in Hounde, Burkina Faso February 11, 2020

        Konate and the other women are helped by a worldwide effort of mining companies to bring more women into the industry.

        The industry has been slow to balance the number of male and female employees, and women remain greatly outnumbered by men. At Hounde, they make up just 11 percent of the workers. Canada’s Endeavour Mining runs the Hounde mine.

Alix Ouedraogo, 39, and Orokia Kone, 29, metallurgists, take a sample of a mud to control the process of gold extraction at the gold mine site in Hounde, Burkina Faso February 13, 2020.

        After separating from her husband, Konate struggled to provide for her two young daughters. She took jobs cleaning houses, cooking and mixing material used for buildings. When she heard the mine was hiring, she traveled across the country by bus for an interview.

        Today, Konate lives in a large house in Hounde. She is able to pay for her daughters’ schooling.

        “The mine has changed everything in my life,” she said. “Everything.”

        She said that, at this time in her life, “I really don’t need a man to do everything for me.”

        Many women in Burkina Faso face barriers to finding well-paid, skilled work. They also lack financial independence because more than half of women in the country marry before they turn 18.

Tene Konate, 42, a truck driver, climbs on her dumper truck at the gold mine site in Hounde, Burkina Faso February 12, 2020

        Konate’s first job at the mine was gathering waste. She was later trained to operate the trucks. The vehicle’s wheels are so big that drivers must climb a ladder to get into the driver’s seat.

        “The fact that it is a man’s job and that I can do it, really, I like that very, very, very much,” she said.

        Family and friends respect what she has done. Others find it hard to believe. “I told [my uncle], ‘yeah I really drive that machine’. Honestly he was very, very, very surprised to see I was doing that.”

      Sonia Nkiema oversees the work of more than 100 people at the mine pit. She said women sometimes face pushback, or problems, from the men. But she tells people around her to forget about the differences between men and women, and instead judge people based on the quality of their work.

          “As I always say to my operators, as soon as you cross that gate, we are no longer women,” Nkiema said. “We wear the same trousers as you do, we have become men, because we so the same job.”

        I’m Anne Ball.

Words in This Story

rubble – n. broken pieces of stone, brick

blast – v. to destroy, break apart, or remove (something) with an explosive

interview – n. a formal meeting with someone who is being considered for a job or other position

ladder – n. a device used for climbing that has two long pieces of wood, metal, or rope with a series of steps or rungs between them

pit – n. a large, deep hole in the ground from which stones or minerals are dug out

gate – n. a place in a wall or a fence that has a movable part which can be opened or closed like a door

trouser – n. a piece of clothing that covers your body from the waist to the ankle and has a separate part for each leg