How Elebele Women Process Garri

Garri is a by-product of cassava, a stable food to many families in Nigeria. In this article, we take a look at how women in Elebele community process this special cassave flakes called garri for family consumption, and commercial purposes.

Garri is processed through an indigenous technology with a locally-produced grinding machine. It starts from uprooting the cassava tubes from the farm. Family members gather around to peel it. The peels are used to feed domestic animals while the cassava goes for thorough washing.

After washing, the cassava goes for grinding and tied in sack bags for a dehydration process all through the night. By morning, the children gather again to sieve the dehydrated-grinded cassava to fine a powder-like particles. Than the frying stage to properly dehydrate the damp product.

Different communities had developed different skills and art in processing garri. It is an age-long tradition passed down to generations without proper documentation of the process. The process is learnt orally and by observation, however, the processing styles had witnessed tremendous improvement over the years.

A visit to Elebele, an Ogbia-speaking community in Bayelsa State, a spectacular garri frying art is made. The women stand to fry the garri using a well-constructed and raised fireplace. The question is, ‘is it better to stand or sit while frying the garri?’.

Frying is the final stage in the process of making garri. If the garri is not well dehydrated, it gets damp and spoiled easily. So, this stage requires caution, mental alertness, patience and ability to endure the heat of the fire. To avoid waste, the garri must not be burnt, therefore, to get right quality for the garri to stay longer, requires mental alertness despite the scotching fire.

They set the frying pan on low heat and they keep stirring until it get crispy. The palm is their guaguing instrument to know if they have reached the right texture of dryness.

In Elebele, the fireplace is a retangular moulded-raised mud structure with an open space to place the firewood at the ground level. It is built to reach the waist region of an adult. Apart from the height from the ground, the length and breath of this mud structure is same size with the frying pan to properly fix in at the top.

This is another variance of the frying process from other communities. In other areas, women sit to fry the garri in a specially made metal frying pan. The frying pan is rectangular metal of about 4 feet long and 2 feet wide with a depth of about 6 inch.

Garri is currently selling between N2,000 and N2,500 per rubber.