Page 32 - bon-dia-aruba-20200602

a32 local
Tuesday 2 June 2020
Small Aruban Industries of the 19th century Episode XLIV

Continued from Page 31 ten than not two harvests could be
gathered in.
It is called seven weeks’ maize be- Besides maize, beans were also
cause when the water is favorable grown in the agricultural sea-
it can be harvested within seven son. There are numbers of differ-
weeks of having been planted. ent native kinds, as for instance:
The priests acted as distributors of Janchikok, Jaes prinses, karanxu,
the seeded plants. In 1911, when bonofees, marins, yenye, wowo-
Aruba did not yet knew of import- preto, bonchi corra, wandu, bochi
ed canned of food, many worries shinishi, etc. It is odd that on neither
of the Arubans about their maize of the other islands, Curacao or Bo-
crops. In most cases the crops are naire, is bean-growing so produc-
exposed to many dangers which tive and varied as on Aruba and
cause them to partly or completely mainly attributed to the Native
miscarry. When the seed needs a American heritage and traditions.
long time to develop owing to lack Maize and bean crops served for
of rain, it dies underground, or is nourishment, the peanut-crops to
devoured by earth-worms or ants. buy clothes, shoes, and other ne-
When the plant has risen to a cer- cessities, and to pay off debts.
tain height, maybe one or two The work did not proceed without
feet, there is a possibility that, ow- plan, it was given serious thought
ing to a prolonged drought or too beforehand how the cunucu
much humidity, a liquid is formed could best be divided into lots suit-
inside the plant, a sort of oil turning able for planting the various spe-
from bright yellow into black and cies. Everything was duly weighed:
becoming as thick as molasses. This this soil is good for maize, the low
pest named maba, greatly injures lot carries off the water well and
the plant, hampering or paralyzing should be planted with pindas, the
its vegetative force. As this liquid corner there is for beans, etc.
arises from a long drought or too However, no too optimistic view
much humidity it is washed off the should be taken of Aruban agricul-
plant by heavy rains or dried out by tures. In 1827 commander Simon
the fierce sun or hard wind. Plats reported “the condition of the
Cultivation methods were more holdings planted by the residents is
advanced on Aruba than at other still the same as twenty five years
places. Maize-harvests very rarely ago.” Real plantations, with the ex-
completely failed, and more of- ception of Fontein, did not exist.q

5-Native Family harvest of maish rabo, plantation in Noord, Aruba

4-“Maish” native Aruban corn “Zae mays” art by Etnia Nativa