Make Your Broom

I’ve never made a broom. Have you? 

I’ve been here in and out of Yaounde for more than 25 years, and I’ve never seen anyone make the effective brooms they use.  I see bundles of them carried on seller’s heads. I’ve seen them used to kill a mouse and plenty a cockroach. I’ve watched them be used quite skillfully to sweep out every particle of dust and I have used them not nearly so effectively to clean my own home.

I do love the efficiency and effectiveness of this tool. It is easy to beat furniture with and get into corners as well as crevices to clean them or retrieve lost items. But, I’ve never watched the process to make one until now. Follow the directions.

                Cut branches from a palm tree such as these.        

 

Remove the “leaves” to trim to create the broom. 

Pictured here is what is left of the branch after the wanted pieces have been removed.

Remove the soft, green part. 

                                                Remove the harder part right next to the “spine.” This requires careful scraping with a knife as seen in the next picture. Those are Emelda's hands doing all the work. The following photo is what's left from the scraping and the spines ready to gather.

Gather the spines. 

Use one of them to make a ring and insert the spines together in the ring. 

Well, it is a lot easier to say than do! So, why did Emelda choose to cut the branches in the first place when one can easily buy one from the market? (Some people make their living creating and selling these fantastic tools.) Simply because she loves the fresh smell of the palm when we sweep with a new broom! I do too.

Our finished product next to an older one