Grinding stones
amabere
The paired stones on which grain was ground to flour — every homestead's mill, worked daily by women.
Before posho mills reached the hills, all grain was flour by stone: a large stationary base stone and a smaller hand stone worked back and forth over it. Millet, sorghum and later maize for obokima all passed across these stones.
The photograph shows Kisii women grinding grain — the same posture, the same stones, recorded more than a century ago.
Cultural context
Grinding was women's work and women's time — often shared, two or three at adjacent stones, conversation carrying the hours. A good grinding stone was household wealth, shaped and dressed by specialists, inherited by daughters-in-law.
