05 July 2022Every morning across rural communities, village dukas open before sunrise. By midday, they have already served dozens of customers buying sugar, soap, cooking oil, airtime, beverages, and household essentials. During planting seasons, farmers also stop by searching for seed, fertiliser, livestock inputs, or crop protection products. Some of these shops
05 July 2022In many villages, a farmer may spend a few minutes in the morning buying soap, sugar, and cooking oil from the local duka, then spend the afternoon travelling to town searching for seed that should already be available in the same community. The contradiction is striking. The village duka is
05 July 2022At sunrise in many villages, the duka opens before almost everything else. Someone buys sugar for tea. Another asks for bread, buns, or doughnuts. A boda rider stops for airtime before leaving for the bigger trading centre. School children arrive with coins for exercise books or biscuits on their way
