2006年VOA标准英语-Foreign Traders, Senegalese Artisans Compete Ov

By Naomi Schwarz
Dakar
11 December 2006

The outside world has long looked to Africa as a source for raw materials. In Senegal, Indian firms are buying up metric tons of recycled metal, including aluminum¹. For VOA, Naomi Schwarz visited an aluminum pot workshop in Dakar to see how the international trade affects Senegalese craftsmen².

 
Souleyman Ba makes a mold for a pot lid
Souleyman Ba is demonstrating how he makes pots. Right now he is working on a series of lids.

He starts by making a pile of dirt.

The dirt comes from the bush, he says.

He places an old lid with the handle removed on the mound³ and tamps⁴ down the dirt around and under it. Then he places a wooden frame around the pile and adds more dirt.

Using a wooden baton⁵, he pounds the dirt until it is compressed. He lifts the dirt-filled frame, and the shape of the lid is impressed on the underside.

When he finishes this mold, and the eight or so others that he makes in rows on the ground, he will pour in molten aluminum through the small holes he has poked⁶ in the top.

The aluminum comes from vehicles, he says, or else from the frames of glass doors. There are beer cans, and aluminum electrical wires, he says.

Every element in the fabrication of these pots is local and recycled.

Yusufa Thiombane, president of a large association of Dakar artisan metal workers, has been making recycled aluminum kitchenware since 1959.

Recently, he says, the cost of doing business has gone up.

 
A worker shines a near-finished pot
Before we paid less, he says of the price per kilo of aluminum. But now, he says, foreigners come and buy up huge lots of raw materials to ship overseas. Before he was able to get a kilo of aluminum for about 90 cents (400 or 450 local francs). Now, he must pay more than a dollar.

"My main clients are in India and China, and some are in Singapore," says Manjet Singh, a metal trader from India. He has been buying recycled iron, aluminum, copper⁷, and other metals in West Africa for five years, though he has only been in Senegal for the past year and a half.

"Now the countries in Asia and China, they are developing," he says. "So there is a huge demand for creating infrastructure⁸. So that is why people come here to this continent to start searching for materials and all."

Local industry is just what director of artisans for the government Moctar Diakhaté would like to see Senegal develop.

It creates some revenue for the local aluminum scavengers, he says, but if we can transform the aluminum locally, it is even better.

 
Foreign traders transport metal to the port and overseas
Economist⁹ Moubarak Lô says the aluminum artisans hold the key to developing larger-scale industry within Senegal.

"You need to develop from what you have," Lô says. "What you have is indigenous¹⁰ entrepreneurship, but you can have, after five years, 10 years, become big industries."

He says that government investment is necessary to make that transformation¹¹. On their own, he says, small-scale artisans cannot afford to make the changes needed to increase productivity and quality.

1 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

2 craftsmen   

n. 技工

参考例句：

• rugs handmade by local craftsmen 由当地工艺师手工制作的小地毯
• The craftsmen have ensured faithful reproduction of the original painting. 工匠保证要复制一幅最接近原作的画。

3 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

4 tamps   

v.捣固( tamp的第三人称单数 )；填充；（用炮泥）封炮眼口；夯实

参考例句：

• Garbage collector tamps compacts the managed heap. 垃圾收集器夯实（压缩）托管堆。 来自互联网

5 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

6 poked   

v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
• His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

8 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

9 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

10 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

11 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。