Salt-production at Kibiro

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Abstract
Salt-making at Kibiro, on the Ugandan shore of Lake Albert, is still carried out in a way that appears to have changed little over the years. Salt is produced exclusively by women, who boil brine obtained from leaching saline earth, the salt in which originates from several hot springs at the base of the Western Rift escarpment. An unusual feature of the technique employed is the repeated spreading of loose dry earth on the surface of the salt-bearing deposits, thus absorbing salty moisture from the ground surface which is in turn evaporated by the sun, gradually increasing the salt-content of the loose earth. It is this earth which is subsequently leached and then recycled to be used again and again on the so-called “salt-gardens”. Archaeological evidence suggests that salt-making at Kibiro, which was first reported over a century ago, has probably been practised for 700–800 years. It seems likely that it was an important economic factor in the development of the former Kingdom of Bunyoro.

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