Uganda’s tonto under threat

Ndyanabo’s family peeling bananas used for tonto before throwing them into a wooden vat carved like a boat in Mbarara, Uganda. -AP

AT least once a week, Girino Ndyanabo’s family converges around a pit in which bananas have been left to ripen. The bananas are peeled and thrown into a wooden vat carved like a boat, and the patriarch steps in with bare feet.

The sweet juice he presses out is filtered and sprinkled with grains of sorghum, which converts the juice into ethanol, and left to ferment for up to a day.