See the outputs from The Festival of the Sea – Sainte Luce, Madagascar here!

Jonathan Skinner

(University of Roehampton)

Images of the Sainte Luce conservation area

The ‘Festival of the Sea’, Sainte Luce, Madagascar, is an example of cultural translation, of conservation and cultural politics practice relocated from the Caribbean to East Africa. A festival, whether international, national or local, is the ideal capacity builder in the community – a concept that can be applied just as effectively in the countryside as it is in the city (cf. Frost 2016). It is where both tangible and intangible cultural heritage can be realised, developed, and celebrated and agency and ownership of cultural practices established (Ohri 2016). This blog examines an innovation project using the model of the festival event as an opportunity to build capacity, as well as develop critical policy and UN SDGs, and highlight urgent sustainability issues in a region targeted for social development. Specifically, with AHRC/Global Challenges Research Fund funding (2018-2020) we established a Festival of the Sea to “reharbour heritage” and highlight sustainable development goals in one of Madagascar’s poorest conservation zones. The Festival took place in lobster fishing community Sainte Luce, June 2019, and used the participatory arts to research, test, challenge and apply marine cultural heritage as an intangible resource and vehicle for developing sustainable livelihoods with vulnerable Antanosy coastal people in the south east Anosy region of Madagascar.

This was a collaboration between the University of Roehampton and local NGO SEED Madagascar, and a team endeavour involving local community workers, a governance group, and dedicated festival co-ordinator at SEED Madagascar developing planning from the end of 2018 to June 2019. The inspiration for this project came from work in the Caribbean (Skinner 2001, 2015) on the islands of Montserrat and Anguilla where carnival festivals are themed and celebrate the community and tackle important local themes such as sustainability and conservation practice such as sea turtle conservation around Anguilla. ‘Festivals of the sea’ are used on the island of Anguilla to engage promote sea turtle conservation and to assist local fishermen in their work with tourists. This innovation project has been to translate and travel this festival model from the Caribbean to Madagascar, specifically to the Sainte Luce conservation reserve in southern Madagascar where SEED Madagascar have a history of long term community and conservation development work. Theoretically, this is an illustration of transculturation: of cultural practices in one destination being applied in another, of ‘culture on tour’ to invoke anthropologist of tourism Ed Bruner (2004). Though the concept travelled, the nature of the specific Sainte Luce festival was co-produced. Social anthropologist Nicola Frost (2016: 573) makes the point that without such local involvement the festival becomes devoid of social meaning.

Though a rich biodiverse environment with key marine, mining and rainforest resources, the approximately 300,000 Antanosy people in this Anosy region live in extreme poverty: literacy is under 20%; income from fishing is approximately $1.50/day; only 1 in 10 residents have access to sanitation; hunger is a regional problem; malaria is rife; 80% of coastal community households – such as those in Sainte Luce – rely on fishing for their primary income, managing a dwindling lobster stock. This region – for all its beauty – has become the epicentre of escalating tensions between traditional and modern fishing practices. Sainte Luce has strong community governance, a fishermen’s community group and local agreed regulations of animal husbandry (dina) – principally lobster fishing in restricted ancestral places, only during open season and not with the use of harpoons or snorkels. One of the consequences of the festival here has been to showcase this village practice to neighbouring communities so that they buy into it.

This project draws attention to the ‘habits of heritage’, to heritage as intangible as well as tangible, to the idea of heritage as a human capacity – as a resourcefulness and means of resilience during difficult times. It is heritage embodied as skills, with the people having living ‘social capital’ (Arcodia and Whitford 2006) that they can harness to weather hardships from food supply to education to earning an income based upon their fishing skills, their ability to weave and braid, to sing and dance, “to make” stitch and song of adversity – quite literally. The suggestion is that carnival and festival is the unique mechanism by which to draw attention to these community strengths, to the marine cultural heritage of these Anosy people. Through focussing on the reharbouring of heritage we were able to share and disseminate best ‘traditional’ lobster fisheries management practices.

These are the three core objectives for the project.

• establish an international partnership of artists between the UK and Madagascar working creatively together on a living MCH with Antanosy coastal fishing communities to fulfil UN social development goals
• creatively engaged in the community on the subject of community resilience, and MCH as a resource for sustainable livelihood
• research, test and disseminate best practice of innovative practice-based arts research methods

We spent 4 months preparing the teams, risk and ethics. Dr Skinner visited in April for a week to negotiate access into the community with local chiefs, hold auditions for the bands (Skinner 2019), a link with SEED and a team of Community Liaison Officers. We returned in June 2019 to work as a team of festival organisers and artists: Bronagh Corr-McNicholl (Arts Care artist), Paul Antick (photographer and film maker), Jonathan Skinner (project and Roehampton coordinator and dance instructor) and Tom Gammage (SEED Madagascar festival coordinator).

Textile artist Bronagh Corr-McNicholl working with women and children of Sainte Luce

We held a free two-day festival in Sainte Luce lobster fishing community and put on events that had been co-decided with the community. We filmed the lobster fishermen at work and played footage at night alongside band performances on the stage. We held dance classes and art classes with the school children. We held tie-dying workshops with the local women’s group. We filmed and documented the festival bands as they performed, and we swapped dance moves with the local dancers. We held speed weaving competitions with mahampny reeds that are used to make hats, baskets, mats as well as lobster pots. During the two days, community events used the stage for community education in environmental awareness, best fishing practice, and a puppet show on boat safety that then went onto domestic violence, HIV and sexual health issues. At night 53 local and regional dancers and musicians performed traditional songs and dances and specially commissioned material encouraging conservation and sustainable practice in the marine environment. They played for hours to an audience of over 2000 spectators.

Dance instructor Jonathan Skinner leading a children’s dance class

The highlight of the festival was a parade through the villages to the sea on the second day. The bands, women’s groups and children danced their way down to the sea and the Festival of the Sea stage. The Festival area we built by the sea held weaving competitions, bands, public fishermen community meetings, tales and stories from elderly fishermen. This oral tradition is strong in Madagascar (Bloch 1989, Astuti 1995) and illustrates how the festival was internal, inward-looking for the community and not for exogenous visitors. It was not a commoditisation of culture and, though taking place on a stage, did not constitute what MacCannell (1989) considers to be a variant of ‘staged authenticity’.

We were fortunate to have Bronagh liaise with the local Project STITCH embroidery group before visiting for the Festival. She was able to gauge needs and abilities and put on a series of tie-dye workshops with the women making lamba wraps to wear in keeping with local tradition; and wildlife paintings with the children and lots of paper windsocks for the procession down to the beach. Predictably the local wildlife predominated in the images – lobsters but also dolphins, fish and octopus. The children also had a best lobster painting competition.

Community education and murals at the Festival of the Sea

Art Workshops and Live Music at the Festival of the Sea

Weaving Competition, Procession and Speeches at the Festival of the Sea

In conclusion, the Festival of the Sea was an outstanding success. The local community became festival stakeholders (cf. Crespi-Vallbona and Greg Richards 2007), established ownership of the event and expressed a desire to develop the conservation zone adding new villages to the regional partnership on marine resource management. Small businesses benefited from the festival, and entrepreneurs sold their weaving and wares. Local awareness of the work of the agreed laws and customs – the dina – was consolidated and spread through all sectors of the community form the very young to the very old. The singers, dancers and musicians gained regional exposure performing on a stage to an audience of several thousand. For some of the local bands, this was their first large scale performance. Each group tried out their new Festival of the Sea material (a sample of these can be heard here with translations of the lyrics). Some of the bands subsequently recorded their songs in a recording studio in Sainte Luce to create a compilation CD from the Festival. This was the first time some of the groups had had their material recorded and is giving them key music industry experience, and the opportunity to market and promote their bands regionally – to tourists and local tourist industry organisations (hotels, restaurants, clubs). This exposure adds an important income stream to the musicians’ small scale entrepreneurship. The community have recently been ravaged by the affects and implications of COVID-19 with illness and family suffering but also a loss of lobster trade and restricted travel to regional markets. This festival currently plays a small part in the community resilience to this on-going adversity.

Festival of the Sea Logo

Credit to Daniel Wood for the Festival of the Sea film which we have used for stills. The film can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni06OL76SVs&t=16s.

Festival of the Sea Team

References

Arcordia, C. and M. Whitford (2006) ‘Festival Attendance and the Development of Social Capital’, Journal of Convention & Event Tourism 8(2): 1-18.

Astuti, R. (1995) People of the Sea: Identity and Descent among the Vezo of Madagascar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bloch, M. (1989) Ritual, history, and power: Selected papers in anthropology. London: Athlone.

Bruner, E. (2004) Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Crespi‐Vallbona, M. and G. Richards (2007) ‘The Meaning of Cultural Festivals’, International Journal of Cultural Policy 13(1): 103-122.

Frost, N. (2016) ‘Anthropology and Festivals: Festival Ecologies’, Ethnos 81(4): 569-583.

Ohri, L. (2016) ‘Political Yields from Cultural Fields: Agency and Ownership in a Heritage Festival in India’, Ethnos 81(4): 667-682.

Skinner, J. (2019) ‘“Scoping” Maritime Cultural Heritage: A visit to SEED Madagascar and Sainte Luce to prepare for June’s Festival of the Sea’, AHRC Rising from the Depths Webpages, 25 July 2019, https://risingfromthedepths.com/blog/innovation-projects/scoping-maritime-cultural-heritage-a-visit-to-seed-madagascar-and-sainte-luce-to-prepare-for-junes-festival-of-the-sea/.

Skinner, J. (2015) ‘The Ambivalent Consumption of St. Patrick’s Day amongst the Black Irish of Montserrat’ in J. Skinner and D. Bryan (eds) Consuming St. Patrick’s Day. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.186-208.

Skinner, J. (2001) ‘Licence revoked: when calypso goes too far’ in, B. Watson and J. Hendry (eds) An Anthropology of Indirect Communication. London: Routledge, pp.181-200.

Caesar Bita – MUCH to Discover in Mida Creek

The Mida Creek project team are making great progress in reopening after COVID restrictions. Following government relaxation of Corona restrictions, Bidii na Kazi AAL are slowly catching up. Sales from the Dhow house restaurant, canoe are picking up.

This week they ran a financial training session with Gede National Museum. Mr. Saidi Mondo, an accountant at Gede museum took the ladies through book keeping and financial management. This took place at the Dhow house.

Study and Implementation of Network Systems by Fishers Community Actors for Survival of Marine Cultural Heritage

The blog below by RABEKOTO Andrinjarisoa Heritiana and Jeannette Faranirina (Marovany Association) shares information on their training programme for local community actors.

Stolen objects from site

On March 14-15, 2020, we started as part of our study project for the survival of the underwater cultural heritage of Southwest Madagascar, the establishment of a network of community actors through training of representatives of the vezo communities. They come from the 6 fokontany in the rural commune of Tsifota, namely the fokontany of Tsifota, Tsandamba, Salary nord I, Salary nord II, Bekodoy and Andravony. He was a focal point and 12 village animators including 6 men and 6 women who were elected by the indigenous populations at the level of these fokontany. Each fokontany already has an association of fishermen and also of women, these gave us an opportunity to adopt the gender approach in this project.

Beforehand, Solondrainy Ernest, the focal point of our association called Marovany, went down by village to organize election meetings for these mixed village leaders who raise awareness among the fishing people in their village. The appointment of these agents was justified by the minutes of the meetings and endorsed by the Fokontany Chiefs. It was the first time in the history of the protection of wrecks in the Southwestern coastal region of Madagascar that an initiative to involve the vezos was launched from a capacity building workshop for their representatives. on the themes in the plan below and carried out in collaboration between the organization of Malagasy civil society and the Regional Direction of Communication and Culture of Southwest.

For the beginning of the workshop which was held in the hall of the Regional Direction of Communication and Culture of South West in Tsienengea Toliara, the Regional Director of this institution took the opening speech, specifying the will of the Malagasy State since 2014 on the protection of the underwater cultural heritage by ratifying this 2001 convention and it also encouraged effective collaboration with the local population on the fight against the illicit traffic of wrecks.

I started the training proper by sharing knowledge on the 2001 UNESCO convention which led us to speak about underwater cultural heritage. The training of Arturo Rey da Sylva from Unesco in 2015 and my experiences as trainers of community workers within Medical Care Development International (MCDI) Madagascar allowed me to adopt the plan of this training. In addition, REMEKY Eric Emilson, member of an association in the Regional Platform of Civil Society Organizations of Southwest, an expert trainer of community agents provided training on topics relating to communication as well as management tools report.

The 13 participants were all active and were very interested in the subjects. They set annual global objectives by type of awareness such as 3,120 interpersonal communications, 624 home visits, 156 group discussions and 2 sketches. That is to say, each facilitator should carry out 240 interpersonal communications, 48 ​​home visits, 12 group discussions and 2 sketches that they will do together during the events marking the commune. So, each village leader has had his working document and the focal point will go on field trips to collect data on the reports of monthly awareness activities by fokontany or village. Then, he will send me this encrypted data so that I can feed the network awareness dashboard. All these tools will be available as an appendix in our final report at the end of the project. Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome, send me an email to andrinjarisoa@gmail.com

TRAINING PLAN

1st day

1. UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage

– What is Unesco?

– Definition of underwater cultural heritage

– Potentials of the underwater cultural heritage

– Threats to the underwater cultural heritage

– Why is an international treaty necessary?

– Benefits of ratifying the 2001 convention

2. Presentation of the 3 wrecked ships in the maritime territory of northern Salary

– Shipwrecked vessels in the maritime territory of Madagascar

– Brief history on the 3 wrecked ships: Nossa Senhora do Carmo (1774); Winterton (1792) and Surprise (1885)

– Activity carried out and current situation on the 3 wrecks

3. Management of underwater cultural heritage

– At local level

– At regional level

– On a national level

– At an international level

4. The village animator at the population level

– Definition of the village animator

– Role of village animator

– Behavior of a village leader

5. Communication

– Definition

– Elements of communication

– Structure of an effective message

2nd day

6. Awareness

– Objective of awareness

– Different types of awareness: interpersonal communication, home visit, group discussion and sketch

– Steps to follow for each type of awareness

7. Action plan, monthly report and target setting

– Development of the action plan

– Completion of a monthly activity report

– Calculation of global and individual target setting

8. Signing of employment agreement

– Drafting of the engagement agreement

– Convention signature by village leaders

Reharbouring Heritage

RAI RESEARCH SEMINAR

SEMINAR SERIES AT THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE

Reharbouring heritage with Madagascar’s ‘Festival of the Sea’:
a celebration highlighting sustainable development goals, promoting marine cultural heritage, and developing practice–based research

Dr Jonathan Skinner (University of Roehampton) and partners

Wednesday 25 March 5:30 – 7:30 pm

A festival, whether international, national or local, is the ideal capacity builder in the community. This evening presents findings from a practice-based research project run by the University of Roehampton and NGO SEED Madagascar. With AHRC/Global Challenges Research Fund funding (2018-2020) through the AHRC funded Rising from the Depths Network, we established a Festival of the Sea to “reharbour heritage” and highlight sustainable development goals in one of Madagascar’s poorest conservation zones. The Festival took place in lobster fishing community Sainte Luce, June 2019, and used the participatory arts to research, test, challenge and apply marine cultural heritage as an intangible resource and vehicle for developing sustainable livelihoods with vulnerable Antanosy coastal people in the south east Anosy region of Madagascar.
This evening features the findings of this partnership that resulted in a two-day festival of skills sharing and knowledge exchange. There will be a talk, and exhibition of film, photography, music and dance from the festival.

This event is free, but tickets must be booked. To book tickets please go to: https://jonathanskinner.eventbrite.co.uk

Tsimihantaravye Tandroy dance audition (https://youtu.be/6RBmhlbIzVA) – J. Skinner, April 2019

Caesar Bita – MUCH to Discover in Mida Creek

At MUCH to Discover in Mida Creek, Climate Change impact mitigation through Mangrove reforestation is now serious business! The Bidii na Kazi women group mangrove nursery is approaching 100,000 seedlings. Many thanks to the project’s partnership with KEFRI!

University of Exeter, 10-11 January 2020

Research conducted by the Rising from the Depths network was well represented at the inaugural meeting of the Indian Ocean World Archaeology network. In particular, a presentation of the RftD-funded project ‘Bahari yetu, Urithi wetu’ was given by Lucy Blue, John Cooper and Elgidius Ichumbaki (picture). The paper discussed progress on this project at Bagamoyo, which seeks to explore the relationship of local fishermen, boat builders and other local groups with the marine environment, building an overall understanding of the marine cultural heritage at this important site. The paper was well received, with discussion at the end focusing on the challenges and opportunities of tourism at Bagamoyo, which has meant restrictions on the ways that locals are able to exploit the marine environment.

Other RftD members were in attendance, with Stephanie Wynne-Jones, Mark Horton, Caesar Bita and Edward Pollard all presenting on aspects of their work. The next IOW-ARCH meeting will be in 2022; we look forward to seeing more RftD projects there!

Caesar Bita – MUCH to Discover in Mida Creek

Deployment of a new boat in the sea is a community affair. All fisherman, fish traders and community are the lot who lead the way. The ceremony entails fisherman conducting prayers, locally known as Sadaka ya baharini,  on the shore. All fish caught that day is prepared and eaten at the seashore.

Food, mainly rice and fish, is prepared, using sea water, and all eaten at the beach. None of it is taken home. An elder leads prayers on the canoes after which it is pushed into the sea and a maiden trip is done. The elder then offers prayers and pours some the food in the sea. After this the community is served the food. Serving of the food is done one on leaves, mostly of banana.

The new canoes will now take tourists to the many creeks and islands in mida. The islands and areas of interest in mida and for canoe tour include kirepwe, Sudi and green islands, magangani, chafisi, dabaso and sita.

The trips will cost kshs 200/- per person. The youth who were trained in canoe building are the ones who will be sailing the canoes taking tourists. Bidii na Kazi women will manage the fish sales from the basket traps as well as collections from the canoes.

Women’s Identity, Textiles and Heritage: Coastal Style in Mozambique (WITH Coastal Style) is a one-year project (June 2019-June 2020), researching and promoting women’s identities and concerns linked to marine heritage in Katembe District, Maputo, Mozambique.

The WITH Coastal Style project, supported by the Rising from the Depths Network https://risingfromthedepths.com/withcoastalstyle/, continue to undertake research into the role of material heritage amongst women in coastal Katembe district, across the bay from the Mozambican capital city, Maputo. The project focuses on understanding and highlighting the complex relationship between tradition and change in the lives of women in Katembe through the capulana, a cloth worn by women throughout Mozambique. Through discussion about capulana, the project provides a forum for women to discuss wider issues relating to their lives.

View across the bay to Maputo city from Incassane, Katembe

The project is investigating contemporary and historical capulana practice through focus group surveys, individual interviews and archival research. For example, project Research Assistants, Emilia Machaiaie and Claudio Mondlate, have been undertaking archival research at University of Eduardo Mondlane. In addition, research at the Iconoteca do Arquivo Histo’rico de Mozambique, has identified photography from the early to mid- 20^th century, which provides us with fascinating early visual references to the use of capulana by women in the region, from market scenes to the use of the cloth as a wrapper for new-born babies. Research has also led us to the Centro de Documentacao e Formacao Photographic Archive, Mozambique where there is a collection of photographs taken by the famous Mozambican, Maputo based photojournalist, Ricardo Rangel, whose work includes a series on Katembe, taken in the mid-20^th century.

I returned to Mozambique in November to catch up with the Maputo-based team members and to join them for more research visits to Katembe to undertake focus groups and interviews with women identified by Project Co-I Valda Marcos through Romao Vicente and Bernardo Martiaho from the Department of Fisheries. During these visits, the project gathered information from communities in Katembe distributed along the coastline. This was made possible with the support of community leaders. The complexities of liaising with women with busy working lives required flexibility. Many of the women are responsible for the processing and sale of daily catches of fish and for growing vegetable crops on their small plots of land. During my visit there were torrential, and unusually long-lasting bouts of rainfall, attributed by the Katembe community to climate change, which necessitated some interviews to be re-scheduled at short notice as women went to work in their fields to maintain their young crops, particularly precious as the previous season’s drought, also believed to be the result of climate change, had resulted in a seed shortage.

Over three days of research visits in Mahlampfane, Guachene and Incassane neighbourhoods, we were able to reach and speak to a total of sixteen women ranging in age from 19 to 67 years. Focus groups and interviews, in either Shangana or Portuguese languages, were led by Research Assistant Emilia. All the women included in the research were born and raised in Katembe. Many of them are mothers and daughters who still live in close proximity, while others, if not related, are lifelong friends.

These included a focus group in Mahlampfane with three women Ana, Katarina and Zenia who ranged in age from mid-sixties to early twenties. Following our arrival and our introduction to the project, one of them went into her house and returned with three capulana, which she kindly presented as gifts of welcome for each of the team. The capulana is a popular gift for special occasions including birthday, Valentine’s day, naming ceremonies, weddings and funerals.

Zenia, Ana, Katarina and the team wearing our capulana gifts, Mahlampfane

The interviews focused on personal capulana collections, which included Cristina, who we first met in July during a focus group. She has an extraordinary collection numbering over 150 different patterned cloths which she had collected over some twenty years.

Cristina and some of her collection including the popular checked capulana design, Guachene

In our interviews with mother and daughters Margarida, Tsaura and Rosa, also in Guachene neighbourhood, the role of the capulana as a symbol of shared identity was revealed, when they each showed us cloth with the same design, chosen by their group of family and friends and worn on National Women’s Day celebrations in Katembe in 2018.

Sisters Rosa and Tsaura with their growing collection of capulana, Katembe

We were delighted to welcome Dr Solange Macamo, Rising from the Depths Network Co-ordinator for Mozambique on the visit to Incassane where we held a focus group of nine women aged 32-67 years. The opportunity to participate in the project was greeted with a degree of curiosity and then enthusiasm, with our questions provoking detailed responses and discussion, just as elsewhere in Katembe district.

The focus group and project team, Incassane

The focus group and project team with Dr Solange Macamo (far left), Incassane

While I was in Maputo we also began the next phase in planning and design of the project exhibition at the Fortress Museum, overseen by Curator and Project Co-I Moises Timba. We will draw on the photographs of the research visits by project photographer Yassmin Forte, and the forthcoming transcriptions of the interview’s audio recordings in Portuguese and English for display content.

Before I returned to Edinburgh I also took the opportunity to visit Casa Pandia with Emilia, a Maputo ‘institution’ trading in capulana, where I bought two more contemporary capulana with coastal themed designs to add to another from the market. These will join those already acquired on my first visit for the Fisheries Museum and National Museums Scotland textile collections. With a total of eleven to date, I’m not sure there are many left to find, but we will continue to look out for more!

The final interviews are scheduled to be completed following the end of my visit and I look forward to more revealing insights into the role of the capulana in the cultural heritage of women in the coastal communities of Katembe.

Contemporary coastal themed capulana designs purchased in Maputo November 2019