There are eight fishing villages in the National Parc of the "Banc d'Arguin.The people who live here have been fishing by foot and for the last 60 odd years by sailing boats since immemorial times, the first written account in the fifteen century by a portuguese traveller.
The "Imraguens" as they are called, live in small rectangled rooms made of wood planks that have substituted the tents and they are starting to use bricks and cement even if the salty air destroys everything very fast.
Men go out fishing while women transforme the fish that's caught, By drying it and boiling the heads to extract fish oil.
Men mend their nets, they repaint their boats and together with women they repair their sails.
The park is a protected area where birds and fish find refuge to reproduce themselves and to spend the long months of winter.
Women having classes to learn to read and write they are open to all adults but men don't frequent them due to their work.
A young girl washing the clothes. Water is precious here it comes in barrels of 200 litres from as far as 100km only some villages from 2008 have had their first structures to transforme sea water into sweet water.
Lovely!
ReplyDeleteWonder if you have seen de Puigaudeau's Pieds nus à travers la Mauritania, who began her 1930s travels by coming down this same post. I think she or her companion (Marion Senones) also produced sketches, possibly held in some museum in France.
I lived in Mauritania in 2003-05, and continue to return.
Best and thanks,
Kay Moseley
Washington DC
moseleykp@aim.com