Vezos live in the semi-dry zone of south-west Madagascar; they are members of a sea nomadic community and they live of gathering, hunting and fishing on the coralline platforms, littoral dune, mangroves and xerophilous forest near a sandy open coast. There are about 8.000 Vezos, they belong to the Sakalava ethnic group, they inhabit camps under sail-tents and wood hut, they move with passe-partout pirogues. Their social organization is based on the extended family, from children to grandparents and allied. The patriarch is a kind of participating technical adviser: he knows the particular productive places, the fresh water points; he decides about the route of the big annual migration, in connection with social economical situation; he supervises relations with the supernatural to solve the "life abnormalities" as diseases, accidents, null rendering from the hunterin-gathering of sea products, etc.. The fight against the "abnormalities" is a very important sector of activities (32% of annual budget versus 42% for food supplying). For the Vezo conception of universe, "abnormalities" are provoked by mistakes against the supernatural, a world which is constituted of different spirits and lineage ancestors that exerts a permanent hidden influence.
Fishing with the narrow-meshed net. A pure nomad is a poor nomad. Poverty is accepted, even claimed. Their way of environmental exploitation refuses fishing techniques that can put in danger their ideology, their symbolic naval technology, the ecological balance of their environment.
ZEF0082856 © Franco Zecchin
Preparing the evening meal. Vezos live in the semi-dry zone of south-west Madagascar; they are members of a sea nomadic community and they live of gathering, hunting and fishing on the coralline platforms, littoral dune, mangroves and xerophilous forest near a sandy open coast.
ZEF0082864 © Franco Zecchin
The capture of a turtle is a solemn moment of the village life. Children are draggin the 200 kg turtle just caught on open sea.When the turtle hunter come back from sea , the prey is transported into the village where it will be cut still alive into pieces. After cooking, it will be shared between the village inhabitants.
ZEF0082854 © Franco Zecchin
Repairing work of pirogue. A vegetal resin is spread with an hot iron, to waterproof and to protect the hull. There is a complex network of interactions between the different constitutive elements of Vezo's community: the ethic and social organization; the techniques of acquiring the indispensable products; the communication techniques with supernatural, ancestors and divinities. Manual ability due to their way of life is another reason that makes them interesting.
ZEF0082848 © Franco Zecchin
Preliminary of the catch match. There is a complex network of interactions between the different constitutive elements of Vezo's community: the ethic and social organization; the techniques of acquiring the indispensable products; the communication techniques with supernatural, ancestors and divinities. Manual ability due to their way of life is another reason that makes them interesting.
ZEF0082849 © Franco Zecchin
Preparations for the sail navigation on the pirogue. The Vezos are not much fixed to soil; they don't have their own territory and they are showing a perservering mobility, also when they are mainly residing on a determinate place.
ZEF0082850 © Franco Zecchin
Children waiting to enter in classroom. The lowering of Vezos' standard of living is connected with the general degradation of public structures.
ZEF0082853 © Franco Zecchin
Father and children are fishing with the short and light net at the low tide. Family is the work basic unit in the Vezos system.
ZEF0082858 © Franco Zecchin
Public school. The scholastic rate is very low. Children are not motivated to studies; their own families prefer to be helped on fishing and domestic works.
ZEF0082859 © Franco Zecchin
Fishermen playing dominoes, on the late afternoon.
ZEF0082868 © Franco Zecchin
Fish and goods are carried from the pirogues landing-place to the village market. I spent about two months in the coast between Tulear and Morombe, from April to June. It is a transition period for Vezos: between the end of rains and the cool season. From the villages they are gradually preparing and moving to the offing islands, for the big annual migration.
ZEF0082865 © Franco Zecchin
The agility of nomad society, hits ability to integrate different¬¬ cultures without losing their own, is a cultural strength. I verified how this strength is alive today.
ZEF0082861 © Franco Zecchin
Shark fishing. From 10-15 years, the fishermen majority is watching a general decrease of medium seizure size and fish number. This is consequence of the continuous increase of fishing effort, connected with the demographic pressure.
ZEF0082870 © Franco Zecchin
Old fisherman with nets. The Vezos social organization is based on the extended family, from children to grandparents and allied. The patriarch is a kind of participating technical adviser: he knows the particular productive places, the fresh water points; he decides about the route of the big annual migration, in connection with social economical situation; he supervises relations with the supernatural to solve the "life abnormalities" as diseases, accidents, null rendering from the hunterin-gathering of sea products, etc.
ZEF0082862 © Franco Zecchin
Vezos learn from the childhood how to manage with pirogues. They have always fascinated people that have been approaching them; the beauty of their thin well-balanced pirogues, pushed by quadrangular sails, strengthens the poetical breeze that surrounds the sea nomadism.
ZEF0082869 © Franco Zecchin
Polyps and cuttle-fish are drying. The product of profitable fishing, practised with modern means, that can make high profits, is considered by Vezos as unhealthy, "warm". When someone becomes rich too fast, he becomes "warm", that is more vulnerable, and the risk of falling or dying, considerably increases. The true richness, in the Vezo's life, are children. The predilection for the progeny is very marked.
ZEF0082852 © Franco Zecchin
A mangrove fence define a family group space. The Vezos' huts are made by a wood framework coated by cannas.
ZEF0082867 © Franco Zecchin
Vezo women collecting the fish from the pirogue, to sell it on the market. The fish is half grilled, in this way it is dried and there is a partial elimination of greases, that raise the conservation time to about 36 hours.
ZEF0082866 © Franco Zecchin
The village at nightfall. There are about 8.000 Vezos, spread on about 350 km of south west coast. Permanent settlement usually include a hundred of inhabitants, because of their nomads traditions.
ZEF0082863 © Franco Zecchin
For Vezos, pirogue is a passepartout vehicle; it is an indispensable carrier to reach the normal production places and the farther localities for goods changes.
ZEF0082860 © Franco Zecchin
Young Vezos' women start having sexual relations very young. A lot of them have a very free sexual life before marriage. For Vezos' mentality, a woman with children is a good bride, because she is fertile.
ZEF0082851 © Franco Zecchin
Camp on a coral island during the annual migration. Intensive hunting and fishing allow the accumulation and conservation of sea products surplus.
ZEF0082857 © Franco Zecchin
Holothurians gathering on the coral platform at the low tide. The woman utilize a jute bag as containers. Holothurians disemboweled, precooked and sun dried, are sold to Chineses and Indians traders.
ZEF0082872 © Franco Zecchin
Woman waiting the village physician to visit her son. Vezos are still resorting to traditional medicine. According to their conception of universe, illness are anomalies caused by men transgressions to the supernatural word, dispensing goods and prosperity.
ZEF0082871 © Franco Zecchin
When the turtle hunter come back from sea , the prey is transported into the village where it will be cut still alive into pieces. After cooking, it will be shared between the village inhabitants.
ZEF0082855 © Franco Zecchin