Gardening

I signed up for a small plot with UGA family and graduate housing this morning. The area for gardening is approximately 10' X 10'. Not huge, but I can grow some peas and spinach and maybe something else. My work with the farmers in Mozambique inspired me, but I haven't had the chance until now to put my enthusiasm into practice.

I was never the gardener with enthusiasm that Chris was but I do like to garden. My parents kept a large garden to supply the table when I was a kid. My job was to help with weed control which I hated. Probably why I'm not so keen on gardening as others might be. As an ethnobotanist, I now realize that many of the weeds I was pulling were actually edible. Someday, maybe I'll garden just weeds.

UGA groundskeeping is holding a gardeners meeting on Wednesday evening to talk about how we can garden under drought. They're installing rain barrels, but of course there are other possibilities. I'm thinking dirty dishwater and the water run at the beginning of a shower are perfectly acceptable for watering my garden.

Photo Essay on Madjadjane and Gala

I opened my email this morning and saw that my photo essay about landscape and livelihood was published online late yesterday afternoon. This is a link to the pdf.

Some of the photos will look familiar to blog readers, but the essay provides an outline to how Mazingiri Ronga live in the Maputaland landscape.

Terra dos Fumos

Fires are a significant disturbance in the coastal savanna landscape where I am conducting my research. Fire helps create and maintain savanna. Early European maps, dating from the 1500s, label the region as Terra dos Fumos - Land of Smokes. In my own experience, a column of smoke on the horizon is a daily occurrence. While a few fires might develop from lightning strikes, most are set by human hands deliberately or not.

In the final week of August in Madladlane, a large fire raged along the eastern side of the Rio Futi. No one stepped in to claim responsibility. The community has a fire ban. This fire could have been set by a cigarette butt, uncontrolled charcoal production, or children playing at fire building. It cleared grass and brush and revealed historic agricultural fields. I also discovered an old veterinary station for cattle while surveying the burned area.

Typically, farmers make raised beds to grow sweet potatoes in wetland machambas (fields). Serendipitously, I just had an interview where my informant talked about the machambas planted on the reserve side of the Rio Futi before the war. For Madladlane and Gala, in the far south of Mozambique, before the war means before 1986. So the sweet potato machambas are at least 21 years old. There are eucalyptus saplings growing in these plots. They were still alive - nothing seems to be able to really kill this alien species unfortunately.

Kindu - Phoenix reclinata - used to make sura, a palm wine.

Conono - Terminalia sericea - a useful tree for construction and medicine.
Many wild trees used for fruits, medicines, and beverage production survived the fire. Some of them quite large - older than 21 years and having old fire scars. This made me wonder about why people would deliberately set fires. I've had a few discussions with farmers about burning brush and savanna areas. I hope to pursue the topic in specialist and oral history interviews, as well as take measurements in the area that recently burned to see what grows back over the next 6 months.

New machamba next to the burned area. Farmers will likely expand into this newly cleared area.
Possible reasons for deliberate fire disturbance include:

1. clearing land for crops and homes
2. adding nutrients to the soil
3. discouraging wildlife - hippos, elephants, and bush pigs in particular. I did see some vervet monkeys in the burned areas looking for fruit
4. encouraging the growth of particular plants

Reserve staff were upset by the fires. I think because they were worried about the fire spreading into the reserve and because it is the middle of the dry (windy) season. Mozambique has no big Forest Fire crews like the US. When a fire starts, it burns until it runs out of fuel or comes up against a fire break like a road, river, or handmade break. This last shot was taken at 9pm. There were 2 guards on duty with shovels. The fire eventually died out on its own.

E Mulungo

After a long process of setting up meetings and having them canceled, making arrangements for going to the field, buying equipment and supplies, etc. I finally started my interviews and mapping.


Sergio Julane (geography) and Angelo Francisco (ecology/botany) (L to R in photo), 2 undergrads at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, came out to Madladlane with me for a week of meeting with traditional leaders, community mapping, and interviews. Madladlane, is a small farming community, located along the banks of the Rio Futi, adjacent to the Reserva Especial de Maputo. We stayed at REM and walked across a footbridge everyday to meet and talk with community residents.

Community residents were surprised to see a branca (white woman) walking from home to home, field to field, and certainly from the reserve to the community. E mulungo is what the very smallest children shouted when they saw me, adults were far more circumspect. A mulungo is a foreigner, particularly a white person. I usually shouted it back, in a silly voice, causing all sorts of giggling from both children and adults. After all, I am now the official village idiot.

These little girls were giggling just a moment before the picture was taken. Their mom got 2 of the 3 sisters to change into their best dresses for the picture.

These are just a few of the images from my past week in the field.

Sunrise

Elephant feet or patas. They come from 2 older elephants that were harassing the community and had to be killed. The guards at the reserve had tried herding the animals back behind the fence several times, but the elephants kept escaping to eat crops and attack residents.

One of 2 main roads in Madladlane. The other is a hard dirt road that will probably be paved in the next few years.

Local primary school

A pretty barboleta (butterfly) that decided to hitchhike a ride on my arm. The IUCN is working with the local community to get ecotourists to visit to check out the high diversity of birds, butterflies, and plants.

Terminalia sericea, also known as Conono locally, is used for construction and charcoal production. It is a typical wooded savanna tree species.

Abandoned store in Salamanga, a nearby town.

Mamana Amelia was one of several women farmers I interviewed this past week. She got a kick out of me pronouncing local names for plants and learning a little isiZulu from her during our interview - probably because the new words involved clicking and hlth sounds. I also probably made some funny faces trying to twist my tongue around the new words.

Sr. Olesene, me, Sr. Daniel Mathe, Sergio Julane. Sr. Olesene is a reserve guard and farmer, and acted as our translator this past week. Sr. Mathe is a traditional leader in Madladlane and provided a great summary of the history of the community.

REM Landscapes and Habitats

This weekend was my first visit to the Reserva Especial de Maputo (REM) this year. I accompanied my Mozambican colleagues on a trip to measure the tree biomass found in various habitat types at the reserve. In addition to helping out with the tree counts, I took pictures of the different types of habitat and evidence of disturbance. The pictures here depict the REM landscape - and I try to give habitat types where I can. Some of the types may not seem very different, however, statistical analysis of tree density, coverage, and biomass shows different levels of emergent (really tall) trees versus shrubs and short trees (less than 5 meters). This is the greenest I have ever seen the reserve, although the last time I was here in 2004, it was the middle of the dry season.

The Research Team (sans me) - Sr. Jotamo, Sr. Domingo, dr. Cornelio, & Sr. Dungo (from left to right)


Futi River Floodplain - this area is seasonally flooded. Up to 5 inches of water still covered the flats in some places, so we didn't get out to the mangal (mangroves) this weekend to take measurements.


Carissa spp. forest (chanfuta) bordering the Futi River floodplain. The yellowy trunks with the light colored leaves are very beautiful. It is often found in sand forest.

On our second day, we were stuck on the floodplains for 4 hours trying to extract the landrover from the muck. Pushing, sticking twigs and vegetation under the wheels for traction, and finally tying the quadrat rope, attached to the tow cable, to a distant shrub and pulling the car out of the muck. Fun times. ;-) This is when I got the shot of the Carissa forest boundary. Now I remember why "going mudding" in a 4x4 has never appealed to me as a fun outdoor activity.

Woodland - found along the Futi River. This type of habitat has the greatest amount of human disturbance. The dense, brushy growth follows the area's use for machambas (agricultural fields) and human habitation. Many animal species (antelope species, elephants, etc.) prefer this type of habitat because it is relatively easy to find food here. Humans hunt in this area even though they may no longer live there or farm. There are very few big trees, but it is possible to find edible fruits. We found some ripe tintsiva (Dialium schlecteri) fruits which tasted very good. There was also lots of calho (Tabernamontana elegans) - another popular local fruit.

Woodland Mosaic - One of the big visual differences between this and woodland is the elephant damage. There were lots of torn branches, Strychnos fruit remains, and elephant dung at this site. We also found some Sclerocarya birrea (marula) trees outside the quadrat. This is a fruit well liked by both humans and elephants. It makes great beer.

Jotamo and Cornelio are measuring trunk diameters (at breast height) in sand forest (floresta areanosa). Sand forest is a rare type of habitat found only in the Maputaland region in Africa - northeastern KwaZulu-Natal to Maputo Bay. There are many large trees in this type of habitat and rare endemic plant species. Ronga people protect some of these sand forests as sacred areas. Chiefs and curendeiros may perform rituals and religious ceremonies in these places for land fertility, healings, and ancestral worship.

Sand Forest

Hygrophillis grassland - basically, this is a seasonal wetland. Most are located in the valleys between dunes and run parallel to the Indian Ocean. Oh, and this is one of the resident elephants that make the reserve famous. There were between 300-350 elephants at last count in 2006 (it was a dung count). REM is one of the last places in Africa where the elephants are free to walk down to the ocean shore and go for a swim in the surf if they like. KwaZulu-Natal, just south of the reserve (about 50km), bills the region as the Elephant Coast.

Open Woodland - here the trees are a little taller than in woodland areas and there is grass in the spaces between trees. Fire helps maintain the grassed areas. At this site, there was lots of Strychnos, both macuacua (S. madagascariensis) and masala (S. spinosa).

Wooded Grassland - not completely savanna yet, however frequent fires keep down the brush and kill the little trees and saplings. This area probably burned within the last few months as the burn marks on the trees seemed relatively fresh. It has been very dry here even though the "rainy" season is currently coming to an end.

Savana - Setting out the quadrat for savanna tree biomass measurements. Once the quadrat was set, the measurements took less than 5 minutes. The trees in the photo were not counted as they are dead. It actually took more time to set and remove quadrat bounderies, than it took to make measurements.

Eucalyptus Plantation - located near the entrance to the Main Guard Camp in Madjadjane. The eucalyptus were planted during colonial times as a scheme to make money from the timber and pulp in an area of low agricultural productivity. Unfortunately, eucalyptus trees suck water out of the ground like you wouldn't believe. The trees were planted along the Futi, a seasonal river. While well meaning, the plantation has caused more problems than it solved. Although no study has been conducted on the effects of eucalyptus plantings at REM, research (one example) in other places has shown harmful effects on local climates and native species. Southern Mozambique is subject to frequent droughts, and there isn't much water in the area to begin with... so in hindsight, not a great idea.

Lagoa Nini - one of several freshwater to brackish lakes found at the reserve. Crocodiles and hippos live in the lakes along with various fishes like tilapia, and parasites like bilharzia and schistosomiasis. So, no swimming for me!!

Me on the savannas of REM the day before my big 3-5.

A Mozambican Movie Premiere

Last night I went to the Mozambican premiere of a Mozambican movie - O Jardim do Outro Homem (The Garden of Other Men). Deborah, from the US Public Affairs Office, had an extra ticket and asked if I wanted to go. É claro! I love the movies, plus it was an opportunity to see one made locally.

I felt a bit under dressed when I arrived. I had just come from a volleyball game and only had time to rinse off and throw on a clean button-down shirt. Of course, many of the attendees were members of the diplomatic/cultural corps, the local artistic community, or cast members, and showed up in fancy casual to cocktail party clothes (no tuxes thank goodness). Gigliola Zacara, the female lead, had a beautiful capulana style dress in gold and black African print.

If the stage lights didn't blind us on the red carpet showing the way into the theatre, the multiple photographers with their blinking flashbulbs finished the job. I believe one photographer got a great shot of me fiddling with my contacts. Well, good thing that won't make the papers back home.

The story portrayed in this movie is unfortunately common in many places in Africa - not just Mozambique. A young woman, from a modest background, dreams of becoming a doctor. She needs to past a test, and do very well, in order to gain a spot at university. Her teacher will only give her a good grade if she sleeps with him. Hovering in the background and shadowing the entire story is the spectre of HIV/SIDA. Dum-dum-dah... Will she do it?

Through a series of day-dream sequences and a visit to the hospital, the viewer learns that Sofia really wants to become an Ob-Gyn and deliver babies. But achieving this goal will not be easy.

In Carvalho's film, Sofia's struggle to get into medical school at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane brings her into conflict with her football-playing boyfriend, her hard-working family, and, of course, her biology teacher. Fortunately, she finds support in her friends at school, a female teacher, a doctor who is the sister of one of her best friends, and her family - especially her grandmother.

During an important biology test, Sofia's teacher catches her passing along answers to a friend. The evidence, written on an eraser, is used by the teacher as a lever to get Sofia to have sex with him. Sofia really needs to pass this test in order to take a future university entry exam. She doesn't want to submit to the teacher though. Every attempt she makes to get advice from family and friends is foiled. She even travels to South Africa to visit her father only to find that he is dying. In the end, Sofia makes the only choice she feels she has.

I won't spoil the ending completely, but this is neither a French film or an American movie. That is to say, the ending is neither completely tragic or satisfyingly happy. It is hopeful.

I would definitely recommend seeing this movie or renting it from NetFlix. The story and acting are good. Plus, the cinematographer does a fantastic job giving the viewer a sense of Maputo - how people live and carry-on their day to day lives.

One further note for all the ethnobotany nerds that might read this review. Sofia's surname, Macuacua, is the Ronga name for the Black monkey orange (Strychnos madagascariensis). This tree is a member of the Loganiaceae family and the pulp is usually eaten as a paste. The flavor is initially sweet, but the aftertaste is reminiscent of rat poison as it contains strychnine. And yes, I have eaten it.