From ritual performers to ocean defenders

Fisher migrations, identity narratives and resource access in the Barren Isles, West Madagascar

Bibliographic Data

ID6030836
AuthorsFrank Muttenzer (University of Lucerne, corresponding author), Mialy Andriamahefazafy (0000-0002-5470-9264, University of Portsmouth)
Year2021
Volume19
Issue3
Pages375-399
Publication date2021-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Identities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14725843.2021.1937052
OpenAlexW3191932974
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

Vezo migrant fishers have played a key role in shaping the seascape and resource use practices in the Southwest of Madagascar. As a population relying mainly on fishing for its livelihood, Vezo people have struggled to maintain their livelihood in the face of resource depletion. They migrate seasonally or long term from their home region on the southwest coast to marine frontiers further north such as the Barren Isles, a remote archipelago in the west of Madagascar. Exploiting sea cucumber and sharks for the global market involves economic and ritual practices that they have maintained in their journeys and constitute their identities as migrant fishers. Within a context of increasing commercialization and depletion of small-scale fisheries, various conservation initiatives have taken place within the migration route of the Vezo including the establishment of Madagascar’s largest marine protected area in the Barren Isles. This article argues that migrant fishers have managed to gain, maintain and control access to marine resources, both by performing ancestral rituals by which newcomers attach themselves to ecological niches, and also by mobilizing an environmentalist identity narrative promoted by the Malagasy government and international NGOs. In this way, Vezo migrant fishers have become key actors in the management of marine resources while maintaining their ancestral practices. This is an important argument discussing the role of local identity narratives in the political economy of global resource appropriation and shows how migrant fishers fit in the contemporary seascapes

Context (archaeology · Fishery · Fishing · Geography · Livelihood · Marine conservation · Overfishing · Political science · Population · Resource (disambiguation · Seascape · Sociology · Tourism · Aquatic Ecosystems and Biodiversity · Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Ecology

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