- Expeditions
- Who are we helping?
Ifaty’s story
Text translated from a conversation with, Bruno, the president of the Ifaty village, 15.12.2003
Before this area became the village of Ifaty and the surrounding areas were settled by fishermen and their families, it was covered in forest and there were no people or villages present (time period unknown).
To the south there were villages with fishermen and farmers making a living. But soon the crops from fishing and agriculture became poor and people started to travel north settling in the area that is now called Ifaty. People tried to survive by their traditional trade - fishing.
The first tribe to settle in Ifaty was the Tejory tribe (a sub-tribe of the Vezo) from a region called Beliksaky (a rural commune of Belalanda 20km south of present day Ifaty) and the first people of the Tejory tribe to arrive were five brothers, followed by their wives. Out of the five brothers a man called Manda was the eldest and became the first leader of the fledgling village of Ifaty.
These first people did not bring many belongings and did not know if the area and the reef would meet their needs, so for some time the people lived a basic life in sheds built from wood. They had only brought with them a small amount of fishing gear such as nets (these nets were not made from nylon but from the wood of a tree called Afotra).
After a time the fishermen were catching lots of fish and could not eat all that they caught each day, so they used to throw what was left back into the sea. The name for this new and fruitful area was Ifaty.
To help supplement their diet, the fishermen also farmed the land growing maze, but this was only in the rainy season as the rest of the time the climate was too dry, and because they were more inclined towards fishing anyway.
At the time of the newly developing village there was no mechanical transport such as the taxi-brousse, so if fishermen wanted to sell their catch in Toliara (the biggest town in the region, both then and now) they had to go by sea. They would use their lakana (the local boats, also known as pirogues) to sail south to Belalanda (their once native village) and hire a cart and zebu (the local cow species) to take their products to the markets in Toliara.
Over time, and due to the quantity of fish caught and sold from Ifaty, the small village became known as a good place to fish. This attracted people from all over the region who started coming to Ifaty to fish, with some settling permanently in the village.
To start with, the first families and tribes to arrive were the Maskoro from the Malafary tribe. These people were originally from Mantafika, a rural commune of Belalanda, and they were cattle breeders not fishermen. Then the Tanlana people came from further south whose trade was as carpenters and joiners. Finally, news of the wealth beneath the waters spread and people came from all over Madagascar, and the small village started to grow.
Many of the new arrivals in Ifaty continued travelling and exploring the area and its waters, and soon fishermen and their families started to head further north in search of even better fishing grounds than those in Ifaty and the Bay of Ranobe. Again they began to settle and establish new villages, the first being called Andrevo and becoming the next village north of Ifaty (Mangili is a new village, created to accommodate a new and growing tourist sector).
Translation to English by Thierry Lavitra and Modeste
What Bruno, the president of Ifaty, says in terms of the wealth the Bay of Ranobe has to offer is still believed today, and many fishermen continue to travel many kilometres from the south and north in search of marine riches in Ifaty’s waters. Today, the Ifaty fishermen cite the continued influx of migrant fishermen and tourists, and the increased boat traffic they bring with them, as the main reason for the decline in their fish catches.
