The sands almost wiped Oualata from human memory. In ruins only ten years ago, this former caravanserai in the Mauritanian desert has now won its formidable struggle to survive. An achievement due to the joint efforts of a Spanish humanitarian organization and the Mauritanian government, which managed to revitalize the village by setting up a vegetable garden. It is a story of rebirth.
Oualata,a garden in the Sahara. Photos ŠPascal Meunier/Lightmediation Text ŽMaud Tyckaert Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry@lightmediation.com
1524-24: Mauritania. Oualata. Garden in Sahara . Intended to 60 selectionned poor families, the farm area allows to each family to cultivate a plot of land of 140 meters squarred, free of charges. They can have fruits and vegetables.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-01: Mauritania. Oualata. General view . Oualata is in the middle of sand's dunes and counts around one thousand of inhabitants. Houses made the glory of the city. We
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-02: Mauritania. Oualata. Making of a motif .One special feature of Oualata is its painted houses. Inner walls (courtyards and houses) are decorated by women, meanwhile
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-03: Mauritania. Oualata. Making of a motif . Red, yellow and white are the traditional colors of houses. All of them have a mineral origin. In the close quarries, we
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-04: Mauritania. Oualata. Restoration with banco. In the historical center of Oualata, old houses are restored. Each facade is then coated with " banco ". The mixing of clay
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-05: Mauritania. Oualata. Entrance in an house . The oldest house of Oualata has still its entrance on alternate sides or a hall where guest wait before being invited in the
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-06: Mauritania. Oualata. Shepherd near well . The Oualata area is still inhabited by many nomads. Shepherds come to mak drink their animals to the Oualata well. Each of
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-07: Mauritania. Oualata. Near the well . In the past, inhabitants came here to get water, in the same well that one for animals. The mortality rate was high, because of
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-08: Mauritania. Oualata. The sig game. Nemadis, an old tribe of hunters live around Oualata in rough tents. They play together to an ancestral board game in the evening,
1524-01: Mauritania. Oualata. General view . Oualata is in the middle of sand's dunes and counts around one thousand of inhabitants. Houses made the glory of the city. We cannot find nowhere else the typical decorations that are on the walls. Listed on the World Human Heritage, Oualata had to resist to hostile climate. The advance of the desert, the absence of drinking water and the lack of goods have been almost to make of Oualata a ghost city.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-09: Mauritania. Oualata. Cracked wall and woman . Oualata women are particular about their appearence and extrovert, even they don't like the photographer's
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-10: Mauritania. Oualata. Library . Entrance of the library. Five families have accepted to gather old manuscripts in a library to be able to save this exceptional heritage.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-11: Mauritania. Oualata. Nemadi under canvas . The Nemadis speciality is does hunting. The successive droughts have killed does, and hunters have switched to
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-12: Mauritania. Oualata. Nemadi hunting The Nemadis are known for their talent as hunters. They had a pack of hounds, and knew how
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-13: Mauritania. Oualata. Traditional drawings . Inner courtyards of Oualata's houses reveal their most beautiful assets. It's the favourite territory for women who make the
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-14: Mauritania. Oualata. Library. Old manuscripts . Sidaty is in charge of the library. His grand-father put himself the books here. As for him, the preservation of
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-15: Mauritania. Oualata. Old city in ruins. To make the sand back up, there is only one way : use shovels to make empty the entrance of houses. / Mauritania /
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-16: Mauritania. Oualata. Prayer . It is the most beautiful house of Oualata. Bathy is the owner, whom ancestor brought islam in the city. His tribe, the Muhayjib, comes from
1524-33: Mauritania. Oualata. Solar cells. In the farming area, solar cells are often cleaned. Thanks to this spanish NGO, Oualata has been able to get solar cells that make turn an electricity generator to pump the water up and irrigate vegetable gardens.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-17: Mauritania. Oualata. Meeting, advices from the old erudite Bathy. Bathy is considered as the erudite of the village. His ancestor brought islam in the tcity in the 11th
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-18: Mauritania. Oualata. Women . Dressed with melhafas with bright colors, women make of their village a real museum of color. Well turned-out, these women surprise
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-19: Mauritania. Oualata. Blacksmith. Oualata doors have always had big deadlocks. When the oasis was rich and properous, Oualata was coveted by looters. Owners hid
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-20: Mauritania. Oualata. Freeing from the sand . To make the sand back up, there is only one way : ask to young of the village to use shovels to make empty the
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-21: Mauritania. Oualata. Koranic school The koranic school is famous in the arabic world. Here, the madrassa of Saduk, which was attended by
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-22: Mauritania. Oualata. Guardian of the library . Sidaty's portrait. He is the guardian of the library. / Mauritania /
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-23: Mauritania. Oualata. Bush taxi . Only two vehicles commute between Nema and Oualata : 110 kilometers far and four hours on trail. The price is expensive, and the
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-24: Mauritania. Oualata. Garden in Sahara . Intended to 60 selectionned poor families, the farm area allows to each family to cultivate a plot of land of 140 meters
1524-30: Mauritania. Oualata. Traditional wedding . For the second day of the wedding, half of the village gathers around the " griot ". It is an important moment where everybody wears his most beautiful clothes.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-25: Mauritania. Oualata. At dawn, men drive their flock to drink to the well. For some of them, it's time to leave for Nouakchott. 1200 kilometers to walk with about a hundred
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-26: Mauritania. Oualata. Henna ceremony. Nema has electricity, contrary to Oualata. Evenings take place with pocket torch. For the Aid El Kebir, women put hands and
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-27: Mauritania. Oualata. Henna . Henna is the only one make up for women available in Oualata. Before each great fair, they draw beautiful patterns on their feet and
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-28: Mauritania. Oualata. Ksar. Shrouded in sand . Some of houses are deserted and disappeared under dunes. Oualata was almost covered with sand and lost for ever.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-29: Mauritania. Oualata. Wedding guests. A wedding lasts three days in Oualata. A " griot " livens the celebration up. After cooking many recipes all
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-30: Mauritania. Oualata. Traditional wedding . For the second day of the wedding, half of the village gathers around the " griot ". It is an important moment where everybody
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-31: Mauritania. Oualata. Agricultural project . Thanks to a close spanish-mauritainian cooperation, Oualata renews with happiness, in particular since the creation in 1998
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-32: Mauritania. Oualata. Harvest. Women come daily to have an eye on their plot of land given by the spanish mission. Multicolored ribbons marks the boundary of each
1524-15: Mauritania. Oualata. Old city in ruins. To make the sand back up, there is only one way : use shovels to make empty the entrance of houses.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-33: Mauritania. Oualata. Solar cells. In the farming area, solar cells are often cleaned. Thanks to this spanish NGO, Oualata has been able to get solar cells that make
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-34: Mauritania. Oualata. Solar cells. Thanks to this spanish NGO, Oualata has been able to get solar cells that make turn an electricity generator to pump the water up and
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-35: Mauritania. Oualata. Bartolomeo Marti, agronomist .Portrait of Bartolomeo Marti Parellada. He has transformed completely Oualata, in creating the agricultural area and
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-36: Mauritania. Oualata. Decorated door. Each front door is adorned with painted medaillons. Outside decorations are made by men, meanwhile
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-37: Mauritania. Oualata. Banco quarries. "Banco" quarries are at one kilometers far away from the city. Inhabitants come to get some kilogrammes when they have to
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-38: Mauritania. Oualata. Junior high school . Thanks to the World Bank since 1996, Oualata has a junior high school. Even classrooms are mixed, there is a row for girls
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-39: Mauritania. Oualata. Sand damages. Sand is omnipresent in Oualata. Daily owners have to clear their front door to avoid the silting-up.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-40: Mauritania. Oualata. Sand everywhere. Some of houses are deserted and disappeared under dunes. Oualata was almost covered with sand and lost for ever. Thanks
1524-20: Mauritania. Oualata. Freeing from the sand . To make the sand back up, there is only one way : ask to young of the village to use shovels to make empty the entrance of houses.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-41: Mauritania. Oualata. Bathy, the wise man of the village . Native to Iraq, the family of Bathy lives in Oualata since centuries. Coming from the Muhayjibs tribe which could
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-42: Mauritania. Oualata. After the school. Youth of Oualata find his smile again. Among good initiatives, the World Bank has financed a junior high
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-43: Mauritania. Oualata. Wedding. Dance. During the wedding, each person shows his talent of dancer before throwing bank notes for the bride and the groom. The
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-44: Mauritania. Oualata. Female coperative . The system of female cooperatives became standard in the whole country. Women take turns selling their hand-crafted
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-45: Mauritania. Oualata. Vegetable garden in Sahara . With the creation of vegetable gardens, new dietary habits have ebeen introduced, up to now limited to rice, pasta
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-46: Mauritania. Oualata. Harvest. Women come daily to have an eye on their plot of land given by the spanish mission. / Mauritania /
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-47: Mauritania. Oualata. Games in streets. The narrow lanes of Oualata have wide low walls built right next to houses. In case of heavy rainfall and flood, inhabitants can
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-48: Mauritania. Oualata. Traditional dolls Unique toys for little girls in Oualata, these dolls looking like prehistoric Venus, are also sold to tourists. /
1524-03: Mauritania. Oualata. Making of a motif . Red, yellow and white are the traditional colors of houses. All of them have a mineral origin. In the close quarries, we extract " banco ", that is mixed with gum arabic to make yellow or mixed to cow dung to make red.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-49: Mauritania. Oualata. Local craftsmanship . Oualata's dolls are 10 centimeters high live in the same scale model houses than the true women. / Mauritania /
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-50: Mauritania. Oualata. Vegetable garden in desert . For this unusual vegetable garden, tomatoes, oinions, watermelons, chows-chows and hot peppers get out of the
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-51: Mauritania. Oualata. Junior high school . Thanks to the World Bank since 1996, Oualata has a junior high school. Even classrooms are mixed, there is a row for girls
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-52: Mauritania. Oualata. Watering vegetable garden . For this unusual vegetable garden, tomatoes, oinions, watermelons, chows-chows and hot peppers get out of the
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-53: Mauritania. Oualata. Young girl . This young girl belongs to the Harratins clan, emancipated slaves. They usually have a job as domestic in the Moor houses. Despite the
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-54: Mauritania. Oualata. Moorish young girl . Portrait of a Moorish young girl. / Mauritania /
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-55: Mauritania. Oualata. Decorated door. Traditional house . The painted medaillons that decorate the front wall of houses, shined in the past with a schist stone that
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-56: Mauritania. Oualata. Detail of a pattern painted with red banco . This symbol means " young woman ". We often can see it on the top of front doors. / Mauritania /
1524-21: Mauritania. Oualata. Koranic school The koranic school is famous in the arabic world. Here, the madrassa of Saduk, which was attended by many students in the past.
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-57: Mauritania. Oualata. Detail of a wall. Detail of an old red banco pattern. The medaillon shows " the mother of hips ", symbol of fertility. We also
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-58: Mauritania. Oualata. After the rain . Detail of a pattern painted with banco. / Mauritania /
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-59: Mauritania. Oualata. Pattern. Detail of a pattern painted with banco. / Mauritania /
Oualata, a garden in the Sahara / 1524-60: Mauritania. Oualata. New banco . The day before the Aid El Kebir celebration, a owner put the ground of his house a new " banco ". All families who have enough
1524-42: Mauritania. Oualata. After the school. Youth of Oualata find his smile again. Among good initiatives, the World Bank has financed a junior high school. Nowadays, Oualata knows how to cultivate vegetable gardens and spirits.
Oualata,a garden in the Sahara. Driving down the Road of Hope, a 1,200-kilometer ribbon of bitumen stretching from the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott to the town of Nema, you turn off on a rough sand track that winds between the sandy wastes of the Sahara and the Sahel savanna to finally reach the isolated ksar of Oualata. In the village, every morning around 8 o'clock, some sixty women walk across the sand dunes to the agricultural garden, a 60-hectare area surrounded by a fence to keep out livestock. Each woman, dressed in the traditional melhafa, heads for her particular bit of garden and begins work. The temperature is already around 30° C. Today's tasks include digging around the tomatoes and checking the state of the chili peppers that have been drying in the sun for the last two days. Like the other women in the village, Aicha has been allotted, free of charge, a 120-square-meter plot marked out by stakes with colored ribbons attached. "These plots were given to the poorest of us", says Aicha. "I belong to a tribe that was once enslaved, and like a lot of people in our village, I can't afford to buy food from the market, and it's a four-day walk away. This garden has changed my life. Now I can feed my five children. But it also means I have to work in the garden every day. Nature won't wait. It's a never-ending cycle: sow the seeds, water the plants, pick the produce".Before the garden was set up, Aicha and her neighbors had little choice but to buy food
from the only merchant in the village. Standard fare was sorghum, rice, milk and dates. Meat, usually camel or goat, was reserved for special occasions. Some 90% of Mauritania is desert, so the country has very limited food resources. The old people in the village can remember when times were even harder: during the long droughts in the 1970s, the lack of water and game led a great many people to leave the land for the towns. But today, the 800 people of Oualata are discovering a whole new range of food. This is the result of an arid-soil fertilization program launched in 1998 by the Mauritanian government together with a Spanish NGO, and supervised by agronomist BartolomĂŠ Marti Parellada. "Our ultimate goal was to make these people self-sufficient in terms of food", he explains. "When I arrived here six years ago there was no drinking water or electricity. Two-thirds of the houses in the village were in ruins. Our first priority was to provide access to water. We knew that until that was achieved, no further development would be possible. We explored the water table, and we complemented the traditional wells with a series of bores and built a retaining dyke. And above all, we set up solar panels to provide electricity, mainly to power water pumps". These days, water for household purposes is piped to six communal water taps dotted throughout the ksar, where families can come and fill their jerry-cans. "This water is fit for drinking and is also used for washing. Not so long ago" adds Marti, "both the villagers and their camels had to drink water drawn from wells that were infested with Guinea worms. After incubating for a year, the worm causes swelling and abscesses. Hygiene in the
village was deplorable". Once the Guinea worm had been eradicated and clean drinking water was available in the village, the families who had decided to move to Nema, 100 kilometers away, which had electric power, started returning to Oualata. Most importantly, the conditions were then ripe for launching the garden project, financed thanks to Hispano-Mauritanian cooperation: setting up, in the middle of the desert, a market garden able to feed the entire village. Several project managers and engineers were called in to construct this vast garden, which is today resplendent with fruit and vegetables thanks to a drip-feed irrigation system using solar-powered pumps. "The garden produces all year round. In winter, the villagers grow a wide range of fruit and vegetables, and in summer the main crops are water melons and rock melons. The garden also produces a number of condiments that are dried and eaten all year long. And any excess produce can be sold at markets in the neighboring towns, thus bringing in additional revenue", explains Mohamed Ould Abdi, a young Mauritanian engineer working on the project. "Without the solar-powered pumps," he adds, "Oualata would never have survived. The market garden has made these people truly self-sufficient". Every year, the villagers harvest 40 tonnes of tomatoes, which is more than enough to meet the needs of the ksar. The surplus is sold and the proceeds go to the Baraka cooperative, set up and managed by the people of Oualata. The profits are used to buy seed and the equipment needed to maintain the garden. The success of this project, which is both simple and ambitious, depends very much on skills transfer. "The real challenge was to get the villagers fully involved, to teach them
how to manage their own project and to organize training sessions to transfer the necessary skills", says Mohamed Ould Abdi. "Each villager has learned how to sow seeds, to water the plants, to harvest the produce and to ensure that the earth keeps producing". With the garden now producing hibiscus, tomatoes, water melons, rock melons, sugar beet and lettuce, the men, women and children of Oualata have had to change their eating habits. And this was not always easy? "We took a while to get used to the new flavors", admits innkeeper Moulay Idriss. "My wife went to all the cooking classes held by the Spanish project team, and today we can offer guests in our hotel varied lunch and dinner menus. We can even give them hibiscus jam!" Thanks to the market garden, the prospects of the people of the ksar are improving daily. And they continue to get help from BartolomĂŠ Marti, who has fallen under the spell of the Oualata region. Going beyond his initial mission, the agronomist is now devoting his excess energy to setting up a museum that he thinks could encourage the development of tourism in Oualata. He has thrown himself enthusiastically into his study of the local handicrafts, learned from the older members of the community, and of the traditional decorative motifs used on all the village houses. "I have fallen in love with Oualata", says Marti. He has now traced the history of the ksar right back to its beginnings, thanks to several hundred very old manuscripts that relate the past glories of this oasis in the desert. Oualata, which sprang up a thousand years ago on the caravan route across the Sahara, was an important trading and religious city, a center of Islamic scholarship that attracted men of science and letters from across North Africa and as far afield as Egypt. In
addition to much sought-after trade goods such as salt, cloth, metals, ivory, gum Arabic and kola nut, the camel caravans also brought precious manuscripts copies of the Koran, hadiths, old songs, medical and architectural treatises - that the local scribes set about copying. Unfortunately, many of these precious manuscripts - badly preserved and exposed to everything from sandstorms to the voracity of the local goats - have not survived the ravages of time. But a well-organized information and awareness campaign has convinced a number of families to donate their remaining manuscripts to a village library, built with Spanish funding, and which now boasts 1,500 texts. "The families that own them regard these manuscripts as a family heirloom rather than an element of mankind's heritage, so it is very difficult to persuade people to part with them, even to ensure they are properly preserved", says UNESCO expert Jean-Michel PĂŠrignon. In 1996, Oualata was put on UNESCO's World Heritage List, alongside three other ksars: Tichitt, Chinguetti and Ouadane. But the main heritage interest of the villages is archaeology rather than scholarship. The aim is to preserve the urban fabric of settlements built between the 12th and 16th centuries, composed of patio-style houses built along narrow alleyways and grouped around a mosque with a single square minaret. The ksars are valued as sites that reflect a traditional way of life centered on the nomadic culture of the peoples living in the western Sahara region. Recognition by UNESCO has helped local preservation projects to obtain funding from sources such as the
World Bank, which has now provided funds to build a junior high school in Oualata. "But the funding was not enough to pay for restoring our houses and preserving our manuscripts", explains Sidaty, who looks after the library and who feels that additional resources are needed.
organized to determine Oualata's cultural specificity, to teach the villagers how to welcome outsiders and to draft a quality charter focusing on respect for local tradition. "Tourists don't come here looking for comfort", insists Marti. "They come here to immerse themselves in the local lifestyle and folklore".
But everyone in Oualata agrees that the village has been given a new lease of life. "Once the ksar was self-sufficient in terms of food, the villagers were able to concentrate on restoring the buildings, making sure everyone could read and write and setting up women's cooperatives to foster traditional handicraft techniques such as wall painting, pottery and embroidery", explains Marti. Just as in the past, the people of the ksar now repaint the walls of their houses (made of a sort of adobe called banco), and they are keen to revive the traditional mural art of decorating roughcast-surfaced walls with graceful arabesques, enigmatic dot patterns and intertwining rose motifs. The sublime motifs, etched into the surface with knives, are brought out using natural red, yellow and white pigments. Where blue appears, the pigment has been imported from neighboring Mali. "In the old days, the patterns were etched by the expert hands of the women blacksmiths, but today each home-owner decorates his own walls", says the 'wise man' of the village, called Bathy. In addition to the artistic revival, community rituals - and marriage in particular - are now celebrated in public with much of the community taking part.
The efforts made by all involved over the past six years look as if they will bear more fruit soon, with the construction of a proper road between Oualata and the town of Nema, which recently built an international airport. Today, it takes more than five hours to cover the 100 kilometers from Nema to the ksar, so the new road will be a big plus for tourism. Since autumn 2004, there have been regular flights between Paris and Nema, so Oualata is no longer so isolated from the outside world. The agronomists who helped to make the market garden a reality have moved on to try to perform the same miracle in Ouadane, capitalizing on the experience gained at Oualata. "There is no reason why the Oualata model shouldn't work at Ouadane as well. But once again, success will depend on getting the local people fully involved", says Mohamed Ould Abdi, who is now more optimistic than ever.
Oualata has come a long way, but there is still much to be done. BartolomĂŠ Marti, for one, has a pet project: he wants to make the village a center for eco-tourism. Round-tables have already been
Captions. 01- Mauritania. Oualata. General view Oualata is in the middle of sand's dunes and counts around one thousand of inhabitants. Houses made the glory of the city. We cannot find nowhere else the typical decorations that are on the walls. Listed on the World Human Heritage, Oualata had to resist to hostile climate. The advance of the desert, the absence of drinking water and the lack of goods have been almost to make of Oualata a ghost city.
02- Mauritania. Oualata. Making of a motif One special feature of Oualata is its painted houses. Inner walls (courtyards and houses) are decorated by women, meanwhile the outside walls are decorated by men. Each symbol corresponds to an idea, a word relating to family. Each year before the fairs, they renew colors that will be soon erased by rains. Everything will be able to make again.
03- Mauritania. Oualata. Making of a motif Red, yellow and white are the traditional colors of houses. All of them have a mineral origin. In the close quarries, we extract " banco ", that is mixed with gum arabic to make yellow or mixed to cow dung to make red.
04- Mauritania. Oualata. Restoration with banco In the historical center of Oualata, old houses are restored. Each facade is then coated with " banco ". The mixing of clay and cow dung soaked in cans during all the night. That makes it wateproof.
05- Mauritania. Oualata. Entrance. House The oldest house of Oualata has still its entrance on alternate sides or a hall where guest wait before being invited in the inner courtyard.
06- Mauritania. Oualata. Shepherd near well The Oualata area is still inhabited by many nomads. Shepherds come to mak drink their animals to the Oualata well. Each of them has a talisman made by a marabout. It is a small pocket on leather that people have around their neck. It is supposed to protect against evil spells.
07- Mauritania. Oualata. Near the well In the past, inhabitants came here to get water, in the same well that one for animals. The mortality rate was high, because of worms of Guinea that infested water. Thanks to sinking of new wells, Oualata inhabitants can drink pure water that comees from fountain-hydrant. Sherpherds are happy and smoke Mauritanian pipe waiting for their turn to make their animals drinking.
08- Mauritania. Oualata. The sig game Nemadis, an old tribe of hunters live around Oualata in rough tents. They play together to an ancestral board game in the evening, the " sig ", made of sand, twigs and camel dung. 09- Mauritania. Oualata. Cracked wall and woman Oualata women are particular about their appearence and extrovert, even they don't like the photographer's camera. If the " banco " (the rendering of walls) is not made yearly, faรงades crack and traditional
drawings fade.
seepages.
10- Mauritania. Oualata. Library Entrance of the library. Five families have accepted to gather old manuscripts in a library to be able to save this exceptional heritage. Oualata was a very important intellectual center during the transsaharian caravan trade time, and many erudites, copyists and religious men came here.
15- Mauritania. Oualata. Old city in ruins To make the sand back up, there is only one way : use shovels to make empty the entrance of houses.
11- Mauritania. Oualata. Nemadi under canvas The Nemadis speciality is does hunting. The successive droughts have killed does, and hunters have switched to sherpherds. But sometimes they leave for ten days trying to hunt game.
12- Mauritania. Oualata. Nemadi hunting The Nemadis are known for their talent as hunters. They had a pack of hounds, and knew how communicating with their dogs. Nowadays, families have only one dog.
13- Mauritania. Oualata. Traditional drawings Inner courtyards of Oualata's houses reveal their most beautiful assets. It's the favourite territory for women who make the decoration. They keep secret the meaning of their drawings on the walls and on their hands.
14- Mauritania. Oualata. Library. Old manuscripts Sidaty is in charge of the library. His grand-father put himself the books here. As for him, the preservation of manuscripts is widely inadequate. Some of books are eroded by dust or by water
16- Mauritania. Oualata. Prayer It is the most beautiful house of Oualata. Bathy is the owner, whom ancestor brought islam in the city. His tribe, the Muhayjib, comes from Iraq, and gave its name to a district of the town.
17- Mauritania. Oualata. Meeting, advices from the old erudite Bathy Bathy is considered as the erudite of the village. His ancestor brought islam in the tcity in the 11th century. He has about a hundred manuscripts at home. He is the guardian of the " stories of Oualata ". Many visitors want to meet him. 18- Mauritania. Oualata. Women Dressed with melhafas with bright colors, women make of their village a real museum of color. Well turned-out, these women surprise by their liberty. Contrary to the other muslim countries, even other Mauritanian cities, their faces are unveiled and they don't live under the authority of their husband.
19- Mauritania. Oualata. Blacksmith Oualata doors have always had big deadlocks. When the oasis was rich and properous, Oualata was coveted by looters. Owners hid inside their houses after closing the deadlocks. At this time wood came from Mali. Because it's too expensive now, cheaper wood took the place. This activity continues thanks to some blacksmiths, Oualata doors are still
is hidden somewhere and the groom must find her.
famous.
20- Mauritania. Oualata. Freeing from the sand To make the sand back up, there is only one way : ask to young of the village to use shovels to make empty the entrance of houses.
21- Mauritania. Oualata. Koranic school The koranic school is famous in the arabic world. Here, the madrassa of Saduk, which was attended by many students in the past.
22- Mauritania. Oualata. Guardian of the library Sidaty's portrait. He is the guardian of the library.
23- Mauritania. Oualata. Bush taxi Only two vehicles commute between Nema and Oualata : 110 kilometers far and four hours on trail. The price is expensive, and the travel is often interrupted. Improvised hunt if the driver cross a bird, stop for prayer times, or harvest of herbs in the bush to feed the flock.
24- Mauritania. Oualata. Garden in Sahara Intended to 60 selectionned poor families, the farm area allows to each family to cultivate a plot of land of 140 meters squarred, free of charges. They can have fruits and vegetables.
25- Mauritania. Oualata. Well At dawn, men drive their flock to drink to the well. For some of them, it's time to leave for Nouakchott. 1200 kilometers to walk with about a hundred of camels to reach the great market of the capital where the robustest ones will be sold very expensive.
26- Mauritania. Oualata. Henna ceremony Nema has electricity, contrary to Oualata. Evenings take place with pocket torch. For the Aid El Kebir, women put hands and feet of henna, after putting a new mahlafa.
30- Mauritania. Oualata. Traditional wedding For the second day of the wedding, half of the village gathers around the " griot ". It is an important moment where everybody wears his most beautiful clothes.
31- Mauritania. Oualata. Agricultural project Thanks to a close spanish-mauritainian cooperation, Oualata renews with happiness, in particular since the creation in 1998 of an agricultural area that allows to poor families to cultivate a vegetable garden.
27- Mauritania. Oualata. Henna Henna is the only one make up for women available in Oualata. Before each great fair, they draw beautiful patterns on their feet and hands. The vocabulary of pattrens come from the vegetable world. Flowers, rosettes or arabesques.
32- Mauritania. Oualata. Harvest Women come daily to have an eye on their plot of land given by the spanish mission. Multicolored ribbons marks the boundary of each plot of lands.
28- Mauritania. Oualata. Ksar. Shrouded in sand Some of houses are deserted and disappeared under dunes. Oualata was almost covered with sand and lost for ever. Thanks to a spanish NGO, Oualata has been able to be saved.
33- Mauritania. Oualata. Solar cells In the farming area, solar cells are often cleaned. Thanks to this spanish NGO, Oualata has been able to get solar cells that make turn an electricity generator to pump the water up and irrigate vegetable gardens.
29- Mauritania. Oualata. Wedding guests A wedding lasts three days in Oualata. A " griot " livens the celebration up. After cooking many recipes all the day long, women wearing new melhafas, are ready to dance. It is the second day of the wedding. According to the custom, the bride is kept away from the festivities. She
34- Mauritania. Oualata. Solar cells Thanks to this spanish NGO, Oualata has been able to get solar cells that make turn an electricity generator to pump the water up and irrigate vegetable gardens.
35- Mauritania. Oualata. Bartolomeo Marti,
agronomist Portrait of Bartolomeo Marti Parellada. He has transformed completely Oualata, in creating the agricultural area and opened a museum. He investigated on the past of the city, put questions to marabouts, played as bookworm to make an inventory of the history of the city. 36- Mauritania. Oualata. Decorated door Each front door is adorned with painted medaillons. Outside decorations are made by men, meanwhile women are in charge of the inner courtyards. Here, a young girl is making her henna drying. To accelerate the process, she put her hands in plastic bags.
37- Mauritania. Oualata. Banco quarries "Banco" quarries are at one kilometers far away from the city. Inhabitants come to get some kilogrammes when they have to refurbish their houses.
38- Mauritania. Oualata. Junior high school Thanks to the World Bank since 1996, Oualata has a junior high school. Even classrooms are mixed, there is a row for girls and a row for boys. In the past, children had only the education teached in madrassas (koranic schools).
39- Mauritania. Oualata. Sand damages Sand is omnipresent in Oualata. Daily owners have to clear their front door to avoid the silting-up. Everything is damaged by sand storms.
40- Mauritania. Oualata. Sand everywhere Some of houses are deserted and disappeared under dunes. Oualata was
almost covered with sand and lost for ever. Thanks to a spanish NGO, Oualata has been able to be saved.
41- Mauritania. Oualata. Bathy, the wise man of the village Native to Iraq, the family of Bathy lives in Oualata since centuries. Coming from the Muhayjibs tribe which could have islamized Oualata when it only was an animist small town. Bathy, the old erudite, is very respected by everybody.
42- Mauritania. Oualata. After the school Youth of Oualata find his smile again. Among good initiatives, the World Bank has financed a junior high school. Nowadays, Oualata knows how to cultivate vegetable gardens and spirits.
43- Mauritania. Oualata. Wedding. Dance During the wedding, each person shows his talent of dancer before throwing bank notes for the bride and the groom. The richest people come to the feast with their tape recorder to immortalize sounds of the ceremony.
44Mauritania. Oualata. Female coperative The system of female cooperatives became standard in the whole country. Women take turns selling their hand-crafted production. Oualata is a specialist of scale model of houses, dolls and board games. 45-
Mauritania.
Oualata.
Vegetable
garden in Sahara With the creation of vegetable gardens, new dietary habits have ebeen introduced, up to now limited to rice, pasta and camel meat. Hibiscus jam is often used now.
46- Mauritania. Oualata. Harvest Women come daily to have an eye on their plot of land given by the spanish mission.
47- Mauritania. Oualata. Games in streets The narrow lanes of Oualata have wide low walls built right next to houses. In case of heavy rainfall and flood, inhabitants can walk on these low walls avoiding to walk in the water. During the dry season, children play on these low walls.
48- Mauritania. Oualata. Traditional dolls Unique toys for little girls in Oualata, these dolls looking like prehistoric Venus, are also sold to tourists.
49Mauritania. Oualata. Local craftsmanship Oualata's dolls are 10 centimeters high live in the same scale model houses than the true women.
50- Mauritania. Oualata. Vegetable garden in desert For this unusual vegetable garden, tomatoes, oinions, watermelons, chows-chows and hot peppers get out of the sand thanks to the irrigation system based on drip-fed.
51- Mauritania. school
Oualata.
Junior
high
Thanks to the World Bank since 1996, Oualata has a junior high school. Even classrooms are mixed, there is a row for girls and a row for boys. In the past, children had only the education teached in madrassas (koranic schools).
52Mauritania. Oualata. Watering vegetable garden For this unusual vegetable garden, tomatoes, oinions, watermelons, chows-chows and hot peppers get out of the sand thanks to the irrigation system based on drip-fed. 53- Mauritania. Oualata. Young girl This young girl belongs to the Harratins clan, emancipated slaves. They usually have a job as domestic in the Moor houses. Despite the slavery has been abolished since 1985 in Mauritania? This girl doesn't go to school, contrary to the other well born girls. 54- Mauritania. Oualata. Moorish young girl Portrait of a Moorish young girl. 55- Mauritania. Oualata. Decorated door. Traditional house The painted medaillons that decorate the front wall of houses, shined in the past with a schist stone that people touched to be up to date of their ablutions. In the case where the faithful is sick or located far away from water, koran gives the permission to use this element of subsitution. Nowadays there is no more problem of water in Oualata and this stone disappears step by step from houses. Sometimes a blue squarre has taken its place. 56- Mauritania. Oualata. Detail of a pattern painted with red banco
This symbol means " young woman ". We often can see it on the top of front doors. 57- Mauritania. Oualata. Detail of a wall Detail of an old red banco pattern. The medaillon shows " the mother of hips ", symbol of fertility. We also find the pattern meaning " little boy ". This drawing is usually located on door's frames. 58- Mauritania. Oualata. After the rain Detail of a pattern painted with banco. 59- Mauritania. Oualata. Detail. Detail of a pattern painted with banco. 60- Mauritania. Oualata. New banco The day before the Aid El Kebir celebration, a owner put the ground of his house a new " banco ". All families who have enough money make the same.