L’écomusée du Sel et les Mamas Shingos de Bandrélélé – AWARD FOR GENDER EQUALITY

Salt production in Bandrélé is an economic, tourist, and cultural development tool for the municipality. Therefore, the project wished to highlight this historic site which has gone through the years and is still used today. 

A renovation of its outdoor eco-museum (outdoors under the coconut trees, and on the edge of the mangrove river) and interior (small house made of local wood), has been thought out, allowing a revitalization and an upgrading of the activity, in partnership with the association of Mamas Shingos (“salt mothers”) and the department’s Cultural Department.

For this, work has been done on:

• attractiveness, with better signage from the national road and better access, and a welcome panel with the site map
• the understanding of the activity, with the realization of an outdoor course with totems in connection with the permanent exhibition inside the museum, explaining the different stages of salt production (collection of sand from rivers of mangroves, cleaning, drying, sieving, …)
• securing the site, with a fence preventing the intrusion of wandering herds in particular (zebus or goats).

This site, which has become an ecomuseum for its preservation, is an open-air space, all on the edge of the mangrove, which has lived with the tides for generations, with the particularity of being inhabited by an activity that is done exclusively between women.

Wealth creation tool (creator of employment and income): the production of salt generates activity for the Mamas Shingos who economically value their knowledge inherited from their own mothers. The resulting product is incomparable to traditional sea salt and has a comparative health advantage: low sodium content compared to normal salt.

Tourism development tool: there is an increasing number of local or external tourists in Mayotte who wish to discover the production of this unique salt

Strong cultural marker at municipal and departmental level: it is a question of highlighting ancestral practices that demonstrate their benefits. It is also an element of Mahoran identity that must be preserved and transmitted from generation to generation, especially through the voices and gestures of women.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Leader France, in collaboration with ELARD, is organizing an award ceremony for the European LEADER Award for Gender Equality. This competition, open to all European LAGs, highlights concrete achievements funded by the LEADER 2014-2020 program and which contribute to gender equality in rural areas.

As the French Senate report of 14 October 2021 points out, women living in rural areas face more obstacles in their private and professional lives than men. Fortunately, there are many good ways to combat these inequalities in France and Europe.

L’écomusée du Sel et les Mamas Shingos de Bandrélélé, was one of 6 projects that went on to the finals of the European LEADER Award for Gender Equality in France