MADAGASCAR: Revamped silk industry gives women in Madagscar a much-needed source of income

In the early evenings the residents of Soatanana village in Madagascar gather in the attics of newly built brick houses to make silk. Traditionally this is a woman's role and Marie Domenthe Raharinlalao and her daughters run an efficient production line. It's only recently that this business has become profitable enough to enable the women in this community to move their families out of mud houses and into brick ones. "This has brought a lot of change in the life of my children. Even at school they're getting much better grades, and in terms of working here, they're really able to help me," says Marie Raharinlalao. Marie weaves the cloth, or "lamba" as it's known in Madagascar. Tahina is in charge of preparing the cocoons - soaking them and flattening them on to a spike so they can be spun into thread. That is Claudia and Nathalie's job. They will re-spin the thread several times to get it as smooth as possible before it's ready to be dyed and finally woven. Cultivated common silk has been in Madagascar since the 17th century, but wild silk has been around for much longer. This silk, made by the Borocera caterpillar, is unique to Madagascar. But in the last 100 years, the caterpillar has been under threat. The leaves of the tapia tree which is their food have all but disappeared as the trees were cut down to make way for housing or used for cooking. But a local charity called Ny Tanintsika is slowly reversing this trend. Jean Pierre Fils Ratsimbazafy has been planting tapia trees in this area since 2002. "In this forest last year we planted nearly 600 trees, but in total we've planted nearly 3,000 young plants. There are also other organisations planting tapia forests. This year in total we'll plant 30,000 trees," he said. Ny Tanintsika has also set up a women's cooperative here. Back at home Marie Raharinlalao is getting her scarves ready to take to the cooperative. "I find there are still some problems with our sales. We don't get much support from other organisations. There are communication problems, so we never know if there are fairs or other activities going on elsewhere. If we were aware of these activities we could take part and improve our business," she said. Marie heard that some tourists are in town, so she wants to make sure her best scarves on display. Each household is only allowed to display three of its products at any one time, to give everyone a fair chance of making a sale. It's been a good day for the cooperative. These tourists have bought six scarves between them, for between 10 and 15 US dollars each. "I think it's a good experience to be able to go see where the products come from, in addition to being able to witness the entire process and so thus you value the product a lot more than if you just bought it in the shop. I also like to see the money and other resources going into the hands of the people," said tourist Nathalie Louge. Marie gets back home in time to make dinner for her family. It's the dry season, so her husband, a rice farmer, has gone to find casual labour in town. Before the cooperative, Marie would have found it hard to feed her children at this time of year, but these days she can feed them, house them and send them to school. Now she has big expectations for their future. "What I'd like is to see them all go abroad. There will be more changes here in Soatanana and they'll be able to help us back here in the village if they can go to India or even the US," she adds. Madagascar's silk worms were once endangered and the silk that they produced was used only as burial shrouds for the country's nobility. The silk industry now has given a new lease on life not just to this rare worm, but also to the people who turn its fine threads into fabric.

ITN Source | August 6, 2007

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