"After 3 months spent in Mauritania with the fishermen, the Fleur de Lampaul sails along the African coast... and enters the archipelago of the Bijagós in Guinea Bissau." "The inhabitants of Bane village, take advantage of Fleur to reach their island Canhabaque, after some shopping in the islands capital, Bubaque." "Their village is a more traditional one." "We shall stay there several months." "The archipelago of Bijagós is a labyrinth of sandbanks." "The navigation is not easy, and it's difficult for the Bijagós to understand that the Fleur... cannot sail there like their canoes do each day." "For the first time we taste palm wine, the alcoholic beverage produced by all the inhabitants of the archipelago." "Everyone goes about his business." "Jan sharpens the machete that we'll use in the rainforest." "The first group get ready for a first week in the village." "Our backpacks are of great interest to the Bijagós children." "It's 1.5 hours to the village, Jan?" "What?" "1.5 hours to the village?" "When we entered the village, everyone looked at us with incredulous eyes." "The kids, they came, they touched us, they were a little surprised." "They touched our skin then ran off again, laughing." "And in fact, since..." "since that day, we've lived in the village, they're our friends, people we know." "And now when we enter the village, no one pays any attention to us." "it's like being at home, as if it were our village, the people are no longer surprised that we're here." "Of course, there's always a bit of curiosity, but... they say hello to us like anyone else." "Originally the islands were covered by forest." "Gradually the Bijagós replaced it by palm trees, which is, with the rice they grow the staple of their diet." "Every morning and evening the men climb up their palms to collect... by means of a gourd that slowly fills, the sap of the tree." "This is the palm wine." "Jan accompanies Pappe in his daily rounds." "Like this?" "Yes." "It's very difficult." "Alright?" "I'm okay." "I'm okay." "The way they use the leaves of the forest as a medicine, it surprises me a little, it's strange." "In France, people don't use anything from the forest." "Apart from cutting down trees to make paper, while here... they have medicine, they have palm wine, palm oil, all within the forest." "Palm wine, is drunk during holidays, above all, and then also in everyday life." "It's an alcoholic drink that goes quickly to your head." "Only the men go up up the palm trees, they bring down the palm nuts." "They give them to the women who boil them and crush the nuts." "They make the oil to sell or use it for cooking." "And the men, they get the palm wine, they drink the palm wine, then..." "After each day without problem, it's a relief." "The main danger when you go up the palm trees are the snakes that hide up there." "They then have to jump and this ends badly." "The other wealth of the palm is its fruit, palm nuts." "When the cluster is cut off, most of the work still remains to be done." "The children separate the fruit from the branch." "A first oil is obtained by simply pressing the pulp." "It's the best quality." "Maria." "What do you want to write on this?" "Name." "Maria, whose?" "No, I'd want better it to be "belongs to" and someone's name, or something like that, in case we drop it." "So it won't get lost?" "Yes, because we'll drop it here, there..." "Meimuona is your daughter?" "Your child, your family?" "And Majiero... her father?" "Her father." "...knows how to write?" "No." "So I asked her why she wanted me to write on the bowl." "She said it was for when she went in the forest, or goes to the well, etc." "so she doesn't lose it." "Meimuona is the name of her daughter." "Majiero is the name of the father of her daughter and therefore her husband." "She cannot write, that's why she asked me to do it." "She also asked me to do other containers and bowls, and in fact I'm doing all the containers of the family." "When the fruit is pressed, the pit remains." "They leave it to stand for several days before processing it." "Here, it's in an old canoe." "Raphaële learns to make the oil, and like the the island's women, she carries the heavy load on her head." "The nuts are then processed to make an oil of other quality." "The smell of the palm permeates the whole village and food." "It's a species of almond, and it's quite fatty, so they either make oil... or they'll exchange them for bags of rice." "They need two bags of palm nuts for a bag of rice." "Since this is a lot of work, it's hard for them to have bags of rice." "To the great surprise of the girls, Jan has a go with the pestle." "This work is exclusively reserved to women." "Here, as with the Imraguen the work of men and women are completely separate." "This one is no good, it's small." "This is small?" "The palm groves cover most of the surface of the island." "Hardly any of the large trees of the ancient tropical forest remain." "However, the Bijagos need them to renew their canoes, that only last for about 10 years." "We have ordered a canoe." "The size will be in this Kapok tree." "The hardest part is to agree on deadlines." "In a morning Pappe and his son assisted by Guillaume and Pierre, will undercut the buttresses of the Kapok tree." "It's true that it's strange to cut down trees like this because... with it's large roots, it's really majestic." "It looks as if it had a soul." "The work has just begun." "They have only axes to hollow out the trunk." "The energy of all the strong men of the village... is required to complete this hard labour." "Here all the work is done by hand." "We have no machines, we need to work hard and fast." "For lunch break, wild rat is on the menu." "Before putting the canoe in the water, we must do a ceremony so that it doesn't sink, and apologize to the spirit of the tree." "Silva apologizes to the tree for the pain that we have inflicted." "To make amends, he offers a little "caña", the local rum." "We must now lead the boat to the sea, several kilometers away." "Experts in the use of plants, the Bijagós pull it using ropes made with lianas." "Several teams turn out for this grueling work." "The children from Fleur will not be spared." "It was in the middle of the forest and then we pushed the canoe..." "There were bushes to cut on a path with logs." "We pushed, pushed, pushed, then we arrived here." "We kept pushing, it was hard." "We won't put it in the sea today." "The canoe will be left amongst the mangroves, and we'll await the high tide so that the sea comes to get her." "Now we must learn to use it." "Can you get in?" "No." "You can start to paddle." "Which side should I paddle?" "Now, there's lots of water in it." "Hey, I don't know." "I don't have a clue." "You don't sit like that." "How should I sit then?" "You put your feet underneath." "Why?" "Because here you..." "After a month spent in the Bijagós archipelago, the children of Fleur de Lampaul are properly settled in the village." "And this morning, like every morning, the first aroused are the weaver birds in their grove." "The young Bijagós don't like coffee." "They're intrigued by our custom of breakfast." "They take their first meal at midday." "It's the only meal of the day together, because it's our breakfast, as we sleep in different rooms than the locals, we don't get up at the same time." "We have breakfast together and at other times, at midday or evening each of us eats with our family." "In the morning the first at work are the old women, who tirelessly beat the roots of the strangler fig tree, to extract the fiber that will be made into the traditional attire of the women." "Through this action they strive to perpetuate a tradition that is changing." "Kate learns how to make the traditional skirt, and accompanies the mother of her host family." "She carries out all the daily tasks of the women, that she'll describe later in the book of the expedition." "What are you doing Kate?" "I'm putting the sapwood of the strangler fig tree roots on a branch." "It's removed from the roots like this to make sayas." "We'll leave it overnight to dry and then afterwards she'll make a saya with it." "What is a "saya"?" "A saya is a skirt made with this, that's worn by all the women here, and dyed in black or red." "At first it's a bit tiresome to wear because it itches, and then it feels a bit like you're not wearing anything." "But now it's okay." "You get used to it, after a while." "They're not warm." "It's a bit of a pain to sit down in, they can't stop showing me how to sit down with a saya." "And here, we tie the ends of the saya together, then we choose the colour, after we'll dye it with earth." "The saya is soaked in mud." "It's to dye it black and then afterwards we'll weave it to make the saya." "The great wealth of the Bijagós is their environment, of which they know all the secrets." "From plants they extract the fibre to make their clothes, their medicines, and materials for housing." "From the trees they cut their canoes." "The Bijagós are of an animist religion." "This religion is based on respect for all living beings, animals or plants." "For them, every natural element has a soul." "They carve from the trees that which they cherish above all, their instrument of communication, the Bambolo." "These phones can carry up to 20 km." "The one who plays is the Bambolo "tocador", the Bambolo player." "He strikes it and they're very special rhythms, that are actually messages, a little bit like Morse code." "And it's a language that's only understood by the "homeogrande"," "That's to say, people who've been initiated, who've passed the "fanado"." "It's a very secret language." "The danger is that as there are more and more young people leaving now that... there are some who don't do their initiation, it means that the tradition is lost and all the language disappears." "This is a ceremony called the "tchuro"." "The Bijagós question the homeogrande, to find out why a certain king died, not long ago." "The "homeogrande", spirit protector, is escorted up to the village by the interim chief, and the men who've come to speak with him." "They then make a representation of the dead king, by means of a burnt blanket and woven branches." "To find out from what the king died, the villagers organize a "tchuro"." "The "tchuro" is a festival which brings together, the new king of the island and the neighbouring villages." "For a week, rites and sacrifices will follow one another." "At the foot of the sacred Kapok tree, the king waits." "When a village wants a king, they confer, they choose a man who appears to them impartial etc." "And they ask from another village, this man, and this one that's designated as king, he'll lose everything, he'll lose his village, he'll lose his family." "The price of being king is heavy." "He resolves conflicts and is responsible for initiations." "The island's other inhabitants arrive in the village." "The young people who are dressed with lots of fabric, all this is very lovely," "These are the young Camaros and this is their time of craziness." "For 7 to 10 years they can do what they want, they can... have sex with women, they can... do whatever they want, they can drink, they have fun." "Hello, Guinea Bissau, National Bank?" "You must send us some rice and fruit." "Whenever an important person in the village dies, they'll hold a ceremony called the "fanado"." "So, it's more or less an ordeal, it's different for men and for women." "Those of the women are more secret." "According to them more dangerous because it's more in touch with the spirits, and with the strange things of the forest etc..." "And that of the men is much harder physically because they are beaten, they have work to do." "They must live outside, even during the rainy season." "Having discovered the lifestyle of the Bijagós, the children of Fleur would have liked to know about the initiation." "But nobody in the world has yet had access to this secret." "All the men have large scars on their backs as testimony of its harshness." "The main quality required to live amongst nature, is knowing how to withstand suffering." "The king is at the top of the pyramid." "They have known all the trials of life, and seem serene as children." "I think there's an educational system back home, but it's completely different from here." "I think there are schools where you learn, it's a sort of initiation, it's for the future, to know about things." "Here, it's more about a relationship with the spirits." "It's nothing at all like the concepts we have back home." "Here, they don't go to school." "They don't ask questions, in fact." "Life, it comes, it happens like that, that's life, it's normal." "So in reflection, I think we can ask ourselves more questions." "But also because we're more open-minded." "They know nothing about France, where it is." "We can imagine the world, we have some higher concepts." "Today is the celebration of "paga grandesa"." "They give an offering to the "homeogrande"." "It's to thank them for their expertise and for initiating them." "Young people give an offering of tobacco, local rum, money, or palm wine," "Whatever they want." "With us, there's the pension, it's a bit like that here because the "homeograndes"... are fully supported by... by the young people in the form of "paga grandesa", to pay for old age or importance rather." "Thus the young people owe them some work, owe them a certain amount of food, besides the respect." "The old women spend their time dancing, laughing and joking." "The girls work hard and wait certainly with apprehension their initiation." "The first time we saw the Bijagós girls dance, we really wondered where we were because... it's a very ancient dance." "I remember that, the first time I was..." "I wasn't very comfortable because I felt... like someone who wanted to learn to dance, and not really being with them and then at the end, in fact," "I eventually lost my shyness." "and then rather than asking myself whether I was good or not," "I felt things, I had the impression of being like them, being with them." "I think that I really connected with some of the Bijagós girls." "If despite everything we manage to understand the initiation, which represents what the stages of life teach us, childhood, adolescence, adulthood." "There are rites much more difficult to understand, those affecting spirits of nature:" "good and bad." "These so called "Elefantes", are women and young girls, which have not yet been initiated, they're just possessed by the soul of a young man... who died before his initiation." "As this young man wasn't initiated, his soul will roam around the village, she could be very dangerous." "And for example, one day like this, she'll suddenly be possessed, and at a ceremonial dance, the girl will initiate the soul of the dead man, at the same time as hers, somehow." "She undergoes the women's initiation and it's a man's soul, so she doesn't really have a sex any more." "After a week of "tchuro" the spirits have responded." "The king died of sadness, after the death of his son, who had jumped from the top of a palm tree inhabited by a deadly snake." "I think if they'd told me I was going to participate in an ancient ceremony," "I wouldn't have believed it." "It's a bit like something out of books... that one reads, you browse, that you see." "It doesn't seem real." "You feel that with all the technology that's currently on Earth, all this is over, gone for ever." "And finding this in this part of Africa, at 15, it's pretty crazy, eh." "And the worst thing is knowing that it will soon disappear." "Each night there'll be dance shows... representing the main animals and their power." "The bulls, sharks, and others that we don't recognize." "The children of Fleur have learned during these visits, respect for the beauty of a culture, here, far away from our own." "After spending a month in the Bijagos archipelago," "Raphaele, Magali and Michael are exploring the mangroves." "The best way to see it is to navigate by canoe along the "boulongs"." "The "boulongs" are rivers from the sea... that penetrate deep into the interior of the islands." "All the animals are protected from their predators, and so come here to reproduce." "Look at that crab moving there." "Where?" "You see, it's massive." "We'll have to go and look it up, super..." "He's climbed up, it's there, you see that branch there," "He's continued up to the first junction." "Michael completes the observations, by looking for the fish hidden amongst the mangrove roots." "If the water is cloudy it's because it's rich in particles of all kinds, ideal food for all the fish fry, the small baby fish." "This is the way by which we came." "We need to indicate when we've taken a sample." "During the expedition, school subjects are tackled in a more engaging way." "Much of the time is devoted to field observations." "Those, they're still in bud." "Are they open?" "That's not bad." "We'll find others, otherwise." "Which is it?" "It's a bit like this." "Yes, that's the one, yes." "Did you see?" "Ah." "It's salt." "It's salt, you think?" "Go on, taste it." "They study the mangroves, these very special trees can live in sea water." "It's not always easy to determine the species." "For his part, Jan accompanies the Bijagós children in their daily activities." "Among the Bijagós, the adults are the first served." "The children content themselves with a little rice without meat." "Their hard apprenticeship of life begins by hunting." "They need to know how to feed themselves alone in the forest to survive." "Jan is amazed at these skills we have long forgotten." "He is the oldest of the group and the most ignorant." "So there, at the beginning he first looked for a hole." "Then to know if there was a rat, he laid his hand, and he felt the earth to see if it was damp or not." "And afterwards he dug quite a big hole, and with some dry palm leaves... he fills the hole with smoke so that the rat comes out there." "He'll then catch it." "The rats feed on plants." "They have the same taste as rabbits." "A little further on near the source where the forest joins the sea, the children meet the most amazing inhabitants of the mangroves, the mudskipper." "This small amphibious fish prefers open air to the seawater." "It breathes by maintaining a bubble of air in it's mouth, and feeds on tiny animals of the sea." "Everyone ends up at the source." "The weavers, these attractive yellow birds, and the children coming to renew their reserve of fresh water." "The mangrove is also a food reservoir for the islanders." "Every morning the women extract wild oysters from the mangrove." "They are, with the shellfish collected in the mud, the basis of the Bijagós diet and their daily intake of protein." "The mangrove which covers a third of the surface of Guinea Bissau, seems to be an inexhaustible reserve of food." "The roots of the mangroves also serve as frameworks for houses, and for making fish traps located a little further down the beach." "Other shellfish also serve to feed the Bijagós... when fishing and hunting are lacking." "Kate and Nathalie went to collect the "omblés" which look like cockles." "We've found the remains almost everywhere." "They've been used as food by all people here since prehistoric times." "The fishing trap is the ancestral Bijagós fishing technique." "It works during high tides." "This technique is increasingly threatened by declining resources... due to the high devastation from industrial fishing." "Today the tide is low." "Only the birds take advantage there." "The archipelago is one of the world reserves of birds." "They come from Europe and sometimes much further to reproduce." "During their stay the children have trouble sleeping." "They're often awakened by animals or mysterious festivals." "Between dream and reality, the Bijagós world is far removed from their world of origin." "During their journey in time, the children find themselves in a nature that the Bijagós have been able to preserve, the time when their ancestors fed themselves by gathering and fishing." "But for how much longer." "Continuing their investigation of the ecosystem, the children of Fleur accompany the Bijagós in their fishing." "They've swapped their traditional technique for canoes and nets of the Senegalese." "Despite this, the fish are not more abundant." "There's one, shit, it's gone." "Ouch, that stings." "Do you sell or do you give the fish?" "We give them to the whole village." "But if there's a surplus after a good fishing, we'll sell them at Bubaque to buy rice." "For me, fishing or cultivating, it's the same, we share with the whole village." "The Bijagós share all their catch whether the fishing is good or not." "It's a tradition of their communal society." "When fishing is successful they'll go into the capital of the archipelago, where the fish is sold with the chickens, pigs and palm oil." "The Bijagós use their traditional canoes to move from island to island." "Once, their canoes were used for war and raids to the mainland." "These warriors were feared by all, even the Portuguese colonizers." "Today the fishermen who accompany Pierre and Arthur bring nothing back to the village." "Their meager catch will be consumed on the spot." "The Bijagós have decimated their forests to plant palm trees and rice, of which they have become major consumers." "The only threat that weighs on their community, is their high birth rate on a limited space." "A little further on, another ethnic group has made use of their rich waters." "Sharks and rays abound in the archipelago." "They're a form of income for the Senegalese fisherman." "The fins of these fish fetch a very good price in Asia." "The Senegalese pay the Bijagós for the right to fish... with the price of some sharks." "Since 1986 I've frequented the area, and I've paid with some sharks." "I make a profit nevertheless." "A canoe, it's expensive" "A kilo of fins it makes 1200 CFA francs." "Sometimes we're obliged to give to the village because they also need it." "I'm wary of rays because I've already been stung on the beach." "When they catch one, I'm a bit cautious." "Like Arthur, the Bijagós are afraid of rays and sharks." "They're animists and are wary of evil spirits from the sea." "The Bijagós, are no longer a people of the water." "Because they were once a warrior people, and they made raids from island to island, for them, it was the only way to communicate with the outside world, expand their territory, and to enlarge their culture." "But today, let's say from this century or so, gradually that's disappeared, they're no longer a warlike people at all, they're a very peaceful people." "They're mainly a forest people, I'd say." "Their world is the forest, it's the palms, it's the trees, it's their land." "What ray stung you?" "Was it a small one?" "Did you see it?" "No, I didn't see it." "What size was it roughly?" "I don't know, I didn't see, I just felt it." "You saw one... two?" "Is it dead?" "No." "It's okay." "Stop pressing, stop pressing!" "I'm not pressing." "I feel dizzy." "We'll kill it and afterwards it'll be eaten." "And yet the careenage had started well." "After 3 months of staying with the Bijagós in Guinea Bissau, the children of the Water People expedition... prepare the departure of the Fleur de Lampaul for South America." "You mustn't touch that, the inlet filters either." "Arthur was stung by stingrays that proliferate at low tide." "The pain lasted the time of a tide." "The others, meanwhile, scrape off all the marine organisms... that have stuck to the hull in six months of expedition, and to determine the damage due to heat." "They find seaweed, shellfish, and barnacles, samples of all the underwater wildlife of West Africa, another opportunity to observe the ecosystem." "What's left to do...." "Stop scraping." "We've done the bulk of it." "Finish what you started, the shells." "And then we'll use a little abrasive." "Well, that just about does it." "They have to hurry." "All the work, painting included, must be completed in two tides, otherwise the Fleur would risk remaining aground a few months more, as this tide is exceptional." "I'm letting you know that I'll soon let go." "Go ahead, you can let go a little." "Stop, you'll crush me." "Make it quick, I'm letting go." "But there, you crush me." "I can't move any more." "Get a move on!" "Don't get excited." "I can't hurry, you'll have to hold it." "Don't exite yourself." "Hey, I'm letting go." "Every dinghy benefits from this treatment including this lugger, which will permit observations in the "baulongs", in the pursuit of hypothetical crocodiles and hippos." "Before departure, it was necessary to consult the spirits." "No risk should be taken." "A ceremony is organized." "Magali represents the crew." "She's accompanied by the village chief, the priestess, the King, and his sacred dog." "I would like that the voyage on the ship goes well, and that in the future we can return to the village." "A sacrifice will be made, and the spirits will be consulted to find out if the voyage... will get off under good auspices." "The answer is given by the movement of the hen." "If it turns to the right direction and comes to rest at the foot of... they can leave with an easy mind." "It's such a different world, another system of thought that I think that even with the best will in the world, you cannot really understand the meaning." "You can always make mistakes." "For example you might interpret something, you might see something they do." "We'll interpret it and be sure that's it, and maybe, we're completely wrong." "For them, everything has a life, everything has a spirit, and whatever we may say, we can't manage to assimilate it, assimilate this reaction to think that." "The king agrees, the voyage will be fine." "For the Fleur, a page will be turned." "For the Bijagós it's a new year which is going to begin." "They must get ready for it." "And here, on this house they've just removed the straw, to change the roof because the straw is worn out, and because you need a new roof for the rainy season." "They take advantage of the dry season to collect straw... and completely redo the roofs." "This is about the only time you can see inside the houses, when they redo the roof, because otherwise you can't see anything." "And like this, you get a good view, it's perfect." "The straw is not very long but it must be earned." "2 hours there and back, 2 hours in return for a bale of straw." "It takes a very large amount to make a roof." "For their part the boys also participate in the work in the fields." "The straw, barely cut, they prepare the field for the next year by fertilizing it." "They must wait for the right wind direction, hoping that it won't change direction." "Back in the village, there only remains to weave... tens and tens of meters of straw and level them." "The roof is finished for the rainy season, the ship ready for the voyage, a great feast will unite all of us for the last time." "Thank you for the welcome we received here among the Bijagós." "We'll keep very good memories of this trip, and everything that happened here." "Gently, eh." "It's strong, eh." "Here we see that the "mujer grande"," "They're the women elders, those that we respect." "That's the head of the womens committee and so they're certainly going to eat." "Back on the ship, our heads full of memories, it's time to take stock." "It went very well, it was the last time we were going to the village, so we took advantage of it, and so now that I know my family well," "I'm all the time with "Manda", the youngest of my family, and we really get along well, we're friends, we're all the time laughing." "She teaches us Bijagós." "We've established a good relationship." "It's not too difficult to make friends because we all have the same games, we laugh about the same things." "By speaking just little language, we get along okay." "You start to get to know people, know their character, you have friends," "We have people that we don't like, just like back home." "And for example in a family, there are no bad relationships with parents." "Those that we don't know well, they ask you to give them stuff and then the kids say all the time c'mon, c'mon..." "But in fact we know their character as if we'd known them forever." "We got to know them as if they were people of our town, our school." "Here, she's just removed a bunch of "gigans", they're little worms that come to lay eggs." "This is the only problem we have here really, and also the malaria." "My friend had malaria during the stay, till the end." "So what I did is that I gave her money to perform a ceremony." "You like it?" "The children of Fleur will now cross the Atlantic to reach South America." "The three week crossing allows them time... to gather impressions and memories in the log book." "In any case, they're not likely to forget this first encounter with Africa." "Subtitles by Oliver Sanderson"