Nomad_Scapes

Christian Vium

Few countr ies have witnessed as extreme transformations over the last decades as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

The project NOMAD_SCAPES documents the impact of climate change on human adaptation in its most concrete expression: massive desertification and the ensuing sedentarisation of an entirely nomadic nation.

In 1969, 80 percent of the population in The Islamic Republic of Mauritania lived as nomadic pastoralists, relying predominantly on mobile livestock rearing strategies. Today 85 percent live in and around the major cities, two thirds of them in the dusty labyrinths of the so-called kébé, urban slum, impoverished, marginalised and with no title to land or access to basic sanitation.

In four decades, the capital city of Nouakchott, which was constructed ex-nihilo in 1957, exploded from 5,000 to 800,000 inhabitants, an urbanisation rate unparralled anywhere in the world. The reasons for this extraordinary transformation are manifold. To a great extent it can be attributed to two particularly severe droughts which swept through West Africa in 1968-1973 and 1982-1985, largely decimating the livestock of vast numbers of nomadic pastoralists, thus causing a veritable exodus from the rural areas. Many families lost their animals and thus their means of subsistence, causing them to give up their nomadic livelihood and become sedentary in and around the few cities of considerable size. Subesequent droughts in the last two decades have only intensified the processes of sedentarisation and urbanisation.

The project NOMAD_SCAPES investigates the tremendous socio-cultural and political transformations in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, which are intricately linked to the precarious entanglement of severe and recurring droughts (disequilibrium environment), politico-ideological disjuncture and the interpenetrations of nomad and sedentary lifeworlds, by focusing on the nexus of these amalgamations : contemporary nomadism.

From an actor-oriented perspective I focus on mobile adaptation strategies and local spatio-temporal perceptions of the precarious environment in two distint settings : the arid Hodh Ech Chargui province in South Eastern Mauritania and the urban slum of El Mina, on the outskirts of the capital city, Nouakchott. Within this framework, the notion of adaptation in disequilibrium environments is expanded beyond the prevalent discussion of human-nature relationship, climate change and ecology. By analysing nomad-sedentary interpenetrations, urbanisation and political developments since independence in 1960, the project NOMAD_SCAPES provides detailed documentation of a severely understudied context while revitalizing and expanding existing debates on climate change, social resilience, human adaptation and socio-cultural transformation.

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project brief

75 percent of Mauritania’s total area of 1 million square kilometres is comprised of the Sahara desert, which is steadily expanding due to intense desertification. In this arid environment, nomadic pastoralism constitutes the only means of survival, as the soil does not support cultivation. rough exceptional skills in wayfinding, ecological knowledge and human resilience, nomads are able to navigate what is best characterised as a disequilibrium environment, which most stable feature is its instability and impredicability.

Ouadane, Adrar, 2001. nomad_scapes_01Christian Vium

Achmed, a camel herder from the Kounta tribe, explains the growing difficulties in predicting the availability of pastures and water. Recurring droughts and a general experience of increased instability has made him realize that he may have to give up his nomadic livelihood in order to ensure the survival of his family.

Hodh Ech Chargui, 2006. Nomad_Scapes 02

Christian Vium

A small summer camp, or aïal, consisting of three families, who are waiting for the rains to arive, before they will regroup with other families some 30 kilometres to the south east. Depending on the composition of the herds and the availability of pastures and water, this aïal changes location everywhere in between every third week and every 2 month all year round.

Hodh Ech Chargui, 2006.Nomad_Scapes_03

Christian Vium

Mahmoud and Ishmael, two goat herders from the Tagant, are walking with their herds. Typically, they spent every day from before sunrise till just after sunset walking with the herds, before returning to the camp. Increasing droughts have forced them to undertake longer daily journeys, putting increased strain on the animals.

Le Tâgant, 2004. Nomad_Scapes_04

Christian Vium

A young boy returns with water from the well as a dust storm picks up.e well is located some three kilometres from camp and due to sweeping sand it is in danger of drying out.

Hodh Ech Chargui, 2006.Nomad_Scapes_05

Christian Vium

e increased difficulties facing nomads in the arid, rural areas have forced vast numbers of nomads to seek refuge in and around the few larger cities of Mauritania. An estimated two thirds of these live a precarious and impoverished existence, without political rights, proper housing and access to basic sanitation and water. In the capital city of Nouakchott, the rapid and ongoing sedentarisation has created an infrastructural chaos to which the government has few solutions. Every day, new arrivals from the rural areas who have lost their means of survival, contribute to the urban congestion. Kébe El Mina, Nouakchott, 2006.

Nomad_Scapes_06Christian Vium

Lakhsara, a sedentary nomad from the Brakna province has just seen her rudimentary shack be taken apart by government officials who demand her to evacuate the land she inhabits, to make way for a new road. Like most other residents in El Mina, she has no title to the land, despite having lived there for 15 years. She will now have to find a plot somewhere else, and most likely even further away from basic sanitation and wells.

Kébé El Mina, Nouakchott, 2006.Nomad_Scapes_07

Christian Vium

Abdul, 14, recently arrived with his family from the Hodh Ech Gharbi province in Southern Mauritania, were a local drought has resulted in the death of many animals and the subsequent displacement of large parts of the nomadic population.

Kébé El Mina, Nouakchott, 2006.Nomad_Scapes_08

Christian Vium

Hassan, one of the local chefs du quartier (neighbourhood leaders), returning from friday prayers in the late afternoon. e inhabitants of El Mina are trying to establish local political institutions that will permit them to govern the limited resources in a more egalitarian way, and permit them to engage in a more productive discussion with the political leaders – something which is next to non-existent today. Kébé El Mina, Nouakchott, 2006.

Nomad_Scapes_09Christian Vium

A woman begs for money on Avenue De Gaulle, in central Nouakchott. e text on the sign reads : ‘e Nouakchott of Tomorrow’. Despite recent discoveries of substantial oil reserves in both maritime and inland territories, there are no tangible signs of substantial progress in terms of alleviating the devastating poverty in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Successive coups d’état and a notoriously instable political climate governed by nepotism and corruption has resulted in a general ignorance from international donors, particularly since the last coup in august 2008. Nouakchott, 2006.

Nomad_Scapes_10Christian Vium

Christian Vium

Born1980inAarhus,Denmark.

ChristianVium isananthropologist,photographer anddirectorprimarilyworkingonlong‐termdocumentary projects related tomigration, nomadism,marginalisation, human rights, urbanisation, youth, conClict and reconciliation. Among his clients are Amnesty International, The InternationalRehabilitationCouncilforTortureVictims(IRCT)andtheDanishInstituteforInternationalStudies(DIIS).

CurrentlyemployedasaPh.D.FellowattheInstituteofAnthropology,UniversityofCopenhagen,Denmark,doing long‐termresearchinrelationtowaterscarcity,desertiCication,vulnerabilityandhumanadaptationintheIslamicRepublicofMauritaniainWestAfrica.

Christianhasbeenawardedanumberofawardsforhiswork,includinga1stprizeintheportraitcategoryatthePGBPhotoaward2009forhisworkondomesticviolence,1st,2nd&3rdprizeinthecategoriesGeneralNews,PoliticalIssuesandPortraitoftheIPA2008forhisserieson’illegal’migrationfromWestAfricatoEurope,juveniledetentioninAfrica,Boxingandold‐agegangstersinSouthAfrica.ACanonExplorerofLightScholarshipin2008aswellasBestStudentWork inPDN2008 forhiswork on’illegal’migrationfromWestAfricatoEurope.In2007hewasawardedtheGrandPrixduParisMatchÉtudiantforhisworkonmarginalisedyouthinManenberg,a ’coloured’ townshipoutsideCapeTown,SouthAfrica.HisworkhasbeenexhibitedinNewYork (HastedHuntGallery– IPA2008bestofShow),Stockholm(PGB2009bestof show),Paris(Sorbonne–GrandPrixduParisMatchÉtudiant) andVenice(MonasterodeSanNicolo–VisualisingDemocracyandImagesofSocialInclusion).

In2007,thefeaturedocumentary‘AfghanMuscles’,onwhichChristianwasassistantdirectorandresearcher,wasawardedBestFeatureDocumentarybytheAmericanFilmInstituteattheAFIFestivalinLosAngeles.Heiscurrentlyinpost‐productionwiththe featuredocumentary ‘StrugglingAlong’aboutyouthin thetownshipManenbergoutsideCapeTown inSouthAfrica.TheCilm,whichis scheduledforrelease inthe autumn2009, isco‐directedwithanthropologistKarenWaltorp.

Seewww.christianvium.comforfullCVandportfolio.

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