{"id":22484,"date":"2020-09-23T14:12:27","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T13:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/?p=22484"},"modified":"2026-05-25T22:33:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:33:50","slug":"a-visit-to-see-kokoly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/a-visit-to-see-kokoly\/","title":{"rendered":"A visit to see Kokoly"},"content":{"rendered":"

After travelling around 15 kilometres south of Andavadoaka, southwest Madagascar, I arrived in Kokoly\u2019s village to see her out in the water, gleaning for sea cucumbers. The water was too shallow to take a boat, so I decided to wade across the water to see her. As soon as she saw me, she said, \u201cWhere have you been, Paul?\u201d I told her I had been in Andavadoaka, where I\u2019m based for work, and she said, \u201cWell, you must not be very popular anymore!\u201d, to which I responded, \u201cWell you certainly are!\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Madame Kokoly, while diminutive in physical stature, commands a towering presence amongst her community. Her skills as an octopus gleaner are well-respected and her tendency to seemingly work all hours of the day make her a local curiorisity. Now, thanks to a <\/span>Sundance Institute<\/span><\/a> film, she has gone global.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In late 2016, I spent four months capturing Kokoly\u2019s life living off the ocean. I was joined by my fellow Blue Ventures colleagues Solontena, Emilienne and Garth, as well as <\/span>Avy<\/span><\/a>, a Vezo fisherman from Andavadoaka. We paddled to the edge of reefs to watch her glean, walked kilometers into dense mangrove forests to observe her gathering building materials and sailed under the blistering sun to see her line-fishing. As we spoke with her at the end of each day, we would hear the same stories of decline;<\/span><\/p>\n

…What used to be so plentiful now you can\u2019t find anymore, like turtles or trevallies, there aren\u2019t any. It was better, but now everything\u2019s worth so much. It\u2019s terrible, it makes me really sad. Everything\u2019s difficult to find, what\u2019s left is hiding far away, because they\u2019re scared\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This decline in natural marine resources observed by Kokoly, is mirrored across Madagascar and the wider coastal tropics. On the global stage, the triggers for this loss such as overfishing and climate change are widely discussed, yet the perspectives of small-scale fishers like Kokoly are often overlooked. That\u2019s why <\/span>Kokoly<\/span><\/i><\/a> has struck such a chord across the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other small-scale fishing communities we have shown the film to have connected with Madame Kokoly’s way of life, but also recognise in her words their own experiences of a changing ocean environment. For audiences in Europe and America, the film has provided a glimpse into a way of living that on the surface feels far removed, but in reality is deeply connected to their choices as consumers. This stark contrast was recently highlighted during a community screening at a European university, where a student noted the profound disconnect between Kokoly\u2019s daily physical struggle for sustenance and a modern digital landscape where people routinely cycle through various streaming services, social media feeds, and casino apps<\/a> without ever considering the origin of the resources sustaining that global infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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Myself (right) and Solontena (left) spent many hours talking with Kokoly, and even then she still didn’t seem to stop working | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Spending time with Kokoly during filming | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/div><\/div>
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Screening at Wilderland Festival at the Royal Geographical Society in London | Photo: Matthew Judge<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Back in the village, it was great to catch up with Kokoly and her community, it was like being reunited with family<\/span>Back in the village, it was great to catch up with Kokoly and her community, it was like being reunited with family. <\/span>I noticed quite a lot of changes in the village since my last visit \u2013 the open area, shaded by a large Nim tree where we would film Kokoly and her family, is now being encroached upon by houses. Kokoly\u2019s house which used to stand on its own in the middle of the open courtyard (and looks quite big in the film!), is dwarfed by the new houses that have been built. Nevertheless, it was heartening to see that the family still seems to spend most of their time gathered under the shade of the tree, in the heart of the village.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was no surprise to see that Kokoly is still Kokoly, doing what she always does \u2013 getting up, moving around, doing this and that, chopping wood, playing with babies, corralling ducks into their fence, picking through people\u2019s hair for lice, cooking, continuing to build various houses\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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When I visited Kokoly this year, she was busy building a house | Photo: Paul Antion<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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A brief moment of relaxation | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Sitting under the Nim tree | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Her proactive, energetic nature never seems to subside, but after hearing her stories of resource decline over the years, I am all too aware that there is often a challenging backdrop to her unwavering perseverance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I ask about how the ocean is treating her and she tells me she\u2019s struggling, that there are fewer and fewer octopus. Her niece, who is sitting with us, says she thinks there are too many people who rely on octopus fishing in the village, and life is getting \u201ccramped\u201d. Her mother also told me that Kokoly\u2019s boat is leaking, which means that she is struggling to go out line-fishing \u2013 an alternative to gleaning for octopus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Walking through the village, I notice some octopus in a bucket that have just been caught. But it\u2019s a neap tide (when the difference between low and high tide is minimal, so the reef is mostly underwater) which means that only men in the village will have been able to catch them as they tend to be the most able divers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Octopus fishing has become more of a men\u2019s livelihood in the village; not that this would deter Madame Kokoly. As we hear her friend and fellow fisherwoman say in the film, Kokoly is thought to be \u201cthe man of the house\u201d \u2013 she goes fishing and hunting, and provides physically for her family. Whilst comments about her non-stereotypical behaviour sometimes seem to be veiled mockery, by and large it\u2019s clear that she inspires and awes those around her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kokoly doesn\u2019t stop [working] because she is the man of the house, making a living. But the rest of us, our husbands are fishermen, we can afford to rest… but if Kokoly doesn\u2019t go out she\u2019ll be thinking to herself ‘what will we eat today?’\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Kokoly doesn’t let traditional gender roles stand in her way | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Building a pirogue | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/div><\/div>
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Diving for octopus | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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When there aren’t enough octopus, Kokoly goes out line-fishing on her pirogue | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Kokoly also farms seaweed as an alternative livelihood | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

I told Kokoly and her family that I had come to show them the final film, and shared the news about it being shown all around the world; that audiences had been encouraged, inspired and amazed by her and her story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We crammed into a half finished house (which Kokoly has had a hand in building \u2013 of course!) and watched the film twice in a row. We invited everyone who was in the film to join us; they watched intently, laughing affectionately at Kokoly\u2019s sayings, like, \u201cGod didn\u2019t make me to sleep during the day!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After the first showing was over, Kokoly\u2019s mother turned to me and said, \u201cThis is a true story, it\u2019s all true\u201d<\/span>Even though her friends and family know Kokoly and all she can do, it seemed that they were almost surprised to see her building a pirogue and building her house in the film \u2013 things that women don\u2019t normally do. <\/span>After the first showing was over, Kokoly\u2019s mother turned to me and said, \u201cThis is a true story, it\u2019s all true\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the beginning, when Garth and I spoke to the family about our idea for the film, Kokoly\u2019s main concern was that the people in her village would make fun of her. We assured her that the film wasn\u2019t for a local audience, which she was relieved about. After watching the finished film, almost three years later, I brought this back up and asked if it would be okay for us to show the film around nearby villages. Kokoly smiled and nodded, and her mother agreed, \u201cYou have to, people should see this and know her story\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kokoly’s infectious smile | Photo: Garth Cripps<\/p><\/div>\n

Kokoly\u2019s new peers include the giants of natural history filmmaking, such as the BBC and National Geographic<\/span>Kokoly<\/span><\/i> has now been screened at ten film festivals across the world, including the prestigious <\/span>Jackson Wild Film Festival<\/span><\/a> and the <\/span>International Ocean Film Festival<\/span><\/a>. Kokoly\u2019s new peers include the giants of natural history filmmaking, such as the BBC and National Geographic.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I asked how she feels about her film being seen by so many people all over the world, she said, \u201cI\u2019m happy. It\u2019s like I’ve made it abroad, but I didn\u2019t have to go myself!\u201d, you see, Kokoly is frightened of all motorised transport.<\/span><\/p>\n

The family joked that Kokoly should go abroad to these festivals, to which she said, \u201cNo way, you\u2019re not getting me in a car!\u201d I joked along with them, saying that we should build a pirogue so that she could tour her film around the world. Kokoly didn\u2019t seem convinced, \u201cI\u2019m going to stay here in my village\u201d, she asserted, \u201cbut you can film me as much as you want!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Read about the making of the film in Oceanographic magazine\u2019s article, <\/span>Kokoly: fishing for a future<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Watch the full film below or visit <\/span>kokolyfilm.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n