Like so many Gambians, Fatou Janha Mboob bought oysters to prepare one of the sauces that usually accompany rice or couscous. These mollusks are not what the reader has in mind. They are similar but smaller. It is the Crassostrea tulipa that grows in the mangroves of West Africa. Its collection and processing is carried out by women in a traditional and largely informal manner.
For years, Mboob had watched these workers do a very hard job, only to then sell their product at the market. He also saw that her life was not going through any change. “Furthermore, nobody cared about the environment and that’s why the oysters, their livelihood, started to be endangered.”
Nobody cared about the environment, so oysters, the livelihood of many women, were in danger
Fatou Janha Mboob
One day he approached a group at the market and suggested they organize themselves into a cooperative, but the shellfish collectors didn’t see that as an option. “They wondered what brought me to them, maybe I was looking for money or it was a politician trying to get votes. Eventually, they realized it wasn’t, and they came to me and asked for help,” Mboob recalls. Initially, his goal was to make more money selling oysters. However, she quickly realized that in addition to improving the living standards of these women, she also had to convince them of the need to protect the environment. Traditionally, the mangroves are cut down to get the oysters, which means that these valuable ecosystems and with them the mollusks are disappearing.
The first thing this activist did was to group the shell collectors. This is how the TRY Oyster Women’s Association was born, an association of Gambian women who harvest, process and sell oysters. It is present in 15 communities in the Tanbi nature reserve and has more than 500 women.
Next, Mboob organized an oyster festival. “We invite the media, the President, the whole country to taste the oysters prepared in every possible way. Actions like this made us known and so we were able to receive help that allowed us to continue to grow,” explains the founder of the association.
Since 2009, when they took their first steps, many achievements have been made to this day. “We managed to raise the price of oysters from 10 dalasi (0.18 euros) to 75 (1.39 euros) for a cup. That means people are more aware of the work these women do and they have more exposure. They used to be very shy, they didn’t talk to you, you had to force them. Now they are confident and have no problem speaking in public,” says Mboob. “In addition, we have the exclusive right to manage the oyster shells. This is important because women in Africa are usually denied these rights. We also have control over the mangroves, we are repopulating them. With the help of some projects we achieve other things. Although everything is very slow, little by little we are getting there,” he adds. Perhaps the greatest success they achieved was when the Gambian government established the Tanbi Conservation Area in 2012 and gave exclusive rights of use to the TRY Association.
We managed to raise the oyster price from 10 dalasi (0.18 euros) to 75 (1.39 euros) for a cup of oysters
Fatou Janha Mboob
Mboob enjoys her work and is always looking for new ways to improve the lives of the cooperative members: “They are all strong women. They take care of their children, they pay for the school, they feed them, they do a lot for their families. They’re the ones bringing home the money. The men will say there is no work and will go off to do manly things. But even if there is no work, the women continue to go to the river, perhaps to look for crabs to eat. They are very hardworking people. They are also honest and genuine. That’s why I feel good when I work with them. They need someone to help them and I am content to lift them and their children up.”
He has three girls, daughters of shellfish workers, who live in his home. “You dropped out of school very early. They are intelligent, but they have no options. There is no electricity in their houses, no bathrooms, no internet. So I took her home with me. I pay them private tuition so they can pass their exams and go to university. I’m sure they will,” she says with satisfaction.
Fatou Janah Mboob is a teacher and later studied agriculture and social work. For years she has been a social worker in vulnerable communities. She has lived outside her country and when her husband retired, they both returned to the country’s capital, Banjul. “When we came back, my kids were older, they had left home, my husband was alone and I thought, this is boring, better do something. Otherwise I would have stayed home cooking all day. That’s why I started and that’s why I enjoy it,” he says.
Many achievements have been made over the years with the help of various funders, including the Santander Foundation’s Best Africa programme. But Mboob is not satisfied, it seems to him that there is still a long way to go. And he also has a dream: “To see all these oysters in all corners of the world. In the rest of the world they are expensive. That’s why we want to pack them up and sell them in supermarkets, also outside of The Gambia. That people say “they are from The Gambia”. I want to see that. If I can see it I will be very happy and then I can let it go. I’ll be happy because I think it’s something these women deserve. They work very hard.”
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