After leaving the Niassa Reserve, Mozambique’s largest protected area and one of the last bastions of wildlife in Southern Africa, Madala, the life-size elephant made of wool and steel, takes up residence at the Centre Culturel Franco-Mozambicain (CCFM) in Maputo from July 3 to October 3, 2024.
The story of Madala began when biologist Paula Ferro and Derek Littleton, director of the Lugenda Foundation and the Luwire concession, both deeply involved in the protection of the Niassa Special Reserve, decided to put their artistic talents to work on a project as ambitious as it is meaningful: the construction of a monumental work of art:
– A work of art to bear witness to the stakes involved in the fight against poaching, and to make men and women aware of the importance of protecting ecosystems and large wild fauna.
– A work of art that can mobilize the men and women of the reserve and enable them to acquire new skills and alternative income opportunities.
– A work of art capable of reconnecting art and environmental protection.
And so, in 2022, in association with French sculptor Jules Pennel, and with the help of over 50 local community members, they brought Madala, a life-size elephant, to life.
– An elephant built from recycled poaching materials to divert steel and rope traps from their deadly project.
– An elephant covered in a multicolored, wool-knitted skin, to tell the story of the resilience of the women who made it, and the diversity of lush nature.
– An elephant born of the work of men and women to change the popular imagination and reconcile man and wildlife.
After a long journey across Mozambique, and before being sold to raise funds for a school of arts and crafts, Madala arrives today in majesty in Maputo and settles in the gardens of the Centre Culturel Franco-Mozambicain, where she is on display from July 3 to October 3, 2024.
An opportunity to get to know him and discover the story of his extraordinary odyssey.
An odyssey made up of adventures and human stories. An odyssey of hope!
“Madala is a collective creation, made possible thanks to the participation of over 40 Mozambican and international artists and the support of local communities, former poachers who have been reconverted, numerous rangers, those guardian angels of African wildlife and nature, and the women of the Yao Crochet project.
We have all come together to create this majestic sculpture, which aims to convey the importance and vastness of the Niassa Reserve, to recall a dark past, but also to recognize the efforts of the fight against poaching. But most of all, our ambition is to bring hope to all the men and women who live in the reserve.
By bringing this life-size elephant to life, our dream is to connect art and environmental protection!”
Paula Ferro & Derek Littleton
Madala, (the old man of Niassa in the Yao language) was born in the Niassa Special Reserve, the country’s largest protected area. Situated between the two most isolated provinces in northern Mozambique (Niassa and Cabo Delgado), and covering over 42,000 km2, this reserve is one of the last bastions of wildlife in southern Africa.
Frozen in time by its isolation and still recovering from colonization and a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992, the reserve is now home to over 60,000 inhabitants who are far from basic infrastructure and services, and face conflict with their environment and its wildlife.
Threatened by poaching and human-wildlife conflicts, the Niassa Special Reserve experienced one of the biggest crises in its history in the 2010s, with the collapse of large animal populations. The number of elephants fell from 12,000 to 3,500 between 2013 and 2018. To reverse this trend, local authorities and international cooperation have mobilized so that in 2022, the reserve celebrated 5 years without poaching.
It was against this backdrop that biologist Paula Ferro, head of projects in the Niassa reserve, and Derek Littleton, director of the Lugenda Foundation and the Luwire concession, together with French sculptor Jules Pennel, decided to put their artistic talents to work on a project as ambitious as it is meaningful: the construction of a monumental, collaborative work of art, a life-size elephant, sculpted from confiscated metal materials resulting from poaching, and whose skin is knitted in colored wool by the local women’s collective “Yao Crochet”.
Two years to bring Madala to life, the steel and wool elephant It took over two years of work to bring Madala to life.
Built in close collaboration with the reserve’s communities, Madala has enabled over fifty men and women to find work and, above all, to learn new trades.
A monumental structure made from recycled poaching materials
Over the years of fighting poaching, forest rangers have amassed several tons of steel and rope traps, thousands of empty cartridges, materials destined for illegal mining exploration…
It was these “war treasures” – 684 steel traps, 356 rope traps, 133 gold mining pans machetes, 209 pickaxes, 120 rounds of ammunition – which, diverted from their deadly purpose, were needed to build Madala’s metal structure: a monumental sculpture measuring 5mx7m. 6 men and 2 women worked on the metal structure for over 125 days.
Under the guidance of artist-sculptor Jules Pennel, these men and women learned how to work with steel, cutting, shaping, bending, assembling and welding, to give each piece of metal the desired dimensions and shape.
With him, they discovered how to handle tools such as grinders, disk saws, drills, welding machines, chain saws… that were previously unknown to them.
These are all activities that require technical skill, precision and patience.
“They range in age from 17 to 48. They call themselves brothers and sisters. Most of them have never been off the reserve. This is their first formal job. They have experienced war, disease, cyclones, drought and hunger. For the past three months, I’ve been training Josina, Norte, Matola, Cecilia and Roques to work with steel. I’d be lying if I told you it was easy. I’ve lost count of the moments of joy, anger, fatigue and incomprehension. Every day is made up of new challenges and new learning. This elephant story is above all an encounter. And what an encounter!”Jules Pennel (AKA Julo) – Artist