Moussa Loucar has fished in the Banguala Bay his entire life, and so has his extended family dating back hundreds of years. Moussa is a “Ceux des Marais” or people of the swamps, descended from those escaping slavery in the Brissiac Region and fleeing to the many islands of the wide bay. Moussa shows us around his hometown of Ville Libre, many of the houses are built on stilts built into the shallow bank. There are no stores here, simply sellers going around by canoe being flagged down by people leaning out their windows. He turns the boat around and the cranes of developer SIAT crowd the skyline. The sounds of construction ring through the village, just next to the village, construction continues on the “Baie du Roi” a new multi-use tourist village intended to be completed by 2025. The construction has largely damaged fishing grounds and the raising of a historic graveyard and now threatens a historic mosque. Additionally, developers illegally built on property owned by Loucar and others, however, due to the collective nature of the Ceux des Marais, the property is technically public.
For the last few years, Moussa Loucar has complained to the government of both the Brissiac Republic and the government of Kolda. Because of the Saint-Nazaine Argemeant of 1985, the white minority-rule region of Brissac holds administrative powers instead of the federal government.
The “Baie de Roi” project was first proposed in 2017 by a developer SIAT owned by Felicienne Joubert businesswoman and wife of Marceau Joubert, an influential Senator. The Joubrt’s have argued that the project has minimal impact on “the natives” and the economic impact will bring millions to both Brissiac and Kolda as a whole. Additionally, the federal government rejected Moussa Loucar’s claim and argued that Moussa had no right to claim land that never belonged to him in the first place. In response, Loucar is running for Senate in the same district as Joubert for the upcoming 2024 Election.
