ZIG ACTION AFRICA. Call for cooperation
Local Development Project promoted by Ibrahima Seydi for food security and employment promotion to alleviate migration in the Casamance region, Senegal.
Ibrahima Seydi is an African artist, sculptor, and activist from the region of Casamance Ziguinchor. He emigrated to Europe at age 14, when his parents took him to live in Paris, where he later studied chemistry at the University of Notre Dame. In 1997 he visited his uncle who lived in Mataró, Catalonia and liked the way in which the people there were looking for life, so he decided to stay, having his papers in order since 1998. in 2010, he moved to Barcelona from where he fights for the rights of African migrants and claims the dignified integration of Africans based in Barcelona and the entire Spanish state. In this sense, his most personal struggle is manifested from his art as a sculptor through the creation of his own style in carved recycled wood. The tradition of Senegalese sculptors is a trade that since childhood, Ibrahima inherited from his family where he learned to make typical Senegalese sculptures, an activity that he continues to practice in the city of Barcelona for 14 years. In addition to continuing with the family tradition, Ibrahima Seydi has reinvented his own wood carving technique which he has promoted through exhibitions in Barcelona and France. From his experiences as an immigrant, he decides to create a project that helps combat the clandestine migration from Africa to Senegal. That is why in 2015 he founded Zig Action Africa, an eco-entrepreneurship, local development and a self-managed project that seeks to create job opportunities in Senegal to give new life opportunities to young Africans, for employment promotion to alleviate migration in the Casamance region of Senegal. Since he had land that his mother had given him, Ibrahima proposed to start farming and that is how the Zig Action Africa project bega
Zig Action Africa is an intelligent eco-entrepreneurship project aimed at developing sustainable business models based on ecological restoration for the promotion of the African economy. The project creates employment by building a productive and self-sufficient fabric in Senegal that manages to give a decent alternative to emigration, solving the roots of this phenomenon. This eco-entrepreneurship model is based on the traditional activities of Senegalese culture: agriculture, livestock, fishing, medicine & artisanal.
For more information please visit the website: https://zigactionafrica.wordpress.com
Environmental education: clinic and school of traditional ethnobotanical medicine. Artistic research and artisanal creation.
At 90 km from Ziguinchor, a plot of four hectares was obtained that the town of Diannah gave to Zig Action at a very low price with the commitment to work in a community way to benefit the people. The ground was cleaned and mango and orange trees were planted, and soon there will be pineapples. In this plot, the breeding of lambs and the cultivation of millet and sorghum that will serve as food for the chickens that are raised on the farm of Ziguinchor are contemplated. In this way, the quality of the product is guaranteed and the high costs due to intermediaries are avoided.
Zig action Africa in the context of Invisibledrum Art Association
Zig Action is building an ethnobotanical clinic and school in Diannah intending to foster traditional knowledge concerning medicinal plants for the implementation of culturally sensitive approaches to natural remedies use policies and their local and international exchange. In this way, the project will generate jobs for the preservation of traditional healing and healing practices where the profession of medicine and traditional midwifery is taught.
An important part of this area of the project is to transfer ethnobotanical knowledge through the planting of traditional herbs and the elaboration of different medicines. The intention is to generate workshops and courses both local and international. The project focuses on schooling and job creation for marginal single women and mothers in the Senegalese community. Moreover, it wants to make visible the highly dynamic nature of homemade medicines in rural Africa and highlight the urgent need to inventory the uses of popular plants. The evaluation of these medicinal plants is very important since they represent a means of primary health care for the majority of the local population.
In addition, the great potential we see in this area is the good weather and the proximity to the lake, the site is like an island. This motivates us to think about a possible project around the idea of building a large rural house or cultural center for artistic residency, workshops, and activities.
Call for cooperation
Zig Action Africa invites artists and researches to create strong cooperation for the potential exchange of culture and traditional knowledge. For further information about future events, open calls and activities please get in touch.