A disaster is underway: the destruction and eventual disappearance of the mango trees that line the road of the Loango Bay, known as the slave road, on its three (3) axes: Bas-Kouilou, Brazzaville and Cabinda.  

The mango fruit’s scientific name, “Mangifera Indica l”, is also known as “Matatchébo” in the vernacular language of Congo. The Cryptorhynchus mangiferae, or mango stone weevil, attacks all of the mango trees along this road, to the point where no mango tree manages to reproduce a mature sapling at its base. Consequently, these historical symbols, natural heritage of our common history, will come to an inevitable end.

The Coopérative Verte (COOVERT) has initiated the Matatchébo project to respond to the urgent need to safeguard these mango trees—some of which are centuries old. The project also builds on the symbolism of the mango tree to share memorial stories from the caravan trails to the portage routes, via the road of the deportees of the Bay of Loango. 

To this end, COOVERT has established partnerships with a wide range of experts from both the public and private sectors, to carry out the implementation of the project tasks.  The duration of the project is planned for 5 years (2021-2026).

The project will oversee the creation of two nurseries to produce two (2) million plants by vegetative propagation in Nkoungou, Congo and in Guadeloupe—the COOVERT headquarters. These plants will serve as living epitaphs, for the preservation of the memory of the two (2) million humans deported from the Bay of Loango against their will. People who were uprooted from Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas where they were enslaved for years.

These two nurseries, which will employ an innovative propagation technique, will form the spearhead of a vast program, movement if you will, to promote the Matatchébo tree and its descendants. It’s the bridge between those who were left behind and those who were taken against their will. The stories of the mango plants will be accompanied by the stories that these original trees witnessed. The stories will bring awareness throughout the world among those whose stories are rooted in these histories. 

The propagation and growing of these trees contribute to important ecological gains. This program will also help to link this painful past to a present that is impatient for justice and a future that only aspires to live together in peace—thus bridging the gap to the healing of our people.

In addition, it will enable the entire population of the target areas (in Congo and Guadeloupe) to benefit from the economic spin-offs of the project’s activities (training, jobs, etc.).  

Finally, at the cultural level, it will promote and rehabilitate the traditional medicinal use and functions of mango leaves and bark, and its ancestral cultural values. For more information, request a full report below.