Sarah Begum underwent the
symbolic ritual aged just 21 after she left London to spend two weeks with the
Huaroani tribe, which has 3,000 members in the mineral-rich Ecuadorian
rainforest. Despite historically tense relations with outsiders dating to the
1950s, when five U.S. missionaries who tried to infiltrate the tribe were
killed, she claimed she was welcomed with open arms. Sarah Begum (right), just
21 at the time, was surprised to be married off to a tribal warrior named
Ginkto who was 30 years her senior - as
a symbolic gesture to spread their plea against oil firms. She was given a crown made from macaw
feathers in the naked ceremony. She
learned how to weave with grasses and hunt with a blowpipe, and by the end of
the period she had 'married' a warrior in his 50s named Ginkto - who spoke only
the villagers' own Huaroani dialect and a few words of Spanish. It was a
symbolic gesture to spread the tribe's plea for help against oil firms, not a
legally binding marriage - but the language barrier meant things were not
obvious at the start.
'I was chosen by the elders
and I had no idea what was going to happen to me,' she said. 'I was called into
a hut and everyone inside was naked. I was told they were making me their
traditional clothes, which is a piece of string made of plant fibres worn
around the waist – not even a thong. 'I thought, "I can't get naked, this
is being filmed", and for a split second I thought about running away, but
I wanted to fully embrace and understand their traditions. Ms Begum made her
experiences into a documentary film which was screened at Cannes last year.
'I was told, "they are
going to make you Queen". I was surrounded by the women and warriors
chanting and dancing in the hut - I thought I was being initiated. 'They gave
me the chicha drink and the name Imaca, which means The Last Name, before
marrying me to my husband-to-be, the tribe's most popular warrior, Ginkto.' The
marriage was an honorary one to build
trust with the tribe. Ms Begum was one of many 'eco-tourists' and documentary
makers hosted by the tribe over the years, but insisted the wedding ceremony
was a rare occurrence. However, she was not the only Briton who Ginkto
'married'. Two years earlier the same tribal warrior 'wed' Karen Morris-Lanz, a
single mother from Milton Keynes who went to live briefly in the village. In
that case, however, it was for a BBC documentary specifically about marriage.
The journey to the Huaroani
people's village takes two days by boat
from the nearest town. Now 26, Ms Begum made her experiences into a half-hour
documentary, Amazon Souls, which was shown at the Cannes Film Festival last
year. Since then it has been accepted at the Sheffield Doc/Fest and Adventure
Travel Film Festival, and this year Ms Begum was made a Fellow of the Royal
Geographical Society. She won the
5,800-mile air fare as one of ten finalists in the national Enterprising
Student Awards - the only woman that year. Other funds came from private investors
before the trip. Once in Ecuador she met her colleagues, British sound engineer
Stephen Bull and American cinematographer Frank Angelcyk, and taught English to
children in the Amazon region before venturing deeper into the jungle. Despite
not being able to swim, she traveled by boat for two days from the town of
Coca through piranha and alligator infested waters, stopping overnight at a
beach to fish for dinner.
The Huaroani people live on
top of some of South America's richest oil reserves, and campaigners say the
invasion of outsiders has increased tension in their ancestral land. Hostility
began in 1956, when five evangelical missionaries from the U.S. were killed
after trying to convert Huaroani villagers to Christianity in a
widely-publicised case. It is said to have been the first documented time the
tribe was contacted by the outside world. As well as oil there are mineral
reserves beneath the rainforest and it is a target for illegal loggers. Several
roads have been built into Huaroani territory. Tribe members told a BBC
documentary in 2011 that they could no longer grow food on river banks because
they feared contamination would wash downstream.
Strange are
the ways of people and strange things do happen ….
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
16th Dec 2o14
