October 29, 2009

A Case for Addu (Contd.) - Photo Essay 2

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My relationship – if you can call it that – with Addu is rather old and in some ways complex too. Apart from my childhood visit to Addu with my parents of which I do not remember anything, my father had served as the Vice Chairman of Addu Development Authority and was at the time of his death in 1981 the elected representative of Fuahmulah at the then parliament. He also managed to adopt an eight year old boy from Addu whose mother had recently died in a road accident. Since then the boy had remained with us and we think of him as family. So due to these reasons, there were many friends from Addu who visited our home in Male regularly, some of whom stayed on for several days. My first visit to Addu as a grown up was in my late teens when I worked as Planning Officer Trainee at the then Ministry of Planning and National Development. The visit was with a team of World Bank consultants who were working on one of the National Development Plans that the previous government used to publish every 5 years. Now they look like sad lies to me. Or technically rather fluent sounding lengthy texts outlining ambitious plans that seemed more and more elusive as time went by. In fact, I have never been able to read any of these plans from beginning to end as they seemed increasingly removed from life as it unfolded in front of my eyes.

Koagannu Cemetry, Meedhoo, Addu Atoll. Believed to be the oldest cemetery in the Maldives, it is severely neglected. Although this entrance view offers a poor idea of the details in the tombstones, the remaining stones are intact and offer much to study. Meedhoo is also known to be the island where Islam was first practiced among the Maldivian islands. But regrettably I had not come across this version of the conversion of the Maldives’ to Islam written or published anywhere. And I only came across this through verbal accounts of those whose roots were in Addu (region, south). It could be a possible consequence of those living or whose family roots were traditionally in Male had written popularly available accounts of the conversion and had managed to either deliberately avoid this version of history or just managed to neglect it. It’s also possible that these versions of the Maldives’ conversion to Islam are equally valid. Perhaps it was someone or those from Meedhoo who first began practicing Islam in the Maldives. And the King based in Male might have declared Islam to be the official religion of the country much later. Photo: September 2009, MW

Koagannu Cemetry, Meedhoo, Addu Atoll. Believed to be the oldest cemetery in the Maldives, it is severely neglected. Although this entrance view offers a poor idea of the details in the tombstones, the remaining stones are intact and offer much to study. Meedhoo is also known to be the island where Islam was first practiced among the Maldivian islands. But regrettably I had not come across this version of the conversion of the Maldives’ to Islam written or published anywhere. And I only came across this through verbal accounts of those whose roots were in Addu (region, south). It could be a possible consequence of those living or whose family roots were traditionally in Male had written popularly available accounts of the conversion and had managed to either deliberately avoid this version of history or just managed to neglect it. It’s also possible that these versions of the Maldives’ conversion to Islam are equally valid. Perhaps it was someone or those from Meedhoo who first began practicing Islam in the Maldives. And the King based in Male might have declared Islam to be the official religion of the country much later. Photo: September 2009, MW

Koogannu Cemetry, detail. Some of the well-maintained tomb stones remarkably resemble the stones at the Friday Mosque in Male, implying that the carved designs were a style followed by stone carvers in different parts of the country and not just in Male, the capital.

Koogannu Cemetry, detail. Some of the well-maintained tomb stones remarkably resemble the stones at the Friday Mosque in Male, implying that the carved designs were a style followed by stone carvers in different parts of the country and not just in Male, the capital. Photo: September 2009, MW

Nearing Feydhoo jetty, looking towards Gan. Even at the time of my first visits as a grown up, in the early ‘90s there was much talk of the potential of Addu in how strategically it was located. The economic possibilities of Gan as airport or a seaport which can be operated as a hub or a trans-shipment port was even then widely discussed during the consultations that took amongst the Addu community and the World Bank consultants and in the meeting held among other stakeholders and government offices in Male. Given the hard working people of Addu who amount to more than 50% percent of all those employed in the tourism sector, and given that according to some estimates more than 60% of all tourism establishment owners are those belonging to the Addu region, the causes of neglect of the development of the region is difficult to fathom in anyway other than a lack of political will.

Nearing Feydhoo jetty, looking towards Gan. Even at the time of my first visits as a grown up, in the early ‘90s there was much talk of the potential of Addu in how strategically it was located. The economic possibilities of Gan as airport or a seaport which can be operated as a hub or a trans-shipment port was even then widely discussed during the consultations that took amongst the Addu community and the World Bank consultants and in the meeting held among other stakeholders and government offices in Male. Given the hard working people of Addu who amount to more than 50% percent of all those employed in the tourism sector, and given that according to some estimates more than 60% of all tourism establishment owners are those belonging to the Addu region, the causes of neglect of the development of the region is difficult to fathom in anyway other than a lack of political will. Photo: September 2009, MW

(to be continued)




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