This post takes you on a journey on the traditional way the Seychellois go about the task of Coconut Picking and Husking –Ramas ek Plis Koko.
This is the second post in a series of posts that we have covered and intend to cover relating to the coconut and how it has impacted our life as Seychellois. You can read the first post here.
My story
As a young boy, I lived with aunty Margot Lablache, who had quite a large property at Grand’Anse on Praslin Island. One of the major sources of earnings for the property, apart from the tomatoes that she was known for, was from the sale of coconuts. We would pick coconuts daily after school. They were all mature dry coconuts that had fallen off the tree naturally. Unlike most countries, we let nature take its course and let the nuts ripen fully in the tree and then fall to the ground where they are picked. This resulted in a very high quality copra that gave Seychelles a good name in the market place.
We would then count the coconuts and place them in a locked store. Once a month over a weekend we would husk them. They were sold almost immediately. We never husked the coconuts too far in advance because the rats used to damage quite a few of them by eating away at the soft eye to get to the nut inside, thus damaging the nut. We would husk quite a few thousand coconuts over one weekend. It is with this personal background that I share this post.
Some historical Trivia
It was as long ago as 1790, when Louis Jean-Baptiste Philogene de Malavois (1748-1827) was the commandant of the Seychelles, that the commercial importance of coconuts began to be exploited.
LEARN MORE
If you want to explore this topic further and learn more about the culture and traditions of these small gems in the middle of the Indian Ocean, click here or on the book cover below. This will link you to our newly published book, which takes you on a journey that is “unique by a thousand miles.” It provides historical context for some of our cultural practices, deepening your appreciation of the Seychelles and hopefully inspiring you to visit, explore, and engage in these activities.
Get your copy and let us begin our journey into the rich and fascinating world of the Seychellois Creole heritage. Open these pages and begin the journey through the coconut groves, the plantations, the workshops and the paths that once linked village to village. Discover the skills, customs and stories that helped shape the Seychellois people.
We will climb coconut palms to tap toddy, discover how baka is made, follow the work of picking and husking coconuts, and learn how copra was produced, among other things. These were not merely occupations; they were part of the rhythm of life in the islands, passed from one generation to another.
Some of these traditions have survived and continue, at least in part, to this day. Others have gradually disappeared, becoming memories of an older Seychelles. Guano mining, the production of karot taba, and the cultivation of patchouli increasingly belong to that vanished world, a world worth remembering before its stories fade completely.
Click here or on the book cover to start your journey into the Seychellois Creole World.
