Fady Kambana  

[2014 - 2016]

Among the Antambahoaka of the southeast coast, in the Mananjary region, raising twins is Fady ( Taboo/Forbidden ). This ancestral practice, which is still in force, consists of rejecting twins at birth or abandoning them. In the past, they were killed or one of them was excluded from the village. 

The traditional chiefs of the ethnic group called Ampanjaka, who are still very attached to this tradition, continue to perpetuate it, in defiance of the conventions and treaties on children's rights, all of which have been ratified by the Malagasy authorities. But, for some years now, some mothers have decided to break the “Fady” by keeping their children even if it means being ostracised from the community. For love of their children, these mothers run the risk of being rejected by their spouse, their family and the community, excluded from the family tomb, thus putting them in a great precariousness which feeds the belief in the curse even more.

Christian Sanna's Fady Kambana series offers a new vision of this well-known subject in Madagascar through a series of family portraits. Rather than portraying the Fady with misery and poverty, Christian Sanna wants to bring these families to the forefront as pioneers of change. These photographs, inspired by traditional family portraits, highlight the relationship between mother and children to show the ridiculous opposition between maternal love and fear of the tradition.

This work was carried out in 2013, in partnership with the association Tsy manary zaza (We don't abandon our children) composed by the mothers. The association was established with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to defend the rights of children and help parents raise their twins. Most of its mothers are trained by the UNDP to learn how to provide for their families and find a more decent life.