Project Description
The Mozambique National Ballet created a ballet to tell the story of the importance of forests and their resources to the life of rural communities, and the need for local people to manage and protect them, including protection from destruction by mostly foreign logging interests. The piece is called The Sacred Tree in recognition of the cultural as well as economic importance of forests in rural Africa. Funded in part by the Ford Foundation, the company worked in concert with other grantees of the Foundation's Mozambique Resource Management Initiative. A goal was to advance policy reform to sustainable community-based management systems in partnership with a more responsible private sector. The project was implemented from 1995 to 1997.

The Mozambique National Ballet drew on its distinguished tradition of combining folk and contemporary dance in powerful performances that capture the national imagination and drive public debate. It has been particularly concerned with giving voice to rural people. Ballet director David Abilio argues that dance serves as a powerful tool of communication because it uses a vocabulary that is participatory and rooted in African cultures. In a country with 80 percent illiteracy and little communications infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, other means for the flow of ideas are limited and not always effective.

The Sacred Tree was performed across rural communities in several provinces in central and southern Mozambique, as well as in urban communities and internationally. One of the spin-offs of the work in Manica Province was building the capacity of local dance-theater groups. One of these, the Cultural Activists Program, is now involved on an on-going basis in extension programs in the forests and mountains of Chimanimani in central Mozambique.

Civic Engagement/Dialogue Activities
Field work by company members included learning from local people about the role of dance within its society and about the various dances used. The company incorporated and developed this material with special attention to dances linked to forest and other natural resources. The company also sought to understand the nature of the issues surrounding forest management in an area in order to better target the message of the ballet. The company linked up with local informal dance groups to share skills and vision, so that these groups could continue to deploy dance in this manner in the future.

Information Sources
Ford Foundation project summary.