VOA新闻杂志2024--In Mali, Hot Weather Threatens Ancient Fishing Tradition

In Mali, Hot Weather Threatens Ancient Fishing Tradition

Thousands of fishermen holding nets stood side by side. They waited for the signal. Suddenly, they rushed to a large area of water and threw in their nets, dropping to their knees in the mud. Soon after, one held up a fish the length of his arm.

For several hundred years, people have gathered in the town of San in southern Mali for Sanké mon, a collective fishing rite¹.

It begins with animal sacrifices and offerings to the water spirits of Sanké pond. The rite, with dancers and traditional costumes, is on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural traditions. The list is meant to honor important places and activities to cultures around the world.

Climate change

The event celebrates the town’s founding and marks the beginning of the rainy season. But some people say climate change and heat waves are interfering² with the tradition.

Sanké pond is starting to disappear, said a village chief, Mamadou Lamine Traoré.

A heat wave in Mali this year has also led to deaths. The heat wave began in March when many in the Muslim-majority country observed the Islamic holy month of Ramadan with fasting. Fasting means to deny oneself food for a period.

The Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center said that limited data in Mali makes it impossible to know the number of heat-related deaths. But the group still estimates that the deaths this year have likely been in the hundreds, if not thousands.

World Weather Attribution is a nonprofit science group that looks at the effects of extreme weather.

In April, the group released a study. It said the latest heat wave in the Sahel, the area of Africa south of the Sahara Desert, is extreme.

The researchers said climate change has made high temperatures in Burkina Faso and Mali hotter by 1.5 degrees Celsius³.

Experts have warned of more hot weather.

The future

At the latest Sanké mon collective fishing activity, men felt hot as they cooked chickens. A national flag waved on a weathered flagpole along the edge of the pond.

“This tradition was already established before I was born,” said Amadou Coulibaly, who remains⁴ faithful to it although there are growing difficulties.

When the rite was added to the UNESCO list in 2009, there were plans to dig deeper into the pond to prevent it from filling up with dirt, Traoré said. “But since then,” he explained, “nothing was done, and the pond is starting to create problems.”

He said, the pond’s disappearance⁵ would threaten not just the ancient fishing activity but also the town’s economic survival⁶.

I’m Ashley Thompson.

Moustapha Diallo reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

Words in The Story

net –n. a network of widely-spaced strings⁷ or ropes that are used to catch fish

mud – n. wet, soft dirt

rite – n. an act that is part of a religious ceremony

pond – n. an area of water that is smaller than a lake

costume –n. clothing that is for special occasions or events that is often colorful or different from normal clothing

1 rite   

n.典礼，惯例，习俗

参考例句：

• This festival descends from a religious rite.这个节日起源于宗教仪式。
• Most traditional societies have transition rites at puberty.大多数传统社会都为青春期的孩子举行成人礼。

2 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

3 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

6 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

7 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。