Jangadeiros, knights of the ocean
A real life adventure
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A project to know, to learn and to value the future. The Jangadeiros safeguard an intangible cultural heritage that represents the soul of Ceara state in Brazil. This project highlights the Jangadeiros’ background and value, as well as their contribution to the history of Brazil.
Why this exhibition?
Because it is a universal story.
Because it is a tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
Because its themes and characters have international relevance.
Because it is a live world, although its roots come from a distant past.
Because it is an exemplary sustainable activity.
Because it is an authentic story of the real life in Brazil.
Because it is a story to be told to the world to feel a gap in Ceara’s culture and economy.
Because it is an artisanal fishing practice and a life philosophy.
Because it is a monument of Jangadeiros from Ceara.
To discover history.
To learn the marine nature of Ceara.
To awake the artistic sensitivity.
To learn the value of Jangadeiros in the modern culture.
Jangada-Raft. The oldest vessel
The oldest vessel in the world with more than 30 thousand years of existence, first conscious formula of a ship driven by human hands, the jangada-raft sailed through all the ancient seas of Antiquity.
Ulysses ran away to Ogygia Island in a jangada-raft.
He made the raft as broad as a skilled shipwright makes the beam of a large vessel, and he filed a deck on top of the ribs, and ran a gunwale all round it. He also made a mast with a yard arm, and a rudder to steer with. He fenced the raft all round with wicker hurdles as a protection against the waves, and then he threw on a quantity of wood. By and by Calypso brought him some linen to make the sails, and he made these too, excellently, making them fast with braces and sheets. Last of all, with the help of levers, he drew the raft down into the water.
Odyssey, Book V
The marine peoples knew it and used it as a vehicle for fishing and heroism. The Portuguese adventurers found it in India, from where they brought the term to Brazil. The vehicle was daily used by Brazilian Indians (they called it igapeba or piperi). Over time, the jangada-raft incorporated new elements (sailing, bowling, rowing) and became a kind of a symbol of courage for the Northeastern man in daily adventures by the green wild seas of his native land. This is how Luís da Câmara Cascudo tells and praises the raft in his unsurpassed novel Jangada, the best book ever written on the subject in the world of literature.
Convict admirer of the jangadeiros, Cascudo collected an important part of his study through the contact with old jangada sailing masters and instructors and their fishing devices. This lively material was completed by the persistent and loving study in books and documents published throughout the centuries.
Where goes that hardy Jangada-raft, which rapidly flies from the Ceara coast, with her broad sail spread to the fresh breeze of land?
Where goes it, like the white halcyon seeking his native rock in the ocean solitudes?
Three beings breathe upon that fragile plank, which scuds so swiftly out far into the open sea.
José de Alencar, Iracema – Chapter I
The Sea Dragon
Francisco José do Nascimento, also known as Dragão do Mar (Sea Dragon) was a leading jangadeiro, a master and revolutionary practitioner, who actively participated in the Abolitionist Movement in Ceara, the pioneer state in the slavery abolition process in Brazil.
As a jangadeiro, Chico learned to read when he was 20 years old. He is considered the greatest hero in favor of slave freedom in the state. His action consisted of localizing any vessel that would come to the Mucuripe Harbor. After conducting his jangada-raft next to the newly coming vessel, he would communicate the end of the slave traffic in the state.
“There is no brute force in this world that can make the Harbor to be reopen to the slave trade”
And, under his leadership, the Jangadeiros of Ceara opened their sails of their boats to welcome Jose do Patrocínio in 1882.
He was a reference for all fishermen. Jangadeiro Jacaré wrote the following quotation: “I almost forgot to say one thing. If the winds had been friendly to us, we would have gone to Aracati, by the Jaguaribe River, the land of the Sea Dragon, a jangadeiro and our symbol”.
The Raid of Sao Pedro Jangada
A peaceful adventure through the social rights of Brazil.
In 1941, Jacaré, a leading jangadeiro from the Mucuripe community, together with three other partners, led a trip on a jangada that went from Fortaleza to Rio de Janeiro, the federal capital at the time.
Getúlio Vargas, the president of Brazil, welcomed them and responded to all the labor claims that motivated their adventure.
Jacaré learned to read and write to register the trip in a logbook and to face the Brazilian authorities with dignity. While many rights struggles faced with bloodshed were taking place in Brazil and in many parts of the world, the four fishermen grabbed the international attention due to their great adventure.
Their adventure lasted 61 days, facing with no compass the open sea, storms and other adversities. They were guided only by the stars… It was a unique record in the history of sailing.
For the Fortaleza Jangadeiros, this was the first step in their long journey to receive their recognition as integrated members of the Brazilian society.
The world of the jangadeiros. Elemental, unique, shrinking. A world whose end is in sight.
Orson Welles
Orson Welles – It’s all true
O filme sobre os Jangadeiros que partiram de Fortaleza e chegaram no Rio de Janeiro, com o objetivo de reivindicar seus direitos trabalhistas ao então president Getúlio Vargas, revelou-se uma grande Aventura e tornou-se uma tragédia. A morte de Manuel “Jacaré” o transformou em um mito. O encontro de Jacaré e Orson, de culturas tão distantes, alterou as trajetórias de vida de cada um, trágica para Jacaré, e resultou em um filme não finalizado pelo diretor. Somente quando dois jornalistas encontraram as bobinas originais, décadas depois, é que o filme ganhou vida.
Nele, se reconstitui o universo praieiro dos Jangadeiros, a rotina de pesca, o trabalho feminino, a fragilidade da jangada, a vida difícil dos pescadores, as casas simples, cobertas de palha de carnaúba. No filme intitulado “Four men in a raft”, os quatro Jangadeiros são retratados com seu sonho de mudança, a ameaça no mar, a ida ao Rio de Janeiro e a morte no mar. Esse filme relata a manifestação de afirmação do trabalho feito por esses homens que enfrentam, todos os dias, o mar.
Jacaré, um anti-herói que tornou-se herói, encontrou a morte no mar, que sempre foi sua fonte de vida. O mar se tornou sua última morada e a sua glória derradeira. Ele é um verdadeiro herói do Ceará e este projeto propõe o reconhecimento de sua história, o seu justo valor na memória das gerações futuras.
While the Ganges is called Ma or Mother, the Tiber was addressed as Pater or Father. Both rivers exude a sense of the sacred, merging the harmony of landscape and culture with the life rhythms of its people. Through my lens, I have tried to represent these two dramatic riverine worlds in this photographic exhibition.
The Ganges is the holiest of all India’s rivers. On its banks, it is possible to reconcile modernity with rituals and thoughts that have deep and ancient roots. In earlier ages, Western culture also held a sacred vision of the natural world. However today only India is traversed by rivers that are still viewed as “gods”. This is the gift which Indian spirituality offers the world.
Jangadeiros 1950 – 2024
Chico Albuquerque
Marcel Gautherot
Giancarlo Cammerini
The ecosystem of the sea
Over the last ten years, on several trips, Giancarlo Cammerini has investigated the world of the Jangadeiros.
An accurate research that, through respectful and constant frequentation over time, has allowed Giancarlo to be welcomed into the communities.
In his journey of more than 1600 km of beaches, he crossed the six states of Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas, Pernambuco, Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, encountering 12 fishing communities.
The result is a series of photographic images and video interviews with the fishermen, who tell of their difficulties in their daily work, and of the fishing method that has remained unchanged for over 400 years.
A sustainable system still practised by a few communities around the world.
Indigenous and artisanal fishermen are the outpost of the preservation of the last traditional ships still under sail. These boats continue to be the source of income for hundreds of thousands of families in coastal communities. These craft are part of local maritime traditions that are often centuries and occasionally more than a thousand years old. Indigenous Sails believes that commercial initiatives are key to the survival outside museums of these fishing sailing vessels. In addition, the continued use of these vessels prevents the extinction of ancient maritime traditions; the type of cultural expressions that UNESCO approved in 2003: the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage.
Jangadeiros represent all these communities and we will show the culture and the courage of these fishermen struggling to survive in a changing world.
Progetto di
