Corps en lutte et terres asphyxiées : un regard sur les conséquences des sargasses en Martinique et en Guadeloupe

Abstract

Since 2011, inhabitants of Martinique and Guadeloupe (French West Indies) have been suffering from the disruption of sargassums’ beachings. Accustomed to the Atlantic coasts of the Caribeean territories for centuries, the flow and circulation of the brown seaweed in the high seas is now slowly evolving, before beaching on the West Indies’ coasts in massive and irregular quantities, suffocating the population. Throughout the years, Martinicans and Guadeloupeans have looked for solutions to protect their bodies, their land and the air they breathe, becoming, in a way, lay experts. At the same time, the wait for the recognition of the damage caused by chlordecone pollution from the 1970s to the 1990s, and just after the dismissal of the case announced in January 2023, state action seems even more eagerly awaited. To tackle the brown algae strandings, multiple alternative cooperation systems have been created locally. This article presents an analysis of the impacts of changing sargassum flows in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Keywords

• French West Indies
• sargassum
• public issue
• local cooperation
• decolonial ecology
• chlordecone.