The city of Gabès in southern Tunisia is the world’s only oasis located on the seashore. It was a flourishing agricultural and commercial centre in ancient times, as well as under Carthaginian, Byzantine and Arab domination. Nowadays the large phosphate factory in Gabès has turned the oasis into a distressing maritime desert: the air is unbreathable, the water resources have been used up and the impact on agriculture and the health of residents is catastrophic. People suffer from respiratory diseases and fluorosis – for example, Fatma, although barely twenty-three years old, has lost almost all her teeth.
Exposition Panafricaine
Musée National du Mali
Faten Gaddes (Tunisia)
Gabès, 2011
