The turtle was given the sea, and the sea was a great gift, and she was told one thing: she would have to come back to the land to lay her eggs, and the land would never again be her home.
The turtle nesting beaches at Ada Foah, Ningo, and along the Volta estuary, roughly October to March.
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Why the Sea Turtle Beats Its Breast
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Why the Sea Turtle Beats Its Breast
The turtle was given the sea, and the sea was a great gift, and she was told one thing: she would have to come back to the land to lay her eggs, and the land would never again be her home.
So she goes. Every season she hauls herself out of the water onto the sand, dragging a body built for weightlessness across ground that punishes her for every metre. She digs. She lays. She covers. And then she turns around and goes back to the sea, and she will never see a single one of her children.
And as she goes she strikes the sand with her flippers, again and again — the sound carrying up the beach in the dark — beating her breast, the old people say, because that is what a mother does when she has to leave.
If you visit Ghana. The turtle nesting beaches at Ada Foah, Ningo, and along the Volta estuary, roughly October to March.
The turtle was given the sea, and the sea was a great gift, and she was told one thing: she would have to come back to the land to lay her eggs, and the land would never again be her home.
So she goes. Every season she hauls herself out of the water onto the sand, dragging a body built for weightlessness across ground that punishes her for every metre. She digs. She lays. She covers. And then she turns around and goes back to the sea, and she will never see a single one of her children.
And as she goes she strikes the sand with her flippers, again and again — the sound carrying up the beach in the dark — beating her breast, the old people say, because that is what a mother does when she has to leave.