omen still
wash their
clothes in its
brown waters. Dozens of
small fishing boats painted
red, aqua, and yellow rest
along its banks. The people
who live along the river
have developed a special
relationship to “Velho
Chico” (Old Francisco)—
affectionate, reverent and
utilitarian. The river is
transportation, a source of
food and water for crops.
Its clay makes the brown
regional pottery. And the
people of the river always
ask for its blessing.
[ The river supports the daily life of those who live and work along its banks, including washing clothes in Barra. ]
Rio São Francisco threads its way across the eastern side of Brazil, bringing water to part of the driest regions of Brazil, the semi-arid scrublands known as the sertão, or hinterlands. While the people of the region look to the river for sustenance, for two centuries the Brazilian government has also looked to the river and its potential for power, development, trade and irrigation.
The story of Rio São Francisco is one in which history, nature, politics and culture all intertwine.
An interdisciplinary Albright team wrote their own chapter in the story of the river as Professors Elizabeth (Betsy) Kiddy, Ph.D., and David Osgood, Ph.D., intertwined their individual specialties of environmental science, watersheds, Latin America, history, and love of Brazil to create a unique sabbatical project.
The pair had been talking about a possible collaboration for some time, so they decided to join forces: she would research its history and culture for a new book and Osgood would compare watershed management practices between the U.S. and Brazil.
[ The São Francisco project team: Maria Cândida Mousinho, David Osgood, Paulo Silva (the driver), Greg Kiddy, Veralucia Alcântara, Patrícia Guerra, Betsy Kiddy and Naira Brandão. ]
Kiddy, associate professor and chair of history and director of the Latin American Studies Program, is a historian specializing in Latin America. In 2001, she and Kathy Ozment, instructor of Spanish, received a $120,000 Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education to integrate teaching about Latin America into a broader range of disciplines at Albright and to more fully integrate the Caribbean into its interdisciplinary Latin American Studies program. Osgood, associate professor and chair of biology, was among the faculty who participated in that project.
Kiddy has been to Brazil a couple of dozen times. Her book, Blacks of the Rosary: Memory and History in Minas Gerais, Brazil, chronicles the lives, ceremonies, and celebrations of Afro-Brazilians in colonial Minas Gerais and their modern urban descendants in the still racially identified communities of present-day Brazil. After the book was published, she says, “I began to look for a new project. Questions of the environment had always interested me. I had visited the river, always loved rivers, and I decided to write the history of the São Francisco.”
[ David Osgood tours the river in a small boat. ]
Osgood’s research focuses on watersheds, water management and wetlands. He has taken students to the Amazon in Peru, and has worked to quantify how well our attempts at repairing ecological systems are succeeding. He and his students have done extensive environmental work in the Berks County community, including collaborating on wetland restorations and water quality data, and using GIS to catalog plant species distribution and delineate features of the restorations.
Since his connections within the US watershed management network made it possible to next compare the same process across international boundaries, Osgood says, “I was specifically interested in the relative role of science and culture in influencing the enactment of watershed management policy.”
One goal of the project was to create a mechanism for exchange between the two countries, so Kiddy and Osgood built on an existing relationship with University Salvador (Unifacs) and the Partners of the Americas to develop the project. The other members of the team were geologist Shelley Kauffman, adjunct faculty member at Albright and Osgood’s wife, and Gregory Kiddy, Betsy Kiddy’s husband, who helped with translation and technical support.