Travel And Tourism Trends: Africa

Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts

35 Cows And A Kalashnikov | An African Journey

"No boy soldiers. No hunger. No safaris."

Here's a beautifully produced trailer of a movie titled 35 Cows And A Kalshasnikov by Oswald Von Reicththoven.

It's in three parts: a tribute to the stick-fighting Surma tribe of Southern Ethiopia, the dandy movement of Brazzaville and the voodoo wrestlers in Kinshasa.

Stick fighting is a sport and ritual the Surma people take extremely seriously. In most cases, stick fighting is done so young men can find wives, and is a way for young men to prove themselves to the eligible young women.

The "dandy" movement of Brazzaville involves young men who love to wear meticulously in sartorially fashionable dress, and these are known as "sapeurs". Pastel-colored three-piece suits in designer labels are a staple of the Sapeurs' fastidiously assembled ensembles. They stand out among the widespread poverty, strutting the streets like walking works of art.

In the Congo, wrestling is extremely popular, but the main difference between the way it's practiced here is that the Congolese like to introduce a mystical, magical “voodoo” element to the theatrics. So apart from the obvious play-acting, there are also “magical traditions” involving powders, spells and zombie-like transformations of wrestlers.

Oswald von Richthofen is a producer and director, known for 10000 BC (2008), 35 Cows and a Kalashnikov (2014) and Franzmann (1979).

Fabrice Monteiro | Signares

I'm always interested in the intersection of fashion and travel photography. Exotic and beautiful women in exotic dress...what's not to like? One of my modules during my photo expedition to Vietnam will include a model shoot in Hoi An....and I really look forward to it.

In that vein, I feature the lovely fashion-travel-cultural work of Fabrice Monteiro, which showcases gorgeous women taking the roles of Signares. According to Wikipedia, Signares was the name for the French-African women of the island of Gorée in French Senegal during the 18th and 19th centuries.

These women held some power in a patriarchal system throughout the Atlantic Slave Trade, and over time amassed considerable power in trade and wealth. Some owned land as well as slaves. European merchants and traders, such as the Portuguese, settled on the African coastal societies inhabited by Signares and would marry them in order to benefit from their connections and wealth.

Fabrice Monteiro, living and working in Dakar, is a Belgian-Benin photographer who, while an industrial engineer by training, adopts the style of photo-reportage and fashion photography. He specializes in Africa, and being of a cultural mix himself, favors subject matters that provide the same mix.

Cameron Karsten | The Vodou Trail

"The Engungun spirit enters the body and becomes a direct translation of God".

Readers of this blog will know of my interest in documenting vodou or voodoo for quite a while, and until I'm able to finalize my research, and allocate some time to do so, I have to content myself with the work of others...often magnificent work...about this age-old, and misunderstood, religious practice.

Both Cameron Karsten and Constantine Savvides produced a multimedia project that documents the origins of this belief system in West Africa to the shores of the New World. Cameron's website has a ton of still images of vodou practitioners in West Africa.

Voodoo, or Orisha, as it is practiced today, originated many hundred years ago among the Yoruba people who live in the region of modern-day Togo, Benin and parts of Nigeria. Followers of voodoo believe in an unapproachable god and an array of spirits who serve as intermediaries. Slaves, forced to leave Benin's sandy shores in their millions, took such beliefs to the U.S. and the islands of the West Indies, where they spread and formed the basis of religions like Candomblé, Macumba, Santería and Umbanda.

The Vodou Trail is the dedicated website for Cameron's and Constantine's documentary work on vodou, exploring the misconceptions about the practice, and about its clandestine aspects.

Masks of Dwo | Aitor Lara

The masks of Dwo from José Bautista on Vimeo.

To start off the week, here's a really unusual dance ritual performed by the Bwa people of Burkino Faso.

According to Wikipedia, the Bwa people are an ethnic group indigenous to central Burkina Faso and Mali. Their population is approximately 300,000 and they are known for their use of elaborate masks, made from leaves or wood, used in rituals.

While 5% of the Bwa are Muslim, and 10% are Christian, the remaining 85% are animists. The latter worship a creator god called Wuro, whose son was Dwo, the god of new life and rebirth. The Bwa use leaf masks more than wooden ones, and these leaf masks frequently represent Dwo in religious ceremonies. The masks also represent the bush spirits including serpents, monkeys, buffalo and hawks. These performances generally take place in the dry season between February and May.

Aitor Lara is a Spanish photographer/videographer who worked in different countries bringing to light the anthropological dimensions of social minorities such as indigenous peoples, and sex workers. He showed his work in international photography fairs such as ARCO and ParisPhoto. He received a number of research grants, including one that allowed him to carry out a project in Uzbekistan. He published a number of books, including Maestranza, a photographic report about the bullring of Seville. He has published in magazines such as NewsWeek, Financial Times, Ojo de Pez orVokrug Sveta. In 2012, he published the book Ronda Goyesca edited by La Fábrica. He was a nominee of the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Grant in 2012.

Lourika Reinders | The Himba

After a holiday hiatus, here is my first post for 2014, in which I chose to feature the African tribe of Himba.

The Himba are indigenous peoples of about 20,000 to 50,000 people mostly living in northern Namibia. Pastoralists and cattle breeders, the Himba wear little clothing, but the women are famous for covering themselves with otjize, a mixture of butter fat and ochre, possibly to protect themselves from the sun.The mixture gives their skins a reddish tinge.

Unfortunately, the Himba people have suffered a great deal over their history. Severe droughts and guerrilla warfare reduced their overall numbers, and in the early 1900s, they barely survived attempted genocide by German colonialists. Atrocities were committed for which the German government apologized in 2004, almost 100 years after the fact.

In the 1980s it appeared the Himba way of life was coming to a close. A severe drought killed 90% of their cattle, and many gave up their herds and became refugees in the town of Opuwo living in slums on international relief. Because they live on the Angolan border, many Himba were also kidnapping victims in the Angolan civil war.

Lourika Reinders was born and raised in Namibia, and studied in South Africa. She is the daughter of a successful safari guide and grew up bushwhacking the African wilderness. She made photography her career in January 2012, and is now concentrating on commercial photography work in Namibia.

Charlotte Rush-Bailey | Black & White Spider Awards Nominations

Charlotte Rush-Bailey has been on virtually all my recent photo expeditions-workshops, and has recently had two photographs made during these trips nominated in the Black & White Spider Awards' People Category .

The first top photographs was made at a Vedic school during The Oracles of Kerala Photo Expedition/Workshop, while the lower top photograph was made during the In Search of Sufis of Gujarat Expedition/Workshop at the Mira Datar Sufi shrine.

The lower photograph of the elephant was made in February 2013 and was awarded a Honorable Mention in the Wildlife Category. Charlotte is a keen proponent of protecting elephants, and had dedicated a website Elephants Forever to discourage consumers from buying ivory.

Charlotte is a photographer who migrated to the world of photography from a corporate career that covered three decades of marketing and communications positions in a variety of global industries including energy, financial services, media, conservation, technology and professional services. This gave her opportunities to work with people all over the world, and to learn to appreciate cultural nuances and the influences of socio-political forces.

Irene Becker | Durbar Festival

I haven't posted much travel/documentary photographic work of Africa (with the exception of Ethiopia) on The Travel Photographer blog, so I'm very glad to redress this shortfall by featuring the very interesting work of Irene Becker.

One of the galleries that caught my eye was of Irene's photographs of the Grand Durbar in Argungu, Nigeria. The Durbar is an annual festival celebrated in several cities of Nigeria at the end of the Muslim festivals Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Its highlight is a parade of the Emir and his entourage on horses, accompanied by music players, and ending at the Emir's palace.

Irene tells us that the Durbar in 2009 involved more than 500 horses, 120 camels, 1760 men and women dressed in traditional indigenous attires with resplendent colors. The Emir of Argungu led a special group of horsemen in a rich and beautiful display.

The slideshow of Irene's Durbar photographs consist of 20 still images, however there are some more on her blog. There are few photographs of this event on the internet, and most of them belong to Irene.

Irene Becker describes herself as a culture, travel and doucumentary freelance photographer, and is based in Budapest, Hungary. She earned a degree at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad at its Department of Music. Her images have appeared in brochures, annual reports, billboards, books, magazines, web sites, exhibit spaces, greeting cards, and have been featured in fine art gallery exhibits, as well as in individual collections of photo lovers worldwide. She also produces stock for Getty Images.

The Frame | Voodoo Festival

Photo © AP / Jon Gambrell-Courtesy SacBee's The Frame

The Frame, the Sacramento Bee's photo blog, features photographs of the exciting Benin's Voodoo Festival. This is certainly one festival I would have loved to attend, but it completely fell off my radar. Perhaps next year? It appears it's held every January 10th. There are also a number of travel companies that can arrange for tourists (oh, no!!) to attend the festival.

But who knows? Perhaps a future destination for one of The Travel Photographer's Photo Expeditions-Workshops?

Ouidah, on the Atlantic coast of Benin, is where voodoo began, and the launching point for its voyage to the Americas with the boatloads of African slaves. It is also the mecca for the spirits and gods worshipped by practitioners of Voodoo, or Vodun, a recognised religion in this former French colony in West Africa that is home to 9 million people.

According to the accompanying write up on The Frame, local banks and the post office closed as Ouidah celebrated this annual festival,; which is increasingly drawing curious foreigners. With its mix of beliefs and traditions, the Voodoo practiced here shows both a clash of cultures and the ability for ancient traditional beliefs to adapt to modern life.

Shannon Jensen | Imbalu

Here's another compelling photo essay out of Africa, titled Imbalu and is by photographer Shannon Jensen.

The ritual of circumcision amongst the Bagisu tribe of Uganda is called Imbalu, and they believe that one's voyage to manhood begins with ithat ritual, with the whole community participating in it. This involves walking around the circumcision candidates' village, visiting religious sites to appease the gods, singing and dancing to folk songs that praise these gods.

The tribal elders say the origin of the practice is mysterious, even to them. But there are various conflicting legends associated with the necessity of males having to undergo the circumcision.

Circumcision seems to have been common practice in the Arabian peninsula in the 4th millennium BCE, while the earliest historical record of circumcision comes from Egypt, dating to about 2400–2300 BCE. Circumcision was done by the Ancient Egyptians possibly for hygienic reasons, but also was part of their obsession with purity.

It is a prominent feature in the Hebrew Bible (possibly because of the Ancient Egyptians) with over 90% of Judaism adherents having the procedure performed as a religious obligation. Although not mentioned in the Qur'an, circumcision is considered essential to Islam, and is universally performed among Muslims.

Shannon Jensen is a documentary photographer based between East Africa and Washington DC. She has a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She attended the 2009 Eddie Adams Workshop and is currently featured on the Emerging Talent roster of Reportage by Getty Images. Her clients include The New York Times, Die Zeit, German GEO, Newsweek, Monocle, MSF, Oxfam and the National Geographic Society.

Jacquelyn Martin | Tribe of Ghosts

"The genetic condition known as Albinism can be a death sentence in Tanzania."

Jacquelyn Martin, a staff photojournalist with the Associated Press (Washington DC) is featuring a compelling audio slideshow on her website, titled Tribe of Ghosts.

The East African nation of Tanzania is a particularly dangerous region to be an albino. Albinism is a defect of melanin production that results in little or no color (pigment) in the skin, hair, and eyes. And in Tanzania, as in other African countries, albinos are discriminated against, and their murder has been reported. They are hunted for their flesh, a horrific result of superstitions and the desire of witch doctors to make "magic". A common belief is that albinos don't die, but vanish like ghosts.

Tanzania has one of the highest rates of albinism in the world — nearly 1 in every 1400 people as compared to about 1 in 20,000 worldwide.

Jacquelyn Martin's work has been recognized with awards from the White House News Photographers Association, NPPA, and the Women Photojournalists of Washington.

NPR has also featured Ms Martin's photographs along with an article by John Burnett, along with an audio story and her still photographs of Tanzanian albinos on ThePictureShow blog.

Frederic Vanwalleghem | Vodun

"Vodun practitioners worship a pantheon of gods and lesser deities that inhabit objects ranging from stones to waterfalls."

Here's a short video made of moving images and stills by photographer Frederic Vanwalleghem made in Ouidah (Benin)of the ancient belief system of vodun.

Despite concerted efforts of Christian missionaries, this ancient belief system still has millions of adherents along West Africa’s former Slave Coast, from Ghana to parts of Nigeria, and especially in Benin. In 1996, Benin’s democratic government officially decreed vodun a religion, and ever since, thousands have openly practiced it. It's estimated that 20 percent of the population of Benin, or about a million people, practice pure vodun.

The belief system is called vodun in Benin, vodou or voodoo in Haiti and vudu in the Dominican Republic.

Frederic Vanwalleghem is a Belgian photographer; deeply interested in African religious traditions, and especially in vodun, a topic he has researched for years. He became interested in vodun when he first traveled to Cuba and discovered santeria, the Afro-Cuban religious tradition, and was subsequently introduced its secret ceremonies in Trinidad. Later, he traveled to Nigeria and Benin, to look for the roots of diasporic traditions like santeria, condomble and vodun.

An interesting article on vodun was recently featured in The New York Times, and a full interview with Frederic Vanwalleghem was featured in The Leica Camera Blog.

Out of Eden Walk: 30 Million Footsteps

A few posts ago I suggested there were no more explorers in the mold of Richard Francis Burton.

I was wrong.

An incredible exploration trek is being planned by Paul Salopek, a writer for the Chicago Tribune and National Geographic, who will be walking the journey taken by early man tens of thousands of years ago.

The walk, Out of Eden, will take 30 million footsteps, over 21, 000 miles over 7 years to complete. It will start in Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia, and will cross the Red Sea into the Middle East, cross China, into Siberia, cross the Bering Strait into Alaska and then walk all the way down the western coasts of North and South America.

Graphic courtesy The Observer

Salopek will be taking a micro-light laptop, video and audio recording tools, since he intends to record his journey; including landscapes and voices and faces of the people he meets on the walk. He will also be taking a satellite phone through which he will be uploading his journal's recordings to his his website.

He tells The Guardian newspaper that "We will be creating a family portrait of humanity for the next seven years."

That promises to be one damn exciting journey for all of us.

Jan Schlegel: Pain & Beauty Redux

Oh, followers and readers of The Travel Photographer blog will like this!

Ethnophotography, traditional process, photographs made with a 4x5 field camera (Ebony SV45 Ti) on Kodak Tmax 400, and negatives developed in Kodak D76 Developer 1+1 dilution...then selenium toned. What's not to like?

"None of the people photographed wear special make-up or were specially dressed before the photos were taken. They were all captured in their own habitat — at the market, in the village square, or simply on the roadside." Jan Schlegel

Jan C. Schlegel is a German photographer, whose ethno-photographic work is in the tradition of Phil Borges. In 1998, he began traveling throughout Asia and Africa with the objective of photographing diverse people groups and tribes, and has so far traveled to 61 countries and is still in pursuit of the beauty and diversity of the nations.

The quality of these photographs are just remarkable. His website claims that he succeeds in not only creating artistic photographs, but in documenting the uniqueness of his subjects...the people who posed for him. Absolutely.

And I have a lot of respect for a photographer who doesn't follow the fad of making demeaning portraits of Ethiopian tribal people wearing ridiculous ornaments. Speaking of ornaments, take a look at the magnificent jewelry of the Himba women...and don't miss the beautiful eyes of the Kalash women.

I had posted Jan's work some years ago here, but it seems he changed his website, and added much more work.

Captain Tristram Speedy: Travel Photography At Bonhams

Why would I mention Bonhams, an auction house, on The Travel Photographer's blog?

Well, it's because Bonhams is holding an auction of a rare photographic album of 180 Ethiopian images by Julia Margaret Cameron, Felice Beato and others. These images include a number of self portraits of Captain Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy(1836-1910), a well-known English explorer and adventurer during the Victorian era, who was also known by his Amharic name 'Báshá Félíka'.

He was a fascinating character who was an Indiana Jones of his time, with a long association with India, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Born in Meerut (India), Captain Speedy was a red-haired bearded man 6'5" tall, who learned to speak Amharic, adopted Ethiopian native dress, and was photographed by Cameron in various guises such as a Bedouin chief, a Nubian chief, a Nubian warrior and much more. He was the inspiration for a number of popular books.

I am enormously interested in news like that because it merges history, Africa, Asia, adventurism, exploration and photography. Despite my abhorrence of colonialism, I consider men such as Richard Francis Burton and now, Tristram, as quintessential eccentric explorers, as orientalists and ethnologists, and as remarkable linguists with an extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures.

They just don't make men that way anymore.

For those who don't know Julia Margaret Cameron: she was a British photographer born in Calcutta, known for her portraits of celebrities of the time. Her photographic career was short, spanning eleven years of her life (1864–1875), and got her first camera when she was 48 as a gift from her daughter.

As for Felice Beato (1832-1909), he was an Italian–British photographer, and one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. His work provides images of such events as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Second Opium War.

Nicolas Lotsos: The Masai Typology

"Photography is my motive for travel."

The Masai Typology is one of the many gorgeous photo galleries of Africa by photographer Nicolas Lotsos. I'm not much of an African wildlife aficionado, but his fine art galleries of photographs of the handsome Masai, of Zanzibar, or of the African slums and townships are lovely exemplars of monochromatic imagery.

Nicolas Lotsos is a fine art photographer (and in my view, a travel photographer as well) and a basketball agent. He co-runs a sports agency representing some of the top sports figures in Europe. He has been a photographer since he was 16 years old, and specializes in photographs of wild life and nature.

He also won an impressive number of awards, to include Gold Winner at the 2012 Grand Prix de la Photographie, Outstanding Achievement at the Spider Award 2012, the 2012 Veolia Wildlife Photographer Award, including two awards by the Travel Photographer Of The Year (TPOTY), amongst others.

A Nilotic group in East Africa, next to the Indian Ocean, the Masai society is patriarchal, and elder men decide most major matters for each group. A full body of oral law covers many aspects of behaviour. The Masai are monotheistic, worshipping a single deity.

Dan Kitwood: Benin Voodoo

Photo Dan Kitwood/Getty Images-Courtesy The Guardian

Can anything dispel the auguries of a Friday 13th better than a Benin Voodoo festival?

Being fascinated by such religious festivals and rituals (the more obscure the better), I was glad to have seen Dan Kitwood's gallery of a Benin Voodoo festival in The Guardian, which also led me to his website/blog on which he lays out further captivating photographs (with better resolution) of Voodoo which also has a slideshow at the bottom of the post.

As seen in the above photograph, the costumes are incredibly colorful...perhaps rivaling the Bhutanese dancers at tsechus in their elaborateness and intricacy of their embroidered designs .

In the tiny West African nation of Benin, Voodoo is and remains the state religion. Incredibly, voodoo has officially been a national religion of Benin since 1996, where more than 60% of the people are said to follow its traditions. Slaves from this corner of Africa brought the religion to the New World, most notably to Haiti.

And while Christianity and Islam in Benin are also practiced, voodoo still influences them. In the voodoo tradition, there's a supreme god, Mahu, and a number of smaller gods or spirits, with whom humans can interact.

Dan Kitwood is a UK photojournalist who, after completing a degree in Fine Art, traveled around South East Asia, Australasia and South America, which triggered a passion for photography. After two years working for the South West News he joined Getty Images in London.

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