Four to Follow #16: Photo Stories by African Photojournalists
Sharing stories from across the African continent by the talented members of the African Photojournalism Database (APJD).
In this sixteenth edition of Four To Follow, Fatma Fahmy, Amanuel Sileshi, Esther N’sapu, and Amru Salahuddien unveil unique and intimate stories from Egypt, Ethiopia, the Republic of Congo and Libya. Through their inquisitive and keen eyes, you’ll learn about the time-travelling trams of Alexandria, vaccination roll-out in Ethiopia, the essential waterways of Lake Kivu, and the teen soldiers from Libya.
‘Once Upon a Tram’ by Fatma Fahmy, Egypt
In her ongoing documentary series, Egyptian documentary photographer Fatma Fahmy freezes daily life moments in trams in Alexandria, moments otherwise forgotten and hard to duplicate. Like the TARDIS or other fiction-based time machines, Fahmy explores this historic Alexandrian tram she calls ‘a box of time’ and transforms it into a nostalgic photo booth. Using her considerate and warm gaze, Fahmy delves deeper into the idea of vulnerability amongst Alexandrians, within the dynamics of the immediate mobile environment.
“I travelled to the past with this ‘box-like’ tram. This box has suffered the injury of time and dust accumulated on its old, rickety body. The outside world has put its mark on it. I decided to enter this chest to explore its inner world, I thought it might be a reflection of its outside world. The stories of people are complimentary, and their daily lives are evident in every look, gesture and expression. Light penetrates the tram and falls on people as if it was a lightning of hope in the every day’s darkness. I can feel the rhythm of life. With each one present, I also feel the intensity of their day.”
Alexandrians have a long history of the tram station that dates back more than 90 years. Fahmy uses her camera to explore this once an efficient mainstay of public transport making portraits of passengers, reflecting on the space and life shared.
In Once Upon a Tram, Fahmy regards the everyday by writing a history that would have otherwise gone undocumented.
Existing between the thin cracks of space and time, Fahmy weaves time travel, a storytelling concept often exhausted in fiction, in daily life through documentary photography.
“With each passenger being there, entering or getting off the tram, a story comes and another goes. Life is live stream. As people wonder about their fate and going to their destination, my question remains: ‘How long will this box endure the outside world changes?’”
Fatma Fahmy (b. 1991, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) is an Egyptian documentary photographer based in Cairo. Fahmy obtained a BA degree in Chemical Engineering from Cairo University in 2013. She focuses on capturing daily life in Arab countries, in particular the Egyptian society.
Through her lens, she creates respectful images amplifying historical and environmental bonds that highlight people’s daily lives. Fatma makes use of ethnographic photography practices in the process of creating visual narratives; creating an image that mimics the memory of the place and its people. In 2020, she was the recipient of the Daniele Tamagni Grant at the Market Photo Workshop.
You can follow Fatma Fahmy on her Instagram account.
‘Accelerating Access to the COVID-19 Vaccine in Ethiopia’ by Amanuel Sileshi, Ethiopia
In March 2021, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health launched its COVID-19 vaccination rollout. After receiving their first batch of 2.2 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVID-19 UN-led COVAX initiative, the first round aimed to primarily vaccinate the most at-risk populations, such as frontline health workers, teachers and the elderly. With a population of 112 million, Ethiopia has been working at full tilt to strengthen prevention efforts, enhance rapid detection, and implement a robust national COVID-19 deployment and vaccination plan that is in line with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendations.
Ethiopia’s rapid mobilization and implementation of a COVID-19 emergency response is the result of collective collaboration between the Ethiopian government and the World Bank under the COVID-19 Emergency Response Project approved last spring. Ethiopian photojournalist Amanuel Sileshi has been recording this rollout since its arrival in the city of Addis Ababa.
With the introduction of vaccines, the Ministry of Health announced that they are at a landmark stage in the response to COVID-19, but vaccines will be of sideline use if face masks, keeping distance and hand hygiene are not maintained.
COVID-19 cases and deaths have dramatically increased in Ethiopia (as of 5 April 2021, there were 227,255 cases and 3,146 deaths reported in Ethiopia), as has COVID’s economic and social impact given the closures of schools and businesses. The first shipment of 2.2 million AstraZeneca vaccines produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) arrived in Ethiopia on 6 March 2021 through COVAX, which facilitated the procurement and shipment of the vaccines. Subsequent shipments of 5.4 million doses as part of the current global deployment plan are expected to arrive in Ethiopia by May 2021.
Amanuel Sileshi is a photojournalist based in Ethiopia. Sileshi works for AFP and has been working with NGOs as a freelancer for over four years. He is a member of the African Photojournalism Database. He loves documenting the change and the effect of humanity in regards conflicts, wars and political reforms. Sileshi holds a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering from Addis Ababa University.
You can follow Amanuel Sileshi on his Instagram account
‘Lake Kivu, a Link between the Countryside and the City’ by Esther N’sapu, the Democratic Republic of Congo
Motorboats and wooden canoes circulate Lake Kivu, between the city of Bukavu and the villages of Kalehe, Idjwi and Minova. Bukavu is located in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the three villages are located at the extreme south of the lake. Several boats and motorboats traffic between Bukavu and these villages creating a busy agricultural economy.
These villages are among those that supply the city of Bukavu with fresh food from the fields. The inland farms are endowed with bananas, pineapples, cassava, cassava leaves, beans, sugar cane, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Farmers keep and trade livestock such as goats, chickens and poultry like turkey.
Water transport is the easiest means due to the poor state of the roads and their lack of security. By road, in the dry season, it takes several hours to get to these villages, but crossing the lake takes only 2.5 hours for large boats and three hours for motorboats. Without the existence of these boats, the economy between Bukavu and these villages would greatly slow down and the inhabitants much more isolated. Moreover, thanks to this traffic, traders can make a round trip to the city during the same day.
In addition, the traders who make this journey between Bukavu and the villages are the sole suppliers for their villages.
Their communities depend on them for essentials such as salt, rice, soap, peanut oil and also telephone airtime. These resources usually are often quite expensive.
Traders who use this means of transport are confronted with several dangers, such as drowning caused by overloading. This often results in several deaths and loss of goods. Inland waterways are very important because some of these villages are landlocked while others are located in islets along Lake Kivu. These boats are their only way to reach the cities.
Esther N’sapu is a journalist and photographer based in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a member of the African Photojournalism Database. The photographic work of Esther N’sapu is based on the life of the human being in his daily life. She wants to show the outside world that despite the difficulties, despite the problems, life does not stop. Through these photographic images, she wants to bring some people to see her region in a new way, not as a land of conflict but rather a land where there is hope.
You can follow Esther N’sapu on her Instagram account
‘The Fight for the Capital’ by Amru Salahuddien, Libya
On April 4, 2019, Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) conducted an offensive on the Libyan capital, the city of Tripoli. And whilst the world’s attention was fully on the coronavirus, Libyans were stuck between the war and the pandemic. The war didn’t end when the pandemic struck.
The frontline spread in southern Tripoli, fighters were often very young, grouped into small brigades, resisting the offensives of the warlord of the east, who was backed by regional and international powers.
GNA troops were mainly armed with out-of-age machine guns and vehicle-carried heavy machine guns. Faced with the bombardment of mirages and drone attacks, Russian Wagner mercenaries and modern warfare equipment provided to the LNA by its allies, they had no choice but to let the enemy take the ground that they may regain in often deadly ground battles.
Tripoli has been plagued by years of war and still testifies to its resistance as Tripolitans still fear another offensive yet to come, which would potentially start in the city of Sirte, and move towards Tripoli, again. The war ended in June 2020 leaving 2,485 people dead and 150,000 civilians displaced.
Amru Salahuddien is an Egyptian-Canadian photojournalist. He studied fine arts and specialized in painting, but one year after graduation he switched to photojournalism, doing his first coverage of the war in Gaza in 2008, while covering the growing social movement in Egypt at the same time.
Between 2008 and 2014, Salahuddien was covering news and stories in the MENA region, focusing on armed conflicts and humanitarian issues. Since 2014, he’s been living between Canada, where he is focusing on social movements and First Nations/indigenous communities issues, and the Middle East and North Africa.
You can follow Amru Salahuddien on his Instagram account
The African Photojournalism Database is a collaboration of the World Press Photo Foundation and Everyday Africa. The database identifies professional African photographers, photojournalists and documentary photographers reporting on cultural, economic, environmental, political and social issues on the continent, as well as sports, nature, and stories of everyday life. The database better connects local photographers with the global media industry and offers a more diverse representation of the African continent.
If you are a photo editor looking to hire photographers from the African continent, you can see the database online here or request the full database at apjd@worldpressphoto.org.
