A selection of published writing
In South Africa, Poachers Now Traffic in Tiny Succulent Plants
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
STEINKOPF, South Africa — On a moonless night in the desert in the far west of South Africa, Avrill Kaffer had just finished making a sale when vehicles with flashing lights emerged out of the darkness and an officer from the Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit leapt from behind a nearby bush, ordering him to the ground. By the time Mr. Kaffer realized he had been set up, he was already in handcuffs. As he looked on, police officers proceeded to open up the eight large cardboard boxes he had brought with him...
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
STEINKOPF, South Africa — On a moonless night in the desert in the far west of South Africa, Avrill Kaffer had just finished making a sale when vehicles with flashing lights emerged out of the darkness and an officer from the Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit leapt from behind a nearby bush, ordering him to the ground. By the time Mr. Kaffer realized he had been set up, he was already in handcuffs. As he looked on, police officers proceeded to open up the eight large cardboard boxes he had brought with him...
Improvised Library Brings Joy of Books to Kids Living in Gang Territory
(NPR)
Cape Town, South Africa - They call it the Hot-Spot library: a ramshackle building of plywood and sheet metal set on a crime-ridden street corner in Cape Town, South Africa. With its threadbare couches and mismatched carpets, the place looks somewhat dilapidated. On winter days, rain leaks through holes in the corrugated zinc roof and drips down onto the tables and bookshelves below...
(NPR)
Cape Town, South Africa - They call it the Hot-Spot library: a ramshackle building of plywood and sheet metal set on a crime-ridden street corner in Cape Town, South Africa. With its threadbare couches and mismatched carpets, the place looks somewhat dilapidated. On winter days, rain leaks through holes in the corrugated zinc roof and drips down onto the tables and bookshelves below...
"There's No More Water": Climate Change on a Drying Island
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Mutsamudu, Comoros - Hundreds of brightly clad women flock to the banks of the river each week to scrub their way through bundles of laundry. Some of them travel hours from tiny villages to access a critical but increasingly endangered resource here on the island of Anjouan: water. The island, part of the nation of the Comoros, off the East African coast, receives more annual rainfall than most of Europe. But a combination of deforestation and climate change has caused at least half of its permanent rivers to stop flowing in the dry season...
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Mutsamudu, Comoros - Hundreds of brightly clad women flock to the banks of the river each week to scrub their way through bundles of laundry. Some of them travel hours from tiny villages to access a critical but increasingly endangered resource here on the island of Anjouan: water. The island, part of the nation of the Comoros, off the East African coast, receives more annual rainfall than most of Europe. But a combination of deforestation and climate change has caused at least half of its permanent rivers to stop flowing in the dry season...
Cape Cormorants in Crisis
(BBC)
Cape Town, South Africa - On 11 January, ranger Andile Mdluli was conducting a regular patrol on Robben Island, most famous as the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, when he noticed that almost all of the island's thousands of adult Cape cormorants had disappeared. Unprotected, their chicks were being picked off by predators in their nests. "It was just carnage, with kelp gulls and ibises coming for these chicks," says Lauren Waller, a seabird scientist at Sanccob...
(BBC)
Cape Town, South Africa - On 11 January, ranger Andile Mdluli was conducting a regular patrol on Robben Island, most famous as the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, when he noticed that almost all of the island's thousands of adult Cape cormorants had disappeared. Unprotected, their chicks were being picked off by predators in their nests. "It was just carnage, with kelp gulls and ibises coming for these chicks," says Lauren Waller, a seabird scientist at Sanccob...
South Africa's Zip-Zap circus brings a big heart to the big top
(NPR)
Cape Town, South Africa - Phelelani Ndakrokra prefers not to talk about his past. But what the 23-year-old acrobat will say is that if he hadn't joined the circus ten years ago, he'd probably either be dead or in prison by now. "Where I came from it's hard to know what would have happened to me on the streets" says Ndakrokra, who grew up in a part of Cape Town where gang violence is rife. "The circus gave me a platform to feel free and do something I enjoy. It gave me a place to belong."
(NPR)
Cape Town, South Africa - Phelelani Ndakrokra prefers not to talk about his past. But what the 23-year-old acrobat will say is that if he hadn't joined the circus ten years ago, he'd probably either be dead or in prison by now. "Where I came from it's hard to know what would have happened to me on the streets" says Ndakrokra, who grew up in a part of Cape Town where gang violence is rife. "The circus gave me a platform to feel free and do something I enjoy. It gave me a place to belong."
Dim the lights: The last of Hong Kong's neon masters
(GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE)
Kowloon, Hong Kong - In a cluttered workshop on the third floor of a nondescript apartment block in the Mong Kok neighbourhood of Hong Kong, 78-year-old Wong Kin Wah patiently twists and turns a delicate glass tube over the sky-blue flame of a blow torch. A few minutes later, the tube has been transformed into a geometrically perfect five-pointed star, which Wong checks against the sketched outline on the desk beside him and then places gently on the counter. Within the week, the star will be hanging within a larger sign out on the street, sending a warm tangerine-coloured glow into the night sky...
(GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE)
Kowloon, Hong Kong - In a cluttered workshop on the third floor of a nondescript apartment block in the Mong Kok neighbourhood of Hong Kong, 78-year-old Wong Kin Wah patiently twists and turns a delicate glass tube over the sky-blue flame of a blow torch. A few minutes later, the tube has been transformed into a geometrically perfect five-pointed star, which Wong checks against the sketched outline on the desk beside him and then places gently on the counter. Within the week, the star will be hanging within a larger sign out on the street, sending a warm tangerine-coloured glow into the night sky...
Salvaging fossils on the Jurassic Coast
(HAKAI MAGAZINE)
Charmouth, UK - The narrow blue beam of James Carroll’s head torch sweeps methodically from side to side over the gravel and rocks of Charmouth Beach in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England. It’s early January and at 5:30 p.m. already pitch dark, save for the twinkling lights of the town of Lyme Regis in the distance. Abruptly, Carroll stops, bends down, and picks up a dull gray stone the size of a grapefruit. With practiced ease, he hits it sharply with a rock hammer and the stone splits in two to reveal the perfect spiral of a 190-million-year-old ammonite embedded within...
(HAKAI MAGAZINE)
Charmouth, UK - The narrow blue beam of James Carroll’s head torch sweeps methodically from side to side over the gravel and rocks of Charmouth Beach in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England. It’s early January and at 5:30 p.m. already pitch dark, save for the twinkling lights of the town of Lyme Regis in the distance. Abruptly, Carroll stops, bends down, and picks up a dull gray stone the size of a grapefruit. With practiced ease, he hits it sharply with a rock hammer and the stone splits in two to reveal the perfect spiral of a 190-million-year-old ammonite embedded within...
Wild weddings of the Comoros
(THE GUARDIAN)
Domoni, Comoros - It’s late evening in the Comoros, a remote volcanic archipelago situated between Mozambique and Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean, and the residents of Domoni have gathered in great numbers around the edge of the town’s central square to celebrate the marriage of Badaant el Mounyrou and her husband Dhinourayni Ali Kassim Ali Mbaliya. Spectators line the rooftops of nearby buildings and jostle for space around the square’s perimeter wall. Inside the arena, dancers avoid the horns of a charging bull while the crowd whoops and cheers...
(THE GUARDIAN)
Domoni, Comoros - It’s late evening in the Comoros, a remote volcanic archipelago situated between Mozambique and Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean, and the residents of Domoni have gathered in great numbers around the edge of the town’s central square to celebrate the marriage of Badaant el Mounyrou and her husband Dhinourayni Ali Kassim Ali Mbaliya. Spectators line the rooftops of nearby buildings and jostle for space around the square’s perimeter wall. Inside the arena, dancers avoid the horns of a charging bull while the crowd whoops and cheers...
Lockdown in the World's Most Unequal Country
(NPR)
Khayelitsha, South Africa - Children on tattered roller blades weave through crowds of people on the streets of South Africa's Masiphumelele township. Outside a cluster of colorfully painted shacks, young men sit hunched over a game of dominoes, and a woman has her hair braided by friends on a sidewalk. There is not one face mask or bottle of hand sanitizer in sight. Nothing, in fact, that would give away that the country is entering its fourth week of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Walk just a few miles over to neighboring suburbs, however, and you'll find yourself in a ghost town, where birdsong echoes through empty streets.
(NPR)
Khayelitsha, South Africa - Children on tattered roller blades weave through crowds of people on the streets of South Africa's Masiphumelele township. Outside a cluster of colorfully painted shacks, young men sit hunched over a game of dominoes, and a woman has her hair braided by friends on a sidewalk. There is not one face mask or bottle of hand sanitizer in sight. Nothing, in fact, that would give away that the country is entering its fourth week of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Walk just a few miles over to neighboring suburbs, however, and you'll find yourself in a ghost town, where birdsong echoes through empty streets.
Oceans Apart: Dispatches from a neglected migration crisis (LONGFORM)
(HARPER'S MAGAZINE)
Domoni, Comoros - I had been in Domoni—an ancient, ramshackle trading town on the volcanic island of Anjouan—for only a few summer days in 2018 when Onzardine Attoumane, a local English teacher, offered to show me around the medina. Already I had gotten lost several times trying to navigate the dozens of narrow, seemingly indistinguishable alleyways that zigzagged around the old town’s crumbling, lava-rock homes...
(HARPER'S MAGAZINE)
Domoni, Comoros - I had been in Domoni—an ancient, ramshackle trading town on the volcanic island of Anjouan—for only a few summer days in 2018 when Onzardine Attoumane, a local English teacher, offered to show me around the medina. Already I had gotten lost several times trying to navigate the dozens of narrow, seemingly indistinguishable alleyways that zigzagged around the old town’s crumbling, lava-rock homes...
The perfume isles
(GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE)
Anjouan, Comoros - Driving along the winding, potholed roads of the island of Anjouan in the Comoros archipelago, you can smell the nation's most iconic crop long before you see it. The scent - a heady, floral, spicy cocktail somewhat reminiscent of jasmine - is most powerful at dawn when it spills out of the plantations that dot the landscape and flows down over the steep volcanic hillsides towards the Indian Ocean below...
(GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE)
Anjouan, Comoros - Driving along the winding, potholed roads of the island of Anjouan in the Comoros archipelago, you can smell the nation's most iconic crop long before you see it. The scent - a heady, floral, spicy cocktail somewhat reminiscent of jasmine - is most powerful at dawn when it spills out of the plantations that dot the landscape and flows down over the steep volcanic hillsides towards the Indian Ocean below...
In Uganda's refugee camps, South Sudanese children seek the families they've lost
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Palorinya, Uganda — On a pale dirt road in the Palorinya refugee camp in northern Uganda, Raida Ijo clung to her 16-year-old son, Charles Abu, as though she would never let go. They sobbed quietly into each other’s shoulder. They had been separated for 19 months, since the day that fighting broke out between rebels and government troops in their village in South Sudan...
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Palorinya, Uganda — On a pale dirt road in the Palorinya refugee camp in northern Uganda, Raida Ijo clung to her 16-year-old son, Charles Abu, as though she would never let go. They sobbed quietly into each other’s shoulder. They had been separated for 19 months, since the day that fighting broke out between rebels and government troops in their village in South Sudan...
Mozambique slammed by second cyclone in two weeks
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Macomia, Mozambique - The people of Pemba scrambled to protect their homes yesterday as torrential rainfall after Cyclone Kenneth triggered massive flooding in the second disaster to hit Mozambique in six weeks. The government said that 160,000 people were at risk. In the Wimbi neighbourhood of the city men paddled boats down streets turned into rivers, while others waded through floodwater to reach higher ground. At a hotel near one of the main shopping centres, guests stood chest deep in water as they checked out and paid their bills in the lobby...
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Macomia, Mozambique - The people of Pemba scrambled to protect their homes yesterday as torrential rainfall after Cyclone Kenneth triggered massive flooding in the second disaster to hit Mozambique in six weeks. The government said that 160,000 people were at risk. In the Wimbi neighbourhood of the city men paddled boats down streets turned into rivers, while others waded through floodwater to reach higher ground. At a hotel near one of the main shopping centres, guests stood chest deep in water as they checked out and paid their bills in the lobby...
Sierra Leone's killer mudslide
(NPR)
Regent, Sierra Leone - In the early hours of Monday, August 14 last year, Samuel Senessie woke up to one of the most powerful rainstorms he had ever seen. Water cascaded down the steep slope of Sugarloaf mountain, a precipitous peak on the edge of Sierra Leone's tropical seaside capital, Freetown, where Senessie lived in a small concrete home with his family...
(NPR)
Regent, Sierra Leone - In the early hours of Monday, August 14 last year, Samuel Senessie woke up to one of the most powerful rainstorms he had ever seen. Water cascaded down the steep slope of Sugarloaf mountain, a precipitous peak on the edge of Sierra Leone's tropical seaside capital, Freetown, where Senessie lived in a small concrete home with his family...
Mosul's census of the dead
(THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE)
Mosul, Iraq - The sound of a shovel plunging through dry, stony earth breaks the unnatural quiet that hangs over the rubble-strewn streets of western Mosul. In a vacant lot flanked by burnt-out cars and bullet-pocked buildings, two young men take turns digging through the soil. Somewhere beneath, wrapped in a cheap synthetic blanket, lies the body of their mother, Aliya Saeed, who was killed by a mortar in June last year...
(THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE)
Mosul, Iraq - The sound of a shovel plunging through dry, stony earth breaks the unnatural quiet that hangs over the rubble-strewn streets of western Mosul. In a vacant lot flanked by burnt-out cars and bullet-pocked buildings, two young men take turns digging through the soil. Somewhere beneath, wrapped in a cheap synthetic blanket, lies the body of their mother, Aliya Saeed, who was killed by a mortar in June last year...
Village of the dead
(NPR)
Rantepau, Indonesia - As a host, 90-year-old Alfrida Lantong is somewhat passive. Lying resolutely on her back and gazing up through a pair of thick, dusty spectacles, she roundly ignores her son's murmured greeting as he enters the room, and she pays little heed to the gaggle of grandchildren clustered around her. But Alfrida can hardly be blamed for her unresponsiveness. After all, she has been dead for the last seven years...
(NPR)
Rantepau, Indonesia - As a host, 90-year-old Alfrida Lantong is somewhat passive. Lying resolutely on her back and gazing up through a pair of thick, dusty spectacles, she roundly ignores her son's murmured greeting as he enters the room, and she pays little heed to the gaggle of grandchildren clustered around her. But Alfrida can hardly be blamed for her unresponsiveness. After all, she has been dead for the last seven years...
Fire and brimstone - the last generation of Indonesian sulphur miners
(GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE)
Taman Sari, Indonesia - Amid swirling clouds of volcanic gas, Wahyudi raises his crowbar high above his head and brings it crashing down onto the ground beneath his feet. A small crack emerges in the hard, cadmium-yellow substance on which he’s standing, as he lifts the crowbar again to repeat the manoeuvre...
(GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE)
Taman Sari, Indonesia - Amid swirling clouds of volcanic gas, Wahyudi raises his crowbar high above his head and brings it crashing down onto the ground beneath his feet. A small crack emerges in the hard, cadmium-yellow substance on which he’s standing, as he lifts the crowbar again to repeat the manoeuvre...
Rebel hell - living in fear in the DRC
(NEWSWEEK)
Kambere Kahendo was cooking cassava leaves when the rebels arrived in her village in the northeast part of the Democratic Republic of Congo one August afternoon. She hurriedly gathered her children inside the house and locked the door, praying the fighters would move on. Moments later, gunshots erupted in the street. Her door was smashed from its hinges, and the rebels entered her home. Paralyzed by fear, Kahendo watched as the men began to slit her children’s throats with a machete, one by one, smiling and singing as they killed...
(NEWSWEEK)
Kambere Kahendo was cooking cassava leaves when the rebels arrived in her village in the northeast part of the Democratic Republic of Congo one August afternoon. She hurriedly gathered her children inside the house and locked the door, praying the fighters would move on. Moments later, gunshots erupted in the street. Her door was smashed from its hinges, and the rebels entered her home. Paralyzed by fear, Kahendo watched as the men began to slit her children’s throats with a machete, one by one, smiling and singing as they killed...
Driving ISIS out of Mosul, one dead militant at a time
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Mosul, Iraq - The dead man lay sprawled on his back in the rubble, his half-open eyes staring blindly into the cloudless skies over central Mosul. Beside him were four other bodies; all Isis fighters struck down two hours earlier by a mortar. For Major Anwar Mahdi Salah of Iraq’s Emergency Response Division (ERD), each corpse is a milestone in the long and gruelling battle against the caliphate declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the jihadists’ leader, in the city in June 2014...
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Mosul, Iraq - The dead man lay sprawled on his back in the rubble, his half-open eyes staring blindly into the cloudless skies over central Mosul. Beside him were four other bodies; all Isis fighters struck down two hours earlier by a mortar. For Major Anwar Mahdi Salah of Iraq’s Emergency Response Division (ERD), each corpse is a milestone in the long and gruelling battle against the caliphate declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the jihadists’ leader, in the city in June 2014...
Field of dreams - Rwanda's cricket revolution
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Kigali, Rwanda - Perched on a series of wooden benches overlooking the playing field, young sports fans watch the action unfold with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. They applaud seemingly at random, and occasionally wander off at key moments, unaware that the match is hanging in the balance. The game in question is cricket, the location is Rwanda, in the heart of Africa, and the spectators have absolutely no idea what is going on...
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Kigali, Rwanda - Perched on a series of wooden benches overlooking the playing field, young sports fans watch the action unfold with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. They applaud seemingly at random, and occasionally wander off at key moments, unaware that the match is hanging in the balance. The game in question is cricket, the location is Rwanda, in the heart of Africa, and the spectators have absolutely no idea what is going on...
After ISIS, Iraq's Christians in limbo
(NEWSWEEK)
Qaraqosh, Iraq - Three years ago, as darkness fell over the northern Iraqi town of Qaraqosh, Sabah Petrus Shema helped his extended family pile into a pickup truck and leave town. When they were gone, he grabbed two Kalashnikovs and waited as the sound of mortar fire drew near. A few miles down the road, the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) was advancing. By early the next morning, nearly all of the town’s residents were gone, and a stream of panicked soldiers began to pass through, retreating from the front...
(NEWSWEEK)
Qaraqosh, Iraq - Three years ago, as darkness fell over the northern Iraqi town of Qaraqosh, Sabah Petrus Shema helped his extended family pile into a pickup truck and leave town. When they were gone, he grabbed two Kalashnikovs and waited as the sound of mortar fire drew near. A few miles down the road, the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) was advancing. By early the next morning, nearly all of the town’s residents were gone, and a stream of panicked soldiers began to pass through, retreating from the front...
Whey out in the Congo
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Masisi, Democratic Republic of Congo - Africa’s second largest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, is known for many things: Its vibrant music, its impenetrable jungles, mountain gorillas, the world’s deepest river, and unfortunately, in recent decades, the stainof civil conflict. But one thing you might not expect to find there is cheese...
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Masisi, Democratic Republic of Congo - Africa’s second largest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, is known for many things: Its vibrant music, its impenetrable jungles, mountain gorillas, the world’s deepest river, and unfortunately, in recent decades, the stainof civil conflict. But one thing you might not expect to find there is cheese...
Barbershop tales in the time of ISIS
(THE TELEGRAPH)
Husseini, Iraq - Watching Qassim Daoud at work is like watching an artist. He moves with skill and confidence around his subject, his practiced hands sculpting in intricate detail the shapes and lines of each new masterpiece. But Daoud’s brushes are scissors and shears, his canvas the young men of Husseini village in eastern Iraq, where facial hair is a matter of great pride...
(THE TELEGRAPH)
Husseini, Iraq - Watching Qassim Daoud at work is like watching an artist. He moves with skill and confidence around his subject, his practiced hands sculpting in intricate detail the shapes and lines of each new masterpiece. But Daoud’s brushes are scissors and shears, his canvas the young men of Husseini village in eastern Iraq, where facial hair is a matter of great pride...
The dark side of Uganda's gorilla tourism industry
(THE BBC)
Kisoro, Uganda - On a bleak volcanic plain at the foot of Mount Muhabura in the south-western corner of Uganda several ramshackle huts of sticks and grass lie scattered among the boulders. They look like they they are designed to hold livestock or farm machinery, but these are the homes of the Batwa. They have lived here in abject poverty since being expelled from their native forests as part of a much lauded conservation programme in the 1990s...
(THE BBC)
Kisoro, Uganda - On a bleak volcanic plain at the foot of Mount Muhabura in the south-western corner of Uganda several ramshackle huts of sticks and grass lie scattered among the boulders. They look like they they are designed to hold livestock or farm machinery, but these are the homes of the Batwa. They have lived here in abject poverty since being expelled from their native forests as part of a much lauded conservation programme in the 1990s...
An Iraqi town's struggle to rebuild after ISIS
(AL JAZEERA)
Saadiya, Iraq - The phone's screen is small and pixellated, but the picture is clear enough. The video, shot from behind a patch of scrub, shows an empty road running across an arid plain. The person holding the camera evidently does not want to be seen. For a few seconds nothing moves; then, in jerky slow motion, a white hatchback enters the frame from the left before disappearing in a blinding flash of white light...
(AL JAZEERA)
Saadiya, Iraq - The phone's screen is small and pixellated, but the picture is clear enough. The video, shot from behind a patch of scrub, shows an empty road running across an arid plain. The person holding the camera evidently does not want to be seen. For a few seconds nothing moves; then, in jerky slow motion, a white hatchback enters the frame from the left before disappearing in a blinding flash of white light...
Inside Uganda's tiny Jewish community
(NEWSWEEK)
Nabugoye, Uganda - As Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni celebrated yet another election success in late February—he has been in power for 30 years—Rabbi Gershom Sizomu and his followers in the remote eastern village of Nabugoye were celebrating their own electoral victory. The head of a tiny rural community of Ugandan Jews, known as the Abayudaya, Sizomu had made history on February 19, becoming the first Jewish candidate to win a seat in the country’s Parliament...
(NEWSWEEK)
Nabugoye, Uganda - As Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni celebrated yet another election success in late February—he has been in power for 30 years—Rabbi Gershom Sizomu and his followers in the remote eastern village of Nabugoye were celebrating their own electoral victory. The head of a tiny rural community of Ugandan Jews, known as the Abayudaya, Sizomu had made history on February 19, becoming the first Jewish candidate to win a seat in the country’s Parliament...
Fighting river-blindness in Uganda
(AL JAZEERA)
Lapaya, Uganda - Outside the village of Lapaya in northern Uganda the Agogo river plunges 50 metres over the edge of a rocky escarpment in a series of dramatic waterfalls. Few tourists make it to this remote part of the country, but come here on a Monday and you will see several young men perched on a flat rock at the top of the falls, wearing white lab coats and staring intently at their exposed calves. These men are at the forefront of the battle against Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, a little known fly-borne tropical disease that has terrorised the area for as long as anyone can remember...
(AL JAZEERA)
Lapaya, Uganda - Outside the village of Lapaya in northern Uganda the Agogo river plunges 50 metres over the edge of a rocky escarpment in a series of dramatic waterfalls. Few tourists make it to this remote part of the country, but come here on a Monday and you will see several young men perched on a flat rock at the top of the falls, wearing white lab coats and staring intently at their exposed calves. These men are at the forefront of the battle against Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, a little known fly-borne tropical disease that has terrorised the area for as long as anyone can remember...
Inside the fight to save Freetown's architectural heritage
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - On a busy roundabout in the heart of this nation's capital stands an ancient cotton tree, marking the spot where Freetown was founded by freed slaves from North America more than 200 years ago. Walk for a few minutes toward the southeast, past the vendors who line the derelict remains of Victoria Park and through the bustling streets of the city center, and you will find at the corner of two rutted dirt roads a house that looks more suited to the American South than to a steamy West African capital..
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - On a busy roundabout in the heart of this nation's capital stands an ancient cotton tree, marking the spot where Freetown was founded by freed slaves from North America more than 200 years ago. Walk for a few minutes toward the southeast, past the vendors who line the derelict remains of Victoria Park and through the bustling streets of the city center, and you will find at the corner of two rutted dirt roads a house that looks more suited to the American South than to a steamy West African capital..
As ISIS flees, a new dread infests Iraq
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Bashir, Iraq - It is late morning in what is left of the northern Iraqi village of Bashir and silence hangs heavy in the air. Once home to 5,000 people, Bashir has become a ghost town. On all sides, buildings lie in ruins, a wasteland of breeze blocks, smashed glass and shattered homes.In the rubble of the village’s water plant, its plumbing twisted into tortuous forms, a child’s doll lies on its back, its plastic skin bleached by the sun...
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Bashir, Iraq - It is late morning in what is left of the northern Iraqi village of Bashir and silence hangs heavy in the air. Once home to 5,000 people, Bashir has become a ghost town. On all sides, buildings lie in ruins, a wasteland of breeze blocks, smashed glass and shattered homes.In the rubble of the village’s water plant, its plumbing twisted into tortuous forms, a child’s doll lies on its back, its plastic skin bleached by the sun...
How a Disney movie sparked a chess boom in a Ugandan slum
(Al Jazeera)
Katwe, Uganda - Eight-year-old Lillian looks nervously at her king. It's stuck; hemmed in on F3 by her opponent's castle and queen. Two moves later it's all over. Check mate. She looks around, despondently. Behind her around 20 other youngsters hunch over their chess boards, tense with concentration. This is not an average chess academy. Wayward chickens wander around the boards balanced on rickety wooden benches in a cramped dirt alleyway, while neighbours look on from the porches of their tin-roofed homes.
(Al Jazeera)
Katwe, Uganda - Eight-year-old Lillian looks nervously at her king. It's stuck; hemmed in on F3 by her opponent's castle and queen. Two moves later it's all over. Check mate. She looks around, despondently. Behind her around 20 other youngsters hunch over their chess boards, tense with concentration. This is not an average chess academy. Wayward chickens wander around the boards balanced on rickety wooden benches in a cramped dirt alleyway, while neighbours look on from the porches of their tin-roofed homes.
Seven years after a massacre, Guineans fight on for justice
(AL JAZEERA)
Conakry, Guinea - Asmaou Diallo was watching television in her home on the outskirts of Guinea's capital, Conakry, when the shooting began on the morning of September 28, 2009. Her heart sank. Her oldest son, 33-year-old Ali, had left home to join a pro-democracy rally that day, and she had feared the event could turn violent. She dialled his number but got no answer. She called again repeatedly until, eventually, someone picked up. But the voice on the other end was not her son's...
(AL JAZEERA)
Conakry, Guinea - Asmaou Diallo was watching television in her home on the outskirts of Guinea's capital, Conakry, when the shooting began on the morning of September 28, 2009. Her heart sank. Her oldest son, 33-year-old Ali, had left home to join a pro-democracy rally that day, and she had feared the event could turn violent. She dialled his number but got no answer. She called again repeatedly until, eventually, someone picked up. But the voice on the other end was not her son's...
Hot pursuit: scaling Mt Nyiragongo
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Nyiragongo, Democratic Republic of Congo - We’re two hours into our trek and already my legs are beginning to shake with fatigue. My lungs feel like they’re about to explode, my right boot is falling to pieces, and now it’s starting to rain; fat icy droplets soaking through my clothes. I’m 2262 metres up an active volcano in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and beginning to wonder why on earth I agreed to do this...
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Nyiragongo, Democratic Republic of Congo - We’re two hours into our trek and already my legs are beginning to shake with fatigue. My lungs feel like they’re about to explode, my right boot is falling to pieces, and now it’s starting to rain; fat icy droplets soaking through my clothes. I’m 2262 metres up an active volcano in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and beginning to wonder why on earth I agreed to do this...
War, disease and scandals: slugging it out in Sierra Leone's soccer politics
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - For the last two and a half years, Isha Johansen has been throwing punches, both real and metaphorical, as the president of Sierra Leone’s soccer association, one of just a handful of women in the world to have ever held such a post. But, sitting in an upmarket hotel perched above the sprawling western edge of Freetown, Ms. Johansen said the past month had been tougher than most in the chaotic world of soccer politics here...
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - For the last two and a half years, Isha Johansen has been throwing punches, both real and metaphorical, as the president of Sierra Leone’s soccer association, one of just a handful of women in the world to have ever held such a post. But, sitting in an upmarket hotel perched above the sprawling western edge of Freetown, Ms. Johansen said the past month had been tougher than most in the chaotic world of soccer politics here...
Education falls prey to Ebola in Sierra Leone
(AL JAZEERA)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - It was clear things would be different as nervous-looking students took their seats at the Church of Christ Primary School set on a rocky hillside in Sierra Leone's Ebola-ravaged capital. "We've had a long holiday and we thank God to be alive," announced sixth-grade teacher Andrew Kabia as he led the class in prayer. "But now we need to focus on our work and forget about everything that has happened."...
(AL JAZEERA)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - It was clear things would be different as nervous-looking students took their seats at the Church of Christ Primary School set on a rocky hillside in Sierra Leone's Ebola-ravaged capital. "We've had a long holiday and we thank God to be alive," announced sixth-grade teacher Andrew Kabia as he led the class in prayer. "But now we need to focus on our work and forget about everything that has happened."...
Bringing colour to the streets of Kigali
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Kigali, Rwanda - Kigali is not an ugly city. In fact, the Rwandan capital has a certain kind of bucolic charm, set dramatically over seven rolling hills, dotted with stands of pine and eucalyptus. But colourful it is not. Whole neighbourhoods offer little more of the colour spectrum than the criminally unexciting range between beige and mushroom. Of course, most of the city's residents don’t lose much sleep over this. But for Rukondo Baptiste and a small band of likeminded artists, this monochrome cityscape is not only home, but an enormous canvas just waiting to be brought to life. Armed with his paints, rollers, sprays and a set of suitably hipster dungarees, Rukondo and his friends have waged war on beige...
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Kigali, Rwanda - Kigali is not an ugly city. In fact, the Rwandan capital has a certain kind of bucolic charm, set dramatically over seven rolling hills, dotted with stands of pine and eucalyptus. But colourful it is not. Whole neighbourhoods offer little more of the colour spectrum than the criminally unexciting range between beige and mushroom. Of course, most of the city's residents don’t lose much sleep over this. But for Rukondo Baptiste and a small band of likeminded artists, this monochrome cityscape is not only home, but an enormous canvas just waiting to be brought to life. Armed with his paints, rollers, sprays and a set of suitably hipster dungarees, Rukondo and his friends have waged war on beige...
How easy things can be - 'ChrisMus' in Sierra Leone
(THE ECONOMIST)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - THE minibuses that ferry Sierra Leoneans around their capital, Freetown, bear a variety of religious slogans. "Trust in Allah," reads one, while others evoke the power of the Christian god. But one stands out. Somewhere, plying the potholed streets, is a bus bearing the words "God loves Allah". Sierra Leone takes religious tolerance seriously. Not only are relations cordial between the two main religious groups in the west African country, but it is not unusual here to be both Christian and Muslim...
(THE ECONOMIST)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - THE minibuses that ferry Sierra Leoneans around their capital, Freetown, bear a variety of religious slogans. "Trust in Allah," reads one, while others evoke the power of the Christian god. But one stands out. Somewhere, plying the potholed streets, is a bus bearing the words "God loves Allah". Sierra Leone takes religious tolerance seriously. Not only are relations cordial between the two main religious groups in the west African country, but it is not unusual here to be both Christian and Muslim...
Inside Greece's resurgent anarchist movement
(AL JAZEERA)
Athens, Greece - On a warm evening in August this year, in the quiet residential neighbourhood of Kesariani, in the Greek capital, Athens, several hundred young people gathered in front of a stage as a band fine-tuned their instruments. At first glance, there was little unusual about the scene, but this was not an ordinary concert. Above the drinks stand, where 20-somethings wearing black waited for their beers, the flag of the anarchist movement swung between two pine trees. Behind the stage, a banner urged the audience, in bold letters, to take up arms against the state. "When confronted by tyranny," it read, "people choose between chains and guns"...
(AL JAZEERA)
Athens, Greece - On a warm evening in August this year, in the quiet residential neighbourhood of Kesariani, in the Greek capital, Athens, several hundred young people gathered in front of a stage as a band fine-tuned their instruments. At first glance, there was little unusual about the scene, but this was not an ordinary concert. Above the drinks stand, where 20-somethings wearing black waited for their beers, the flag of the anarchist movement swung between two pine trees. Behind the stage, a banner urged the audience, in bold letters, to take up arms against the state. "When confronted by tyranny," it read, "people choose between chains and guns"...
Erison and the Ebola survivors soccer club
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
VIDEO: A video profile of Erison Turay, who survived Ebola but lost over 30 members of family to the disease. Pulling himself back from the brink, Erison struggled to return to the life he once had, and was ostracised by the local community who feared catching Ebola from him. Some month after his recovery, Erison founded the Kenema Ebola Survivors soccer team, and proved to himself and the world that there is a future after Ebola.
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
VIDEO: A video profile of Erison Turay, who survived Ebola but lost over 30 members of family to the disease. Pulling himself back from the brink, Erison struggled to return to the life he once had, and was ostracised by the local community who feared catching Ebola from him. Some month after his recovery, Erison founded the Kenema Ebola Survivors soccer team, and proved to himself and the world that there is a future after Ebola.
Sierra Leone's rich and powerful are breaking the ebola burial rules
(THE NEW REPUBLIC)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - On a barren hillside outside Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, Alieu Mansaray put on a brave face as strangers in full plastic bodysuits lowered his father’s body into the grave. His 71-year-old father had died of a stroke. Everyone knew that. But in a country where the highly contagious Ebola virus continues to take lives, this is a sacrifice that Sierra Leoneans have come to accept...
(THE NEW REPUBLIC)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - On a barren hillside outside Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, Alieu Mansaray put on a brave face as strangers in full plastic bodysuits lowered his father’s body into the grave. His 71-year-old father had died of a stroke. Everyone knew that. But in a country where the highly contagious Ebola virus continues to take lives, this is a sacrifice that Sierra Leoneans have come to accept...
Beauty amid the chaos: Donetsk opera offers relief in war-torn eastern Ukraine
(VICE)
Donetsk, Ukraine - The cast of Verdi's Il Trovatore bowed one last time to rapturous applause before the curtain fell in the war-torn eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Though the area is at the center of a separatist effort that has threatened to tear the country apart, the audience was surprisingly full of locals eager to enjoy the tragic love story. Despite power cuts, a business shutdown, curfews, and near-daily shelling, residents of the rebel-held city flock to the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theater on weekends in search of respite from the reality of life within a conflict zone...
(VICE)
Donetsk, Ukraine - The cast of Verdi's Il Trovatore bowed one last time to rapturous applause before the curtain fell in the war-torn eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Though the area is at the center of a separatist effort that has threatened to tear the country apart, the audience was surprisingly full of locals eager to enjoy the tragic love story. Despite power cuts, a business shutdown, curfews, and near-daily shelling, residents of the rebel-held city flock to the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theater on weekends in search of respite from the reality of life within a conflict zone...
King of the dandies in the DRC
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo - Moored placidly on the muddy shores of the mighty Congo river in Kinshasa lies an old ship, converted into a bar, where the city’s residents come to while away their evenings. I was sitting on the top deck, sharing a drink with a friend and watching the lights of neighbouring Brazzaville glittering from across the water when I first heard of a man named Capitaine Leopard...
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo - Moored placidly on the muddy shores of the mighty Congo river in Kinshasa lies an old ship, converted into a bar, where the city’s residents come to while away their evenings. I was sitting on the top deck, sharing a drink with a friend and watching the lights of neighbouring Brazzaville glittering from across the water when I first heard of a man named Capitaine Leopard...
Ostracised but defiant, she brings dignity to ebola dead
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - HER day’s work over, Fatmata Barrie peels back her lemon-yellow plastic bodysuit and carefully wriggles free, sweat pouring off her body in the dusty heat of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. Barrie’s job is to dress the dead, a high-risk role in a city where a third of all deaths are now attributed to ebola. Her role is critical to a recent drive to bring dignity to the grim business of burying those who have fallen victim to the highly contagious virus...
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - HER day’s work over, Fatmata Barrie peels back her lemon-yellow plastic bodysuit and carefully wriggles free, sweat pouring off her body in the dusty heat of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. Barrie’s job is to dress the dead, a high-risk role in a city where a third of all deaths are now attributed to ebola. Her role is critical to a recent drive to bring dignity to the grim business of burying those who have fallen victim to the highly contagious virus...
A lonely death on the ebola hospital floor
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Jui, Sierra Leone - THE woman lay naked and motionless on the hospital floor in a puddle of her own faeces, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. A burial team watched her, unsure if she was dead or alive. She blinked weakly. It would be a lonely and ignominious death. In the cavernous reception area a few ebola patients sprawled on the ground. A cloud of flies took off from one person as the team entered. Another slumped at a desk, sipping water. There was no sign of any hospital staff...
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Jui, Sierra Leone - THE woman lay naked and motionless on the hospital floor in a puddle of her own faeces, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. A burial team watched her, unsure if she was dead or alive. She blinked weakly. It would be a lonely and ignominious death. In the cavernous reception area a few ebola patients sprawled on the ground. A cloud of flies took off from one person as the team entered. Another slumped at a desk, sipping water. There was no sign of any hospital staff...
In Sierra Leone, survivors grapple with post-ebola syndrome
(AL JAZEERA)
Kenema, Sierra Leone - Massah Kamara sat patiently with her brother Momoh, her haunted eyes focused somewhere in the middle distance beyond the walls of the post-Ebola clinic. Three months earlier, doctors gave her the good news - after weeks of fighting the disease, she had finally beaten Ebola. She would live. Back in her home neighbourhood of Nyandeyama, a quiet suburb of sandy streets and mango trees, she found out 22 members of her family were dead, including her parents. She had no money, so was unable to go back to her tailoring business, and many of her possessions had been burned by terrified neighbours. Then, just when she thought things couldn't get worse, she began to lose her eyesight...
(AL JAZEERA)
Kenema, Sierra Leone - Massah Kamara sat patiently with her brother Momoh, her haunted eyes focused somewhere in the middle distance beyond the walls of the post-Ebola clinic. Three months earlier, doctors gave her the good news - after weeks of fighting the disease, she had finally beaten Ebola. She would live. Back in her home neighbourhood of Nyandeyama, a quiet suburb of sandy streets and mango trees, she found out 22 members of her family were dead, including her parents. She had no money, so was unable to go back to her tailoring business, and many of her possessions had been burned by terrified neighbours. Then, just when she thought things couldn't get worse, she began to lose her eyesight...
Stemming the tide of Ebola in eastern Sierra Leone
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Komende Luyama, Sierra Leone - A BITTER wailing broke the silence in the village of Komende Luyama in eastern Sierra Leone as men in white protective suits brought out the body of Mujama Bockarie. With little ceremony she was carried into the forest and slowly lowered into a shallow grave next to several other recently dug mounds of earth. The burial team was meticulous. As they worked, a sprayer busily disinfected both the men and the woman’s body. Bockarie, 65, was being treated as a suspected ebola case, and nobody was taking any chances...
(THE SUNDAY TIMES)
Komende Luyama, Sierra Leone - A BITTER wailing broke the silence in the village of Komende Luyama in eastern Sierra Leone as men in white protective suits brought out the body of Mujama Bockarie. With little ceremony she was carried into the forest and slowly lowered into a shallow grave next to several other recently dug mounds of earth. The burial team was meticulous. As they worked, a sprayer busily disinfected both the men and the woman’s body. Bockarie, 65, was being treated as a suspected ebola case, and nobody was taking any chances...
Freetown braces for Ebola
(AL JAZEERA)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - The traditional healer was not at home when Saudatu Koroma arrived at his clinic in the bustling Wellington neighbourhood of Sierra Leone's capital. This probably saved his life. Saudatu was suffering from the incurable Ebola virus, the first person to contract the disease in the capital, and was on the run from the hospital. "She couldn't eat ... couldn't sleep," said Sulaiman Foday, a neighbour who was present at the time. Foday watched as police and a medical team arrived at the scene to recover the patient, who was by now lying on the floor of the healer's house...
(AL JAZEERA)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - The traditional healer was not at home when Saudatu Koroma arrived at his clinic in the bustling Wellington neighbourhood of Sierra Leone's capital. This probably saved his life. Saudatu was suffering from the incurable Ebola virus, the first person to contract the disease in the capital, and was on the run from the hospital. "She couldn't eat ... couldn't sleep," said Sulaiman Foday, a neighbour who was present at the time. Foday watched as police and a medical team arrived at the scene to recover the patient, who was by now lying on the floor of the healer's house...
A battle over sea-cucumbers in Sierra Leone
(REUTERS)
DUBLIN, Sierra Leone - As evening falls over Sierra Leone’s Banana Island archipelago, bats stream from their beachside roosts to circle in their thousands over the jungle village of Dublin. Below them a struggle is playing out over an unexpected commodity - the lowly sea cucumber, a fleshy, sausage-shaped creature that scavenges for food on the seabed. It is a struggle that is familiar to many in the West African country...
(REUTERS)
DUBLIN, Sierra Leone - As evening falls over Sierra Leone’s Banana Island archipelago, bats stream from their beachside roosts to circle in their thousands over the jungle village of Dublin. Below them a struggle is playing out over an unexpected commodity - the lowly sea cucumber, a fleshy, sausage-shaped creature that scavenges for food on the seabed. It is a struggle that is familiar to many in the West African country...
Sierra Leone turns to board game to curb road accidents
(REUTERS)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - Sierra Leone has launched a new policy aimed at curbing road accidents that kill hundreds every year - a board game that anyone seeking a driving licence must buy and play before being allowed on the roads. Competitors move models of classic cars around the board after rolling traffic light-themed dice. Their cars must negotiate obstacles like “vehicle tests” that result in fines if a windscreen is broken or insurance is out of date...
(REUTERS)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - Sierra Leone has launched a new policy aimed at curbing road accidents that kill hundreds every year - a board game that anyone seeking a driving licence must buy and play before being allowed on the roads. Competitors move models of classic cars around the board after rolling traffic light-themed dice. Their cars must negotiate obstacles like “vehicle tests” that result in fines if a windscreen is broken or insurance is out of date...
Dodging the traffic police - corruption in Sierra Leone
(THE ECONOMIST - BAOBAB)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - BEFORE Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war erupted in 1991, its seaside capital, Freetown, was home to around half a million people. Since then, urban migration has seen that figure more than double. The city’s services and infrastructure have been overwhelmed, and much of the city is almost permanently congested. The most efficient means of transport is therefore a motorbike. Baobab’s investment in just such a machine has afforded him several near-death experiences on Freetown’s terrifying roads, and a privileged insight into the rampant petty corruption that last week saw Sierra Leone ranked bottom in Transparency international's Global Corruption Barometer...
(THE ECONOMIST - BAOBAB)
Freetown, Sierra Leone - BEFORE Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war erupted in 1991, its seaside capital, Freetown, was home to around half a million people. Since then, urban migration has seen that figure more than double. The city’s services and infrastructure have been overwhelmed, and much of the city is almost permanently congested. The most efficient means of transport is therefore a motorbike. Baobab’s investment in just such a machine has afforded him several near-death experiences on Freetown’s terrifying roads, and a privileged insight into the rampant petty corruption that last week saw Sierra Leone ranked bottom in Transparency international's Global Corruption Barometer...
Sole man - With Uganda's sprinters in the run up to Rio
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Entebbe, Uganda - For most of the week the fishing village of Bugonga looks much like a thousand others dotting the scenic shoreline of Lake Victoria. Ramshackle wooden boats lie at irregular intervals around a gently curving beach of coarse, yellow sand, where old men busy themselves untangling colourful fishing nets and women prepare the day’s catch for market. But come here on a Tuesday or a Thursday and amid the general bustle of fishing village life you may notice several young men, unusually tall and muscular and clad in lycra running gear, sprinting tirelessly up and down the shore...
(BRUSSELS AIRLINES MAGAZINE)
Entebbe, Uganda - For most of the week the fishing village of Bugonga looks much like a thousand others dotting the scenic shoreline of Lake Victoria. Ramshackle wooden boats lie at irregular intervals around a gently curving beach of coarse, yellow sand, where old men busy themselves untangling colourful fishing nets and women prepare the day’s catch for market. But come here on a Tuesday or a Thursday and amid the general bustle of fishing village life you may notice several young men, unusually tall and muscular and clad in lycra running gear, sprinting tirelessly up and down the shore...
Ivory Coast refugees in Liberia settle in for the long haul
(IRIN)
PTP refugee camp, Liberia - At 3am on the 21st March 2011 rebel fighters affiliated with the current Ivoirian president, Alassane Ouattara, overran the town of Blolequin in western Côte d'Ivoire. Among the thousands who fled in the early hours of the morning, most with little more than the clothes they were wearing, was Gibao Jerome. His younger brother was killed during the escape as he and his family trekked for two weeks through the forest to become refugees in eastern Liberia. Two years on, they have no intention of returning home...
(IRIN)
PTP refugee camp, Liberia - At 3am on the 21st March 2011 rebel fighters affiliated with the current Ivoirian president, Alassane Ouattara, overran the town of Blolequin in western Côte d'Ivoire. Among the thousands who fled in the early hours of the morning, most with little more than the clothes they were wearing, was Gibao Jerome. His younger brother was killed during the escape as he and his family trekked for two weeks through the forest to become refugees in eastern Liberia. Two years on, they have no intention of returning home...
Sierra Leone enjoys fruits of market reform
(THE GUARDIAN)
Makonkonde, Sierra Leone - In the village of Makonkonde in western Sierra Leone, Mabinti, who no longer knows her age, sits on a low wooden stool in the dappled shade of several palm trees. She clutches a solitary papaya fruit in hands toughened by a lifetime of hard manual work...
(THE GUARDIAN)
Makonkonde, Sierra Leone - In the village of Makonkonde in western Sierra Leone, Mabinti, who no longer knows her age, sits on a low wooden stool in the dappled shade of several palm trees. She clutches a solitary papaya fruit in hands toughened by a lifetime of hard manual work...