Elections in Zambia and Africa’s unsung heroes…

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In Zambia covering elections last week.

It was truly encouraging to see Zambia pull together and come through a difficult election period.  For a couple of days though it was touch and go whether the country would spill into serious nationwide violence.  The poll results were delayed for a couple of days after Presidential and Parliamentary elections on Tuesday 20^th September amid rumours that the incumbent Government was desperately trying to influence the ECZ (Electoral Commission of Zambia) to rig results in their favour.

Zambians though on the street were determined not to let this happen and the normally peaceful nation – something that all Zambians hold dear – were threatening to take their grievances to the streets in what would have been a serious escalation.

I was sure for a day that the situation would get worse having seen a similar situation before in Kenya in 2007.  It had been widely claimed that the Electoral Commission of Kenya back then waited for all polling results to come in from the Opposition strongholds around the country and then released rigged results from the Government strongholds making sure to add the necessary votes required to push the Government into the lead.  In some constituencies there were more votes than people.  The consequences of doing this are of course well documented: In the post-election violence that followed almost 2000 Kenyans died and close to 250,000 were displaced.

It seemed to be heading the same way in Zambia too but great credit must go to the ECZ’s head – Justice Irene Mambilima.  There were calls for her to resign in the lead up to the elections – mainly from the Government supporters – and it is clear why.  She stood strong and resisted all the untold pressure on her to get involved in the highly partisan political atmosphere in the country and after 2 days of delay – she finally announced the results in favour of the Opposition that in the end won the poll by a very clear margin.

In preserving Zambian’s democratic rights  – she definitely almost single-handedly prevented a bloodbath in Zambia.  It is people like her who are quietly and surely changing Africa and allowing democracy to breathe new life into the political landscape of the Continent.   For that – she must surely be one of Africa’s (many) unsung heroes….

Masterclass, Facebook and the Fear of Death…

Adriaan Monshouwer (centre right) and Lars Boering (right) from the Northern Lights Masterclass.

discussing edits on the Masterclass

Just had a great week up in Groningen for the first session of a three-part Masterclass spread out over the coming academic year.

Under the direction of Lars Boering and Marc Prust and guest lecturers in the prodigious form of Francis Hodgson and Adriaan Monshouwer, who was the secretary for the World Press Photo jury for 12 years for this instalment the course has set itself up to be very helpful and constructive in the long run.

As expected, the first session we spent a lot of time dissecting each other’s work and being brought down a peg or two about our own.  Above all what I saw as the most useful aspect of the course was the idea of seeing other’s work and bouncing ideas in an honest and open environment with your peers… Photography can be an isolating pursuit and feedback of any kind is always welcome in my book…

On a professional level – I see the course as the start to try and transform my work into something more long-term and take it away from its new-sy focus that is of interest one minute and ends up at the bottom of the family hamster cage as newspaper lining the next…

A special note must be made about Francis Hodgson – photography critic for the FT (among other things) – I have as yet to come across someone who simply has so much knowledge accompanied by a truly deep passion for photography.  Great listening to him talk and the general feedback from him. 1 point he made which stuck with me was that even though it is one of the most defining and important mediums of the last 150 years – photography doesn’t have a common set of standards by which people in general can judge it.  While many of us say can formulate an opinion about a certain film for example without necessarily being experts, we lack the common visual language by which we can criticise and judge a pic in its proper context – even on the most basic of levels.  Especially now in the digital era – photography risks being lost in a common generic culture and not standing up on its own as the powerful art form it can be and deserves to be treated as such… all depressing but so true.. look forward to his book on photography some time in the next couple of years…

On a smaller note – one outcome of the first session of the course was that I’ve decided I need a god-damn Facebook page… I came off Facebook a couple of years ago and have never looked back.  Amongst other things, I felt uncomfortable with the mix of personal and professional contacts on my page.  And – to be very honest – I see it as serving absolutely no purpose apart from promoting vanity and self-delusion.  What really annoys me about Facebook though is that even after so long I still receive automated emails coaxing me to re-join.  The fact that with one click I can resume my Facebook page where I left off two and a half years ago is just so creepy – it’s almost as if the cyber monster that is Facebook imagines that being a part of its machine is inevitable and resistance is futile… If it were just for personal use – I’d (continue) to say bugger it.  But a good argument was made on the course about using social networking to further your career.. so – kicking and screaming – I guess will be re-joining in some form or another soon..

I’m in Zambia at the mo watching election results trickle in on what has to be one of the most boring election newsnight programs I’ve ever seen (it’s not as if they are ever interesting!) – I got back from Groningen late last night and haven’t slept as I spent most of the time getting my camera gear ready to catch the flight this morn to Lusaka.  I was torn as to whether to go or not… I had one of those – ‘what and why the hell am I doing this?’ moments. Elections past off relatively peacefully yesterday albeit some sporadic outbreaks of violence but generally the situation has been relatively calm…

In my opinion it all depends on the final results polled.  If the incumbent President (Banda) is perceived as attempting to rig the close elections then – it is widely held – all hell will break loose esp amongst the opposition supporters of PF (Patriotic Front) and their leader – Sata.  I have come on a whim and with only the weakest of interest at the mo from international pubs and agencies and if nothing happens then the trip will have been all in vain.

I hope though this in no way sounds like I want the violence to occur.  I always worried in the past that I’d turn out like that after a while – almost subconsciously willing on the violence in some small and extremely self-centred way – so I’d come back with strong material.  Thankfully it hasn’t turned out like that… In fact I find the more death and destruction I witness – the more I don’t want to see any more of it… Following the petrol pipeline disaster last week in Kenya for example I found myself reacting in two ways – I get more angry and petulant at the smallest things even though I am quite mild-mannered and tolerant (as you have to be in Africa) these days – and secondly – I become mentally and physically more scared of my own death.

I am naturally scared of flying but on the way to Holland last week I found this fear almost unbearable – hoping that my connecting flight would be delayed to give me time to recover my composure as I was physically shaking on lift off and landing. It doesn’t last for too long, but it’s still an unpleasant experience and I don’t think it’s too healthy in the long run… in this way I think slowly changing the type of work I do at the mo is not only a professional decision but also a deeply personal one as well.

Lunga-Lunga Petrol Pipeline Explosion…

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Was slowly getting ready to go to Holland for the first session of a week long Masterclass late tonight when I caught the breaking news on the BBC of a large explosion in the industrial area of Nairobi.  I went down there and the scene that greeted me in and amongst the chaos was truly horrific.  Apparently there was a burst petrol pipeline and as people were trying to siphon off the fuel, a fire caused an explosion killing – at current estimates – around 70 people.  It’s such a tragic and familiar story here – and as petrol prices go up and up it can only get more frequent…

Children of Africa Portrait Series…

I thought long and hard before including my children portrait series in my pro folio – I still get funny looks sometimes from bemused editors at reviews and in some ways I understand. The series is conceptually redundant (I think even my own gran came back with pics of African children when she visited) and there is no stylistic element to hold it all together.  Simply – it is a series that is very close to my heart and I just feel it is something that I should persist with.

Eventually I hope to have a striking image of children from most African countries and I think then it will stand on its own.  Until then it will continue to simply be a personal project for which I have a lot of passion for with no particular set aim but which brings me great personal satisfaction…

Losing my sense of location…

I kind of understood why the bemused Ethiopian airport security guard had asked to see my passport again.  The answer to his simple enough question had not been forthcoming and my glazed and empty look could only have inspired suspicion.  Getting off the bus from the plane to the terminal building he had asked me:

“Where has this plane come from?”

To be honest – I didn’t have a clue.  I knew I had gotten on the plane and even though it was late I had a vivid recollection of the flight – but as to where I had gotten on I couldn’t have told you to the best of my intentions.

I had decided to do a quick day trip back to SA from Kenya after I realised on my overland journey that I’d forgotten to bring along my studio lights. In typical fashion I had meticulously packed a softbox, barndoors, cables – even extra filters and pocket wizards for the lights – but had forgotten the actual lights themselves.  I was rushing to get to Pretoria from Cape Town for a meeting which I had already postponed twice at SAPS HQ (South Africa Police Service) the next day for a story (and yes – that is me trying to sound important and restore a bit of public dignity!!) but forgetting something as big and blatant as the lights is a bit inexcusable.

I found a very cheap flight back with Ethiopian and decided to take it… I know it was a gruelling 2 day trip with 3 stop over’s each way (which is why it was so cheap… I have never understood why the more stop-over’s you do the cheaper it gets…!) but it got so confusing to the point where I was speaking Swahili to the bemused coloured customer service folk at the airline counter in CT and I didn’t know I had woken up in my own bed again (in Cape Town) for what seemed like an age until my doggie licked my face – as if he could sense the panic and terror creeping through his master and wanted to reassure me.

While it might sound like a positive negative to be moving around so much from interesting place to place – as I get older it is increasingly unnerving.  Certainly when I was younger I used to love that feeling of waking up and not knowing where the hell I was – but as the years roll on it is increasingly a source of dread.  With trips the next few months that will take me to Berbera, Hergeisa, Mogadishu, Groningen (the Netherlands), Juba, Wajir and beyond this feeling can only get worse.

Still – life is good at the mo – got a week to relax and rejuvenate in Nairobi before travelling to Groningen for the Northern Lights Masterclass so hopefully will have time to adjust.  I managed to find a fully-furnished and secure apartment at a very decent rate here and the Landie seems fine on first inspection after a gruelling drive from Cape Town and made worse by the fact I had backed it into a ditch last Friday in Nairobi National Park. At least my impressed stepson who was with me appreciates the car now… no Namby-pamby Pajeros or airy-fairy Hilux’s for him any time soon…!

and this is why they crash…

I instinctively flinch and move my head out of the way when lorries whisk by close enough I could reach out and touch (and at ungodly speeds I might add..!)

taking diesel from a petrol tanker crashed on the roadside..

 

more views from the rooftop…

Tanzania, Kenya and tribalism…

Traveling the length and breadth of Tanzania (which was no mean feat – the country is so much bigger than I thought… 4 days and counting…!) I realised that a lot of those early memories I had from my first trip to Africa when I was 17 that compelled me to come back again and again came from this country.  It really is stunning with views to take your breathe away again and again.. It almost feels like the gen pop as well have all taken a masterclass in how to excel at being warm and friendly…!

When you think of Tanzania – apart from the safari and amazing tourist things to do here – the general view though is that it is a lot poorer than its northerly neighbour Kenya.  Tanzania was home to 1 of Africa’s independence movements’ giants and 1 of the founding fathers of the Pan-African movement – Julius Nyerere.  He introduced a form of African socialism to Tanzania esp in agriculture which was widely said to have ultimately failed and nearly bankrupted the country…

While it has often been cited economically to be a disaster, Nyerere’s African socialism did something far more important for its people – it installed a sense of nationhood on the different groups of disparate tribes thrown together in the post colonial era that now make up Tanzania.

I remember from my time in Kenya meeting a few Tanzanians who were all perplexed when they were asked what tribe they came from (they would nearly invariably reply – I am Tanzanian as if the question made no sense) – a Kenyan though would always – and I mean always – tell you his tribe first followed by the country.  Yes Kenya may have been economically more well-to-do but living in the country in the run up to the violence in 2007/08 the tribal antagonism was there for all to see.  It was only after Kenyans stared over the precipice in 2008 that they realised the alternative and the troubles almost helped – in a horribly perverse way – start to install that sense of nationhood that was missing before.. I haven’t been back for a while so it will be interesting to see how Kenya is doing now – esp in the run-up to elections set for next year….

That sense of nationhood – imposed on disparate tribes not 50 years ago as borders were drawn up after independence throughout the African Continent I think is so important if a country is to succeed in general.  At every level esp in the civil service and govt – if you believe in that sense of nationhood – it will mean less corruption and a better functioning state.

It is also 1 of the reasons I am actually positive on South Africa (although I know I seem to be in the minority).  The most interesting thing in that weird and wonderful country with an unprecedented history – is that – it doesn’t matter how unbelievably different it’s gen pop is – from the vibrant townships to the lively Afrikaner bars playing their own version of sentimental rock (and I have spent time ample time in both!) – it doesn’t matter how much each of them bitch about their country, Government or fellow South African – they are all invariably so proud to be South African.  With that sense of nationhood – even if things don’t feel like they are going in the right direction – a country with such a strong sense of nationhood has a solid base to move forward at the very least…

Bush camping…

base camp...!

I set up camp today for the first time in the bush in Zambia… not wanting to turn my blog into a lonely planet happy camper blog – but standing back I thought it looks shamefully more like a god-damn village than 1 man pitting his wits against nature!  shower – inflatable mattress etc…I’ve built up some weird and wonderful gadgets over the years which I treasure on these trips… I guess this is my version of creature comforts in old age…!!