Tag: african women are history
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The compound interest of compound housing
Interesting article in The Guardian about an intergenerational care home in the U.K. that incorporates a nursery where children and residents come together daily, and the positive benefits this has for both seniors and toddlers. “If the idea is familiar to you,” the article states, “it is probably from the Channel 4 series, Old People’s…
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The Sarjo Effect
“It’s not like male photographers are better than female. I want people to recognise me as a photographer who is as good as male ones. I want Gambia to see how passionate I am.” Sarjo Baldeh in The Guardian I’m so pleased for and proud of my friend, Sarjo Baldeh, my photographer on The Gambia…
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In Communion With Madame Jobe
My professional highlight of 2023 was spending five weeks in The Gambia travelling along the Atlantic coast interviewing women aged over 60 about their lives. This fieldwork was part of my research for my National Geographic Society-supported project, A Women’s Oral History of West Africa. Of the 27 elders I had the privilege to commune…
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The necessity of curiosity
I recently had the pleasure of giving a presentation and workshop on my National Geographic Society project to a group of schoolchildren aged between 13 and 16. There were, perhaps, 60 students in total, three groups in three different parts of the world: one in Europe, one in the Caribbean, and one in Africa, Ghana,…
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To Go or Not, Togo?
At less than 40 miles and just over an hour by road, the distance between Grand-Popo and Lomé is so short, it’s possible to live in the quiet Beninese fishing town and work in the bustling Togolese metropolis, as thousands do everyday, traversing the border. Yet the process of crossing the frontier, of leaving Benin…
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“Leave the Burden and Carry the Joy”
For the past three weeks, I’ve been in Benin, West Africa, working on my project to create A Women’s Oral History of West Africa supported by the National Geographic Society and Sennheiser. In 2022, I became a National Geographic Explorer. Over the next two years, I’ll be travelling along the coast of West Africa, from…
Sylvia Arthur 