Tag: nat geo
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Aja Binta Jammeh Sidibe (1955-2025)
As a journalist, I’m used to working to a deadline and writing against time, but over the last three years, I’ve been in a futile battle with trying to outpace death, which, as a human being, I’ll never get used to. A few days ago, I received a message from my fixer in The Gambia…
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New article on The Guardian
“Women across west Africa have a life expectancy of 59. In a rare project, Sylvia Arthur set out to give voice to those who have lived beyond expectation, whose experiences have been largely overlooked” Click to read the article in full
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The political and the personal
I recently spent time in Togo, in its coastal capital, Lomé, where I had the privilege of speaking with/listening to 23 everyday women over 60 whose lives have been irrevocably impacted by the vicissitudes of the country’s postcolonial politics. Since Togo’s independence from France in 1960 (it was previously colonised by Germany and then partitioned…
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Language and Memory in Gambia’s Ghana Town
Wherever I’ve been on my journey along the coast of West Africa, I’ve encountered communities of Ghanaians who for generations have lived in the country they now call home. These are women whose parents came with them as children from immediate post-independence Ghana and who are now in their 60s and 70s with memories of…
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Annick Balley | 1964-2024
I’m saddened to hear of the passing of Annick Balley, a pioneering journalist and broadcaster who I interviewed at her home in Cotonou, Benin, in October 2022 for A Women’s Oral History of West Africa. Madame Balley had a long and distinguished career in public service broadcasting, rising to the top of her profession as…
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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,…
Sylvia Arthur 