earthly domain...


Africa is often described as "undeveloped". The sensitive, politically-correct westerner may say "under-developed" -- an expression no less patronizing and offensive, in my book.

The Tamberma people, like many rural Africans, have a lifestyle perfectly adapted to their local environment. They have developed sophisticated technologies, refined over centuries, with the resources at hand: earth, wood, grass, bone.

When the west is desperately sucking the final fumes of hydrocarbon, and all the complex petroleum-based dependencies in the rest of the world have broken down in chaos, many rural Africans will hardly notice. It will be interesting then to see which of the peoples of the earth manage to survive and prosper, and what forms of human development may truly endure.

Togo, November 2007.

Rolleiflex 3.5E2 Xenotar, Neopan 400.