As South Africa celebrates Heritage Day on 24 September, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share some of the photo entries we have received in this year’s Africa in Focus Photographic Competition within the People / Cultures and Communities of Africa category.
At Wilderness, community is all about the people at the heart of our business. Internal community, our staff, and External Community – comprising the rural communities that either own the land on which we operate or live adjacent to these areas. As our communities are such an integral pillar in our business we thought it essential to have a category in our competition dedicated to all the people of Africa.
This category celebrates the characters, cultures, traditions, and modern adaptations of Africa’s people within their natural environment. Find out more about each of our photographic categories here.
“Surma boys” by Athanasios Maloukos. Surma tribes live in the southwestern part of Ethiopia near the border with South Sudan.
“Happy run” by John Stanfield; Masai children run to greet us during our visit to their village.
“The African Game” by Charl van Rooy; The people of Miravate in Mozamnbique’s Inhambane province are fishermen and women, living off the bounty of the Inhambane Bay and the estuaries connected to it. Just as fishing connects communities across the African continent, so too does the sport of football and even here outside the isolated village of Linga Lina, children get together to practice their favourite pastime after a long day on the water. On a sunset walk back to camp from the beach I encountered these two boys and their dog (not in frame) who were playing ball before bed time. I was passed the ball as an invitation to join in and after several embarrassing minutes showcasing my best dribbling skills, I quickly grabbed my camera to capture this reminder of the friendliness and utter contentment of this self-sustaining community.
"African Rainbow" by Barsac Tessa; The truth behind that picture is actually a bit dull: these are the shadows of African statutes on a rack of kikois in a curio shop, but I like how it can trigger your imagination to create a more magical story of your own.
“Portrait” by Yoni Blau
“Pride of Place” by Jeremy Walton; Our Kenyan guide, photographed here, is the son of the chieftain of his village.
“Peya” by Alessandra Sikand; a Ba’aka child collecting caterpillars in the peak of the season
“Datoga Family” by Jason Zucco
“Sewing Herero's” by Ben McRae; The Herero women are famous for their colonial style dresses. Each woman takes great pride in her own dress and tailors it for herself, many on old sewing machines.
“Village Matriarch” by Wellet Mark; an amazing 97 year old grandmother is head of the Subiya tribe living in a Namibian Village (pop. 80) on the floodplains of the East Caprivi.
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