A few posts back I commented on another set of photographs of limb chopped Africans. Tom White from Photography Lot (an awesome blog with some of the best writing anywhere) just popped up with this comment:
A good friend of mine was born in Sierra Leone and has worked on a variety of projects in and about this country. I saw his photographs of amputees in the late 90′s. A few years ago he did a documentary on the diamond trade which focused on the rise of co-op mining schemes and the way people were trying to take control of their lives and work. It stated what many other similar projects did not – that the Sierra Leonians were trying to rebuild their country after years of war and that they needed help to help themselves, not pity at their plight. To show the effects is one thing, but that is not the same as showing the methods of recovery.
I sometimes feel that if I were shown not just the problems but the ways in which these problems are being addressed and can be overcome, than I would be more inclined to help.
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Thanks for highlighting that comment. You’re right, good stuff.
It’s much easier for those of us in the West to offer aid and pity, rather than to change the institutions and ideas that create global inequality. Even less do we seem to want to empower Africans to change things for themselves.
You’re also right about Photography Lot. Terrific blog.