She was the first to walk towards me when I put up the black thin cloth, on the concrete wall, right outside my room.
“What is this?”
So many ideas ran across my mind, just with those simple words. I could say, it’s an idea I’m working on, or I could tell her it’s a photo series, portraits of local women here, or I could go deeper to explain, it’s part of a journey I’ve been on for many years, documenting my life and those I’ve cross path with.
Storytelling and sharing a little of my traveling moments. Like a journal, a gallery of life. Maybe explain about portraits and photography. I took a moment, somehow none of it actually mattered.
As I silently continued to paste the corners of the cloth with tape, not knowing how to explain, I took her hand, “Let me show you sister.”
Fatu, has been living in this village for five years now, coming from the other side of Senegal, a family that migrated from Gambia. Her husband, Musa, works in the local fish market, she spends her days at home, with her three young children.
Two beautiful girls, with their hair always braided and a boy, Lamin, who works in a workshop on the main street, as a welder. He is six.
School life doesn’t really exist here, as it’s not seen as something realistic to them, it’s uncommon, especially for the girls. Her daughters help with chores, with wood fire cooking, sweeping the compound, hand washing clothes, fetching water from the well, caring for the other babies and someday becoming the wife or second wives, as the local men say it, “My women”.
This circle of life has been going on for generations, it’s their way of life.
She was really eager, so I showed her the picture I took, it almost felt like we were having a little celebration, as she has never seen her own portrait before. Her first time even being photographed. The family then started gathering around me, all wanting a picture, the other sisters, the wives, the other husbands and grandma too.
We spend the afternoon just doing this. I realised then how important this moment is now, for both of us.
(Karang Village | Senegal)
