Sahel:Tuareg Watering Flocks At Water Holes

Tuareg nomads water their flocks at several water holes dug out of a dry river bed in Niger’s Sahel region.

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Sahara: Unveiling A Tuareg Man's Face

In 1965, accepting me as a member of his family, a noble Kel Rela Tuareg took off his veil and let me photograph him without it under his tent. This surprised even his grandsons, who had never seen his full face. Their surprise made his younger sister behind them laugh. It surprised me too, of course. And the man may have been smiling over his audacity.

     Like Tuareg men often do, he had shaved the front part of his long hair to mitigate the heat generated by his tagilmust, or turban veil. His hands were blue from the heavy indigo dye of his robe, which comes off like that of carbon paper and has earned the Tuareg the name of Blue People.

     The Kel Rela are originally from the Sahara’s Ahaggar Mountains in southern Algeria. However, dwindling pastures there had pushed them south to txhe Sahara’s Tamesna region of Niger.

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Benin: Somba Dinner Preparation

As the sun nears the horizon in Benin’s Atakora Mountains, two Somba siblings pound carob pods outside their adobe dwelling. Others behind are cooking the evening meal.
(c)1973
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Benin: Indigo-Dyeing Men

In Kandi, North Benin, two men are dyeing fabric in two of several indigo vats spread around. The indigo dye, which comes off the cloth like carbon paper, is much appreciated by the Tuareg nomads of the Sahara and Sahel to the north. Because it colors the Tuareg’s skins, they are known as blue people. I wonder whether that indigo may not be more than an ancient fashion but also help protect white Tuareg skins against the scorching sun.

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Ghana: Beach Scene Along The Gulf Of Guinea

In this picture taken on the beach of Ghana’s Atorkor village along the Gulf of Guinea, Ewe fishermen’s wives were waiting with basins and baskets for their individual shares of the morning catch. Some of the fish would be consumed by their families, the others would be sold at the nearby market of Keta. Copra, from the coconut trees in the background, added to the Ewe economy.

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Peru: Cute Lima Street Boy

Sad to see such a beautiful little boy having to play in a street of Lima’s Cerro San Cristobal slum. But then, all the kids of Peru I photographed were beautiful.

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Peru: Boy And Monkey Pet

Boy with pet monkey at Iquitos, Peru, against the backdrop of the Amazon River. He wears a used cap bearing the logo of a maintenance company.

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Peru: Q'ero Girls Of The Cordillera Vilcanota

Q’ero sisters caught sitting quietly with the same expressions near their family’s windowless stone hut high in Peru’s Vilcanota Cordillera, east of Cusco.

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Peru: Green-Eyed Descendant of Spanish Conquistadors

Green-eyed Morochuco boy of Peru’s Pampa de Cangallo, near Ayacucho.

The Morochuco are a little-known Andean mestizo tribe that claims descent from the followers of Diego de Almagro, companion-in-arms of Francisco Pizarro. As Inca gold fueled the greed of the two conquistadors, they went to war against each other. When Almagro fell in the hands of Pizarro’s men and was decapitated, Almagro’s army went into hiding among Indians. Some of the men had Spanish wives. Others took Indian wives.

     Until 60 years ago or so, Morochuco men wore long beards to distinguish themselves from surrounding Indians. And to this day they ride horses and breed cattle, though lately they have dedicated themselves more seriously to agriculture as well. They fought valiantly the Shining Path's terrorists.

     I first photographed the Morochuco during a 1971 two-month horse ride in the Peruvian Andes. I visited them again in 2007.

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Peru: Hiding Behind A Banana

It would take more than a camera-wielding stranger to disturb this banana-eating boy at the door of his house in Lima’s Cerro San Cristobal slum.

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