Argentina: Scenes Of Old Patagonia

The blue light of dusk colors a familiar scene in the small Patagonian town of Gualjaina, in the Chubut Province. A gaucho is saddling his horse to ride back home. His pack horse is loaded with a small bag of small purchases he made. Though he had a few drinks in the bar, behind the left door, he won’t put anyone’s life in danger on the way back. With ill luck he will only fall off his horse.

The small Chubut town of Gan-Gan was even quieter than usual the 1984 day I shot this picture. It was Election Day and the bar was closed. However, I made my way inside and found a noisy smoked-filled back room crowded with very happy drinking gauchos who invited me to share the fun. The men sitting outside may only have been a false boredom front.

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Argentina: Rugged Men Of Patagonia

Cattle ranch foreman

Sheep herding gauchos at the end of a long hard day

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Argentina: Typical Patagonia Scene

At dusk, having tied their horses to a tree, two Mapuche Indians converse with relatives they came to visit near Paso del Sapo, a hamlet lost in the middle of the Chubut Province of Argentina’s Patagonia. Completing the composition, the dog that followed them there is waiting for them with the same patience as their horses.

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Argentina: Patagonian Gaucho

 Sheep farmer, or gaucho, of Patagonia’s Chubut Province. Because of Patagonia’s tempestuous wind he could not wear the typical black hat of the Pampa’s gauchos to the north. Only headgear he could pull down to his ears.

     In 1984, reaching the crest of a hill while riding a horse across Patagonia between the coasts of Argentina and Chile, a sudden head-on blast made my horse pirouette 180 degrees as if it had been a mere flag.

     The tempestuous wind apart, the journey went like a charm. At the end of most 12-hour rides a lonely gaucho in charge of a sheep farm treated me to wine and a succulent barbecue. And my saddle, like his, was cushioned by a thick sheep skin.
     The wives of the lonely gauchos in charge of the sheep estancias lived in distant towns, forced there by the need of their families’ children to attend school.

Buried under their own wool, corralled sheep await the shears.

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Africa: The Long Wait For Customers

The first eight following photographs were shot in 1973 

Street vendors in Parakou, Benin.

The clothes vendors in this photograph were listening to the music of a small portable radio. A water peddler was walking down the road in search of his own sale.

A street vendor takes a nap while her colleague watches the store in Benin’s Cotonou.

Here, not far from the previous small business, is another one. Selling on the streets is the courageous alternative to doing nothing when unable to get employment.

And here, just across the street, as is evident in the previous shot, is a more sophisticated and alluring small business. The large words say:

     Do you want to be elegant like us? Then get shod here by Quo Vadis  
(the owners wrongly used the French word “galant” for “elegant”).

     The small yellow sign says: High Shoemaking Fashion. 

     An unfinished basket out front is waiting for last touches.

Expert barber waiting to give his next haircut in Porto Novo, Benin.

This poor kid in Niamey, Niger, may have skippd school to help his family put some food on the table.

Here, near Bertoua, Cameroon, monkeys for the pot, wearing white price tags, were being offered to passing motorists. Tails tied to heads helped buyers to conveniently carry their purchase home like a handbag.

Delicious organic tomatoes being sold in a small corner of the sprawling Kumasi market of Ghana in 1992.

Proud owner of a store specializing in the sale of kente cloth, hand woven in wooden looms in Bonwire, Ghana, and elsewhere among that country’s Ashanti.

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Benin 1969, Before Clothes Became Legally Required

 Working over her family’s oven, an Ewe girl of Grand’ Popo, Benin, crushes hot peppers over a flat stone to season her family's lunch.

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Benin: Riding To Prayer At End Of Ramadan

In the following 1969 photos taken in Kandi, Benin, Bariba horsemen are following drumming griots, or minstrels, to prayer. The occasion was the End of Ramadan, the month-long Moslem fast. A blinding rising sun was casting long shadows and coloring the light.

Waiting in the shade for crowds to gather and prayer to start.

The boy was taking rsponsibility for his father's horse.

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Benin: Elegant Young Girl

Girl of Natitingou, North Benin.

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Benin: Sunrise on Kandi Brings A Street To Life

In this 1969 photograph, a woman is pulling water from a communal well as sunrise brings the rest of the street to life under its warm light.

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Algeria: In Salah Oasis’s Giant Sand Dune

Unrelated Berber horseman and black woman moving along the foot of a giant sand dune in the Algerian oasis of In Salah.

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Algeria: Threatening Oasis Sand Dunes

This 1973 photo shows how high moving sand dunes had forced the inhabitants of parts of Algeria’s beautiful In Salah oasis to abandon their houses. In an effort to stabilize the dunes visible in the background, hedges had been planted into their sharp crests.

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Algeria’s Aurès Mountains: Shawiya Berber

Shawiya Berber farmer photographed in Algeria’s Aurès Mountains at Mchounèche.

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Algeria: Shawiya Berbers

While walking the narrow winding streets of Algeria’s M’chounèche, in the Aurès Mountains, I accidentally interrupted this small group of conversing Shawiya Berbers who had gathered in the shade to sip tea. They stopped to have a look at me, and I stopped to shoot a picture of them. They were as curious about me as I was about them. So an invitation followed, which I gladly accepted, to share their tea, which was still brewing inside the house over the embers of a small fire. Three small glasses of it, as is the custom. Moslem hospitality is legendary.

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Benue River, Cameroon’s Great Cleaner

People bathing and washing clothes in Cameroon’s Benue River near Garua. In Africa, anywhere water is abundant, bathing and washing clothes is a national pastime. Heat, mud, dust, and socialization help make them entertaining.

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Cameroon: Mandara Mountains Scene

Kirdi women returning home from a market in Cameroon’s Mandara Mountains. Kapsiki volcanic plugs rise in the background.

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North Cameroon near Pouss: Musgun woman

North Cameroon near Pouss: Musgun woman wearing the traditional nose ring of that tribe’s women.

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Cameroon: Traditional Fulani Kitchen

Bororo (Fulani) woman sitting at her kitchen fire in Cameroon’ Bamenda Highlands.

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Cameroon: Fulani Woman On The Way To Market

While walking across Cameroon’s Bamenda Highlands a few years ago, I crossed path with this Moslem Bororo woman. On the way to market, she was using her umbrella for protection against the scorching sun. I found the Bororo people, part of the great Fulani family that spreads between the coast of Senegal and Lake Chad, to be among the friendliest and hospitable people of Cameroon.

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Brazil: Exploring Human Anatomy

Son of a poor but loving Brazilian fisherman's family of Salvador examining the last of his nine siblings.

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Bolivian Altiplano: Running After Llamas Keeps An Old Quechua Man Happy And Strong

When I caught sight of this Quechua man in Bolivia’s Altiplano near Uyuni, he was running full speed after a large herd of llamas he was bringing back to a corral at day’s end.  Watching him from a distance I thought him young.  But he changed his course to come have a better look at me, and I was stunned to see an old man. To my question he replied that he was 84. His clothes held together by years-old patches and his sandals had been carved out of old tires. But asked whether he enjoyed running after llamas, he replied that nothing could make him happier. I had heard similar words from other llama herders, in Bolivia and Peru, and I believed him.

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Sahara: Sharing Three Little Glasses Of Tea With The Tuareg

One of my great pleasures while sharing the Tuareg’s harsh Sahara and Sahel lives was to watch them ceremoniously prepare their steaming hot and foamy syrupy green tea and then drink it with them. Three little glasses of it. The first one, somewhat bitter. The second one, after renewing the water, just right. The third one, lighter and sweeter. It surprisingly calmed thirst better than cold water. And so said the Tuareg.  The last time I sat among my nomadic friends was the last time I enjoyed tea. I could not repeat its preparation. And without their warm humanity and extraordinary environments it would have been a disappointment anyway.

For most tribes, heavily sweetened tea was the only luxury they knew, and not always available, or even affordable. Besides some occasional dates from the palm trees of very distant oases, when business took them there, it was the only sweet thing the Tuareg knew. When staying with them, I always offered plenty of tea and of big sugar loaves.

In 1965, when for a couple of weeks I rode a camel with a Tuareg man from camp to camp around the central Sahara’s Ahaggar Mountains, that companion always added to our tea mint leaves he had picked along the way. When our day ended without spotting any mint he pulled from his robe a small can of Vicks VapoRub, a decongestant meant for external use, and dished some of it in our tea because of its menthol content. No, it did not make us sick.

In this 1970 photo taken in Niger’s Sahel, under a tent out of a blinding sun, Radwane is pouring tea for three, including his nephew Abookabook and me. Radwane was one of the sons of Mohammed, then the leader of  the powerful and wealthy noble Iullimiden tribe,

In 1972-1973, when I brought my wife and kids to meet the Tuareg (http://victorenglebertphotography.blogspot.com/search?q=+trans-african ),

this time by jeep, Mohammed wanted to buy our brand new vehicle. He could have afforded several. His family owned thousands camels, zebus, sheep, and goats. The family lorded over an army of vassal Tuareg tribes and servants to herd and water the animals for them. It also controlled great numbers of artisans who produced all the articles they needed for a comfortable nomadic life. This included spears, swords, and knives, camel saddles, wooden mortars, leather cushions and bags, and silver jewelry.                          

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Sahara: Ancient Tuareg Caravan To Lybia

1970 scene of a Tuareg caravan on its way to sell camels, sheep, and goats in Libya, where they would fetch considerably higher prices than in their native Niger.  I shot the scene from my own moving camel while we were crossing a flat area of the Sahara’s AÏr Mountains.

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Sahara Salt Caravan

In 1965 I shared the harsh life of a Tuareg salt caravan of 200 camels across the sand dunes of the Tenere, one of the Sahara’s most dangerous regions. For nearly a month I walked, rode, and often ran up tall sand dunes to give my camera wider views. That experience taught me that thirst is harder to bear than hunger, and that physical exhaustion, added to dehydration, is even worse than thirst. I told that story, and others, in my book, Wind, Sand and Silence: Travels with Africa’s Last Nomads.

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Algerian Sahara: Tuareg Man Watering Camels

In Algeria’s Ahaggar, a lofty Saharan mountain, a Tuareg nomad digs a hole in a wadi, or dry river bed, to reach water for his camels and himself.

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Sahara: Baby Tuareg Handling Baby Camel

Holding his father’s leather whip, a little Tuareg boy meets a baby camel.

The same little boy now chases young camels to pasture, away from their mothers, which they just nursed. His precociousness roused cries of enthusiasm from his family, who observed him from their tents.

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Sahel: Tuareg Boy Riding Home From School

Young Tuareg nomad riding back to camp from school in Niger’s Sahel region near Tchin Tabaraden.

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Yanomami: A Diet Of Termites

In Brazil’s Amazon rain forest a Yanomami woman is pulling down a termite nest from a tree.

Next, that woman and a relative split the nest with a machete, impale one half of it with its open side down, and gather the falling termites on large leaves. Sitting in hammocks, each woman’s little girl takes care of their baby siblings.

Nearby, another relative is beating the second impaled half nest with leaves to help termites to dislodge and fall on the large leaves below. The women will wrap the termites in leaves and cook them on the embers of a fire.

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Indonesia: Borneo Games

In this 1968 photo taken in the center of Borneo’s rain forest, Dyak women are playing a popular game. On their way to pound rice, one early afternoon after lunch, they are moving their pestles in and out on the ground to try to catch the ankles of a woman jumping in and out of them.

Men and boys have their own game of skills. Their goal is to use their large wooden tops to bang those of their opponents. Holding their own tops, some of the players are waiting on the side to enter the game.

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Indonesia: Cooking Rice The Dyak Way

This new 1968 Photo taken at night in Indonesia’s central Borneo shows Dyaks cooking rice in sections of bamboo.

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Indonesia: Dyak Dance For A Stranger

In my 1968 crossing of Borneo I was received in Dyak longhouses with music, dances, and songs. Male and female dancers were virtuosos in their hieratic expressions.

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