Mogadishu,19 February 2016: The late Stuart Hall spent most of his years articulating the ways in which mass-mediated depictions transform ideologies and imageries of specific races, cultures and locations outside of the western hemisphere. In his 1995 piece, The Whites of Their Eyes, he coined the phrase inferential racism: “I mean those apparently naturalized representations of events and situations relating to race, whether ‘factual’ or ‘fictional,’ which have racist premises and propositions inscribed in them as a set of unquestioned assumptions.”
Images and inscriptions of Africa in Western media over the decades have done just this: crafting an entire continent as sharing a similar narrative, without nuance, of poverty, conflict and turmoil, or a location perpetually dependent on Western resources.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Somalia’s civil war flooded Western media, particularly after the United Nations operation in Somalia, when US “peacekeepers” were sent to the east African nation to intervene in the “lawless” and “famine-stricken” state. By 1993, the country was deemed a failed state. Poverty, piracy, drought, and conflicts on international waters would eventually become some of the dominant narratives associated with country at the Horn of Africa for the decades to follow.
That is precisely why it has become important for Somali locals, such as Mustafa Saeed, to formulate projects to instigate a counter-narrative of his home country. But Mustafa wasn’t alone. The young photographer found himself amongst other artists situated across the Horn of Africa with the same goal: attempting to dismantle long-withstanding dominant visuals of their home country. With the usage of a few smartphones and Instagram, Saeed and his team have crafted a project that attempts to challenge a single-narrative through Everyday Horn of Africa. We speak with the artist below.
Okayafrica: What is Everyday Horn of Africa?
Mustafa Saeed: It’s a photographic project, inspired by Everyday Africa and the other Everydayprojects on Instagram. So far we are nine different photographers who reside in Ethiopia, Somalia, Somaliland, and we’re hoping to soon feature other photographers in Djibouti and Eritrea.
What sparked the creation of this project?
It was the fruits of a chat I was having with Michael Fassil on Facebook, a graphic designer and photographer from Addis Ababa. It was a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about starting something similar to Everyday Africa by creating a network of different photographers working or living in the Horn of Africa. We wanted to share the daily lives of these cities that these photographers reside in.
What resulted from this conversation to lead to the final product?
We reached out to Peter DiCampo, who is a co-founder of the Everyday Africa project, and he really helped us by giving tips of how to start such a project. Then we reached out to the photographers we know who were willing to contribute to the feed.
What camera is used to take these photos?
Different cameras, but mostly smartphones. We thought of not having any restrictions about camera types, because the stories and the sharing attempt is more important, I guess.
Source: Okayafrica
Follow Everyday Horn of Africa on Instagram and Facebook. Keep up with Mustafa Saeed via@themustafasaeed.
_____________________________________________________________________________________Xafiiska Wararka Qaranimo Online | Mogadishu, Somalia
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