Jean-Claude Moschetti | Egunguns | Magic on Earth

Photo © Jean-Claude Moschetti - All Rights Reserved

African spirituality, such as worship of ancestors and protective spirits, also includes traditional secret societies and voodoo, and is a fertile field for unusual ethnographic photography.

Jean-Claude Moschetti's photographs in Magic On Earth is about these African occult traditions where masks are considered to be mediators between the living world and the supernatural world of the dead, ancestors and other entities.

He tells us that in Burkina Faso, these masks represent protective spirits that can take animal forms or can appear as strange beings. These spirits watch over a family, clan or community, and if the rules for their propitiation are followed correctly, provide for the fertility, health, and prosperity.

The word Egungun signifies all types of masquerades or masked, costumed figures worn by the Yoruba people, and which are connected with ancestor reverence, or to the ancestors themselves as a collective force. The Yoruba is an ethnic group of Southwestern and North central Nigeria as well as Southern and Central Benin known as the Yorubaland cultural region of West Africa.

Amongst the Yoruba, the annual ceremonies in honor of the dead serve as a means of assuring their ancestors a place among the living. They believe the ancestors have the responsibility to compel the living to uphold the ethical standards of the past generations of their clan, town or family. The Egungun are celebrated in festivals, known as Odun Egungun, and in family ritual through the masquerade custom.

Jean-Claude Moschetti has photographed his Egungun series in four different countries; Benin, Burkina-Faso, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. He plans to continue this series throughout the African continent.
 

Born in France, he studied at the Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion, en Belgique, and worked in the movie industry. He worked as a freelance photographer/photojournalist since 1995.

His work appeared in Le Figaro, Libération, Le Monde, GEO, Les Echos, Le Point, L’Express, La Vie, Capital, Challenges, L’Expansion, L’Usine Nouvelle, Moniteur duBTP, Liaisons Sociales, LSA, Que Choisir, Forbes Magazine, Financial Times, among others.

Zsolt Repasy | The Fulani People

Photo © Zsolt Repasy-All Rights Reserved

Here's some facts I never knew...the Fulani are the largest migratory ethnic group in the world. They are an African ethnic group numbering more than 30 million, and are spread over many countries; predominantly found in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, and also in the Sudan. The extent of the territory in which the Fulani inhabit larger than the United states and Western Europe. 

Traditionally nomadic, pastoralist trading people, the Fulani herd cattle, goats and sheep across the vast dry lands of their territory. They follow a code of behavior known as pulaaku; a codifying patience, self control, discipline, prudence, modesty, respect for others (including foes), wisdom, forethought, personal responsibility, hospitality, courage, and hard work.

Zsolt Respasy's Fulbe Wuro gallery is the result of his being on assignment in Nigeria to photograph the Hungarian embassy in Abuja, and taking the opportunity to travel a bit farther than the capital.

Zsolt Repasy is a freelance photographer from Budapest, Hungary concentrating on cultural, social and humanitarian work. His action sports and travel images were featured by National Geographic, Corbis Images and Camerapixo magazine, including reportages from Transylvania, Dublin and Sarajevo, Bosnia. He is a member of IFJ (International Federation of Journalists) and photographs for Zuma Press, Corbis Images, NurPhoto and UNHCR Central Europe.

Irene Becker | Durbar Festival

Photo © Irene Becker-All Rights Reserved

I haven't posted much travel/documentary photographic work of Africa (with the exception of Ethiopia) on The Travel Photographer blog, so I'm very glad to redress this shortfall by featuring the very interesting work of Irene Becker.

One of the galleries that caught my eye was of Irene's photographs of the Grand Durbar in Argungu, Nigeria. The Durbar is an annual festival celebrated in several cities of Nigeria at the end of the Muslim festivals Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Its highlight is a parade of the Emir and his entourage on horses, accompanied by music players, and ending at the Emir's palace.

Irene tells us that the Durbar in 2009 involved more than 500 horses, 120 camels, 1760 men and women dressed in traditional indigenous attires with resplendent colors. The Emir of Argungu led a special group of horsemen in a rich and beautiful display.

The slideshow of Irene's Durbar photographs consist of 20 still images, however there are some more on her blog. There are few photographs of this event on the internet, and most of them belong to Irene.

Irene Becker describes herself as a culture, travel and doucumentary freelance photographer, and is based in Budapest, Hungary. She earned a degree at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad at its Department of Music. Her images have appeared in brochures, annual reports, billboards, books, magazines, web sites, exhibit spaces, greeting cards, and have been featured in fine art gallery exhibits, as well as in individual collections of photo lovers worldwide. She also produces stock for Getty Images.