Street View
Niamey, some ten years ago, it could be twenty Time passes at the speed of centuries day by day Following the rhythm of the desert’s tides From sandstorms to rainy season and back again The crops are the clock of life Photo Hugh Ardoin The Niamey Streets Gallery
Outside, looking out as we drive by Safekeeping fortunes he will never behold An old man in a ragged uniform stands guard A container like a red wall, keeping worlds apart Heavily pregnant of its abstract load of value More than meets the eye, but forever unseen Photo Hugh Ardoin Africa by any Means Necessary […]
The old Accra is famous for its boxing schools The choice of the name is another matter Reminds me of “Discipline and Punish” by Michel Foucault A famous philosophical work about education, society and its prisons It matters what we learn, but it matters even more how we think… Photo Hugh Ardoin Africa by any […]
Every man is king in his own castle Happiness is not an incontrovertible rule We find sunshine in our own sunny spots Ghana was once called the gold coast A name that betrayed the purpose of the colons Before then, it was a powerful empire in its own name Photo Hugh Ardoin Africa by Any […]
The whitest ceramics in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa Shiny chalices cupped to gather the rarest water of the desert The miracle is almost there, lost somewhere amongst mirages Meanwhile vendors relax in the shade waiting for the the rain or the customer Whichever will come first.. Hugh Ardoin The Niamey Streets Gallery
Travelling at the speed of light along the dusty roads Entering Niamey through the magical gates of dusk When dust mixes with the mist of a past torrid day The sky still shows patches of light blue and fiery clouds Neon lights slowly wake their flickering heads To stand up and fight the incoming darkness […]
Roadside businesses and family affairs in African cities This is the laundry day where the cleaning takes place manually A natural machine that goes by the hum of the song of human work The sun provides his luminous electricity as nimble hands do their own part The unique image of an instant that will repeat […]
All is quiet on a Sunday morning in the deeply Christian capital of Ghana Once upon a time the gold-thirsty adventurers and missionaries of all feathers flocked to the West Coast of Africa to collect gold bodies and souls They bought the land at the barrel of their guns and the Old Empire of Ghana […]
Everything is closed on Sundays except for the food stalls The streets of the Old Accra are empty at the canonical hours On the way home churchgoers will buy sweets and skewers It would look like eternity but for the obituaries posted on the walls Photo Hugh Ardoin Africa by any Means Necessary Gallery
You will be anointed here or at least your hair will be The first steps to sanctification in the holy alfresco salon This is Accra on a business day waiting for the goddesses Will you be a different you with your new hairdo There is no hurry heaven can wait… Photo Hugh Ardoin Africa by […]