Urban Sahara from the Sky
How Capitalism Fixes the Dunes. by Marion Broquère, Armelle Choplin, Simon Nancy Images by en Haut! NOUAKCHOTT IS THE CAPITAL CITY OF MAURITANIA, created ex nihilo in 1960 in the middle of sand dunes. No physical obstacle to urban sprawl – Nouakchott is home to more than two million inhabitants – nor to speculation. Until recently one of those “ordinary cities” considered […]
Mapping The Last King of Africa
This map features alongside a text by Olivier Vallée in the new Chronic, an edition in which we ask: what if maps were made by Africans for their own use, to understand and make visible their own realities or imaginaries? How does it shift the perception we have of ourselves and how we make life […]
In a Time of Boko Haram
by Elnathan John. I. DRESSES Beneath the oil-stained, flattened pillow that Mansir sits on lies the fulfilment of a promise; the source of a joy no one can understand but this young bright-eyed man. His veil and black bra and red dress are folded neatly beneath the pillow. Sitting on it helps, since there hasn’t been […]
Bordering on Borana
by Dalle Ebrahim. It was 2011 and I was seated in a taxi travelling through southern Ethiopia, conjuring shapes and images out of the many anthills we came across on the narrow road into the heartland. I had no identification papers, no phone, and very little cash in my pockets, but I walked around with a […]
The Power of Green Crayons
Agri Ismaïl recalls growing up off the map – his Kurdish identity omitted from the centuries of topographical evidence of real life in real places. Rendered cartographically void and literally stateless, belonging to one of the largest diasporas on earth, but seemingly out of step with his state of being, he spent years collecting evidence, […]