in a photo project called the black house photojournalist colin jones spent 3 years (1973 to 1976) in the harambee housing project in northern london. description of the project from a recent exhibition of the images:

This tall, dilapidated terraced house on a busy main street in Islington, had became a hostel for troubled young black men run by a charismatic Caribbean migrant, Brother Herman Edwards. The project was often visited by the police and always in strife with neighbours over too much noise and overcrowding. Many of the youths photographed embraced their portrayal in the media as iconic delinquents, reinforcing their status as outcasts. Never officially named The Black House, the building was given this name both by residents and by newspaper editors as an easy headline. At this time, the first generation of Afro-Caribean young people to be born in Britain were encountering problems with schooling, employment and the law – Jones’ photographs put a face to this news story.

via the last issue of straight no chaser

the last time i was home in 2003, i spent some time in dar es salaam. updating my photoblog was pretty challenging because of the limited access to the interwebs and the slooow uploads (i don’t believe there was access to anything faster than 56K anywhere at that time). so i am quite impressed to see the following photoblogs from tanzania; i appreciate the challenges and cost of taking and uploading images, unless things have changed significantly since i was there.

maggid mjengwa: street pictures in and around iringa, tz.
jiji la dar: streetscapes in dar es salaam, tz.
mwenye macho: arts/culture coverage from photographer bob sankofa.
bongo celebrity: tanzanian celebrity blog.
8020 fashions: blog highlighting muslim/secular local fashion and commentary on international celeb style.

swa was never my strong suit, and it has been too long since i read kiswahili on a regular basis. good thing i was at my computer alone at home as i had to mouth out the words on those blogs to process the text :/

recently finished “half of a yellow sun” by afro-lit’s current superstar chimamanda ngozi adichie. i devoured the first 300 pages of the book in one sitting; rare given my magazine article-like attention span. her writing is as vivid as the documentary images of children with kwashiorkor, the most enduring legacy of the biafran war (visual or otherwise).

Did you see the photos in sixty-eight
Of children with their their hair becoming rust:
Sickly patches nestled on those small heads,
Then falling off, like rotten leaves on dust?

Imagine children with arms like toothpicks,
With footballs for bellies and skin stretched thin.
It was kwashiorkor — difficult word,
A word that was not quite ugly enough, a sin.

You needn’t imagine. There were photos
Displayed in gloss-filled pages of your Life.
Did you see? Did you feel sorry briefly,
Then turn around to hold your lover or wife?

Their skin had turned the tawny of weak tea
And showed cobwebs of vein and brittle bone;
Naked children laughing as if the man
Would not take photos and then leave, alone.

highly recommended read.