A part of the East Africa Institute’s (EAI) mission is to cultivate social development through addressing challenges and harnessing opportunities for the East African Community.

We believe that tools like photography can be instrumental in gathering insights, experiential accounts, and regular stories. But in a fast-paced, hyper-connected world where nearly anyone can capture a moment and post it instantaneously to global audiences, we must also remember that with more accessibility comes the possibility of greater subjectivity. While being subjective can have some positive implications, it may lead to harm if a visual representation perpetuates prejudice, stereotypes, or an oversimplified story.

The danger of single point of view is often how photographs are described; although captions do provide for context, they too can be misleading and depict an opinion that is not always grounded in reality. This can happen when tourists visit low-income countries. Sometimes what they post, from the photo to the caption to the hashtags, can perpetuate stereotypes, rob the subject of dignity or privacy, and further promote the idea that Western aid, charity and intervention are the only solutions.

It’s possible that the golden age of charity campaigns, that took place during the 1980s and 1990s, has paved the way for “poverty porn" and also has directed the traditional “African Narrative” through writing, photography, film and other forms media. This has exploited people from a lower economic strata in order to generate the necessary sympathy that would lead to sales, donations, support, and in most cases today, likes on social media. What this fails to invite, however, is the question of why poverty exists in the first place, which can overgeneralise abject poverty in Africa without acknowledging its sociopolitical complexity and the individual contexts of the continent’s 54 countries.

Since the satirical essay, “How to Write about Africa,” by Kenyan Author, Binyavanga Wainaina, was published in 2006, many creatives in Kenya, namely photographers, have followed in his footsteps of reclaiming their narrative. Social media has especially made it easier for them to publish their work, share it with a global audience, and challenge the (mis)representation of the African Continent.

A great deal of visual storytelling is happening right in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. Nairobi - although an international hub for international diplomacy, finance, banking and commerce - happens to be home to one of the largest slums in Africa: Kibera. Brian Otieno, born and raised in Kibera, has been challenging perceptions about his neighbourhood through the foundation of Kibera Stories.

“My project was different because the images were mixed up. It shows the good, the bad, and everything else. I started getting people that were interested in knowing more about this place”. He explains, “When you google Kibera, most of the images that will pop up show the poverty side of Kibera”. Otieno’s project goes beyond the assumed appearance of the neighborhood to show its richness and diversity. He documents its daily life, from street photography to hip-hop concerts, marriages and social initiatives.

This work does not come without obstacles, however. At a roundtable in Nairobi about the ‘Future of Photojournalism in East Africa’, many visual storytellers in attendance noted a lack of two factors that East African photographers often face.

1. Education, which leads to an underestimation of the profession, and
2. Community, which prevents photographers from collectively working towards solutions. "We don't gather, there are very few mentorships, little interactions and platforms. I see too much competition and no unity," argued Tony Karumba, Kenyan Agence France-Presse photojournalist and Photojournalism Workshop trainer, in a 2017 interview with World Press Photo. 

Thankfully another initiative, also in Kibera, is bringing those two things to the future generation of storytellers. In late July of this year, an exhibition was held at the Alliance Française in Nairobi titled: “Kibera Kids: A.I. - See the Future.” On display at this event were many photographs captured by children from the area and later processed using artificial intelligence. The event was hosted by Photo Start, an organisation that offers photography classes to young students in lower-income areas like Kibera, and hopes to empower the future generation of visual storytellers through fostering creativity and marketable skills.

The caveat of breaking free from years of negative stereotypes while feeling the responsibility to document what is actually happening has, at times, proven to be a challenge for most visual storytellers. Nonetheless, it seems as though most photographers agree that capturing something accurately and fairly supersedes the fear of how it will be perceived by others.

“In countries that face endemic problems like Kenya, you always find this problem,” claimed Karumba. “People will think you are showing the country in a bad light. If it is happening, it is happening and you have a responsibility to tell it as it is.”

Ultimately, a lot depends on the context. You need to consider the “love thy neighbour as thyself” philosophy. As an ethical philosophy, it requires a photographer to treat their subjects as they would treat themselves.

Despite obstacles, photojournalistic initiatives developing in East Africa hope to further challenge international views. It’s clear that visual storytelling is best done when it comes from a place of understanding an authenticity and, given the local and worldwide support of the work emerging out of East Africa so far, many are eagerly welcoming a more personal perspective.

Note to readers:

To view visual content from African photographers all over the continent, you can also look at the Everyday Africa Instagram account. This social media campaign has created a new way of looking at foreign cultures, from a local perspective, to a global audience. To date, the account has roughly 5,051 posts.

Nina Plummer is an EAI Research Assistant, conducting research on malnutrition, early childhood development, and learning outcomes.​