SOHIE

FREEDOM ROAD

Tanzania, 2017

 

Bagamoyo was long shrouded in mystery, known as a forgotten gem of human civilisation, a mystical oasis of spirituality, a slow Swahili fishing village along an idyllic coastline.  My fascination for this remote place unfolded around maps of ancient trade routes, accounts by descendants of slaves and turn-of-the-century photographs illustrating the vibrancy of a cosmopolitan place, traced long before European colonial powers came into being.

 

A few years ago Bagamoyo was earmarked to become the biggest port in East Africa. It formed part of a new world power’s strategic endeavour to create a modern silk route; an economic zone that embraces the maritime trade routes of the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. This infrastructure vision triggered latent forces of urbanisation, which are rapidly redefining the physical and cultural construct of the town.

 

During 2015- 2017, I photographed this small place and its people on the cusp of urban transition, echoing their questions, anxiety and hopes as the worlds of the traditional and of modernity collide.

 

A wondrous nightscape of bright lights foregrounds the signs of looming change; as a distant observer, the images mirror the transfigurations of people and space, as they navigate between past and future, the local and the global, in a state of uncertainty located between the promise of better futures and a growing sense of loss.