Diana Takacsova

Photographer
    
Sweet Are the Waters
Location: Ostend, Belgium
Nationality: Slovak
Biography: Diana Takacsova is a photographer and visual storyteller. Bringing together rigorous research and a deep interest in personal narratives, her work revolves around questions of identity, physical and emotional connection to place, migration, and... MORE
Private Story
Sweet Are the Waters
Updated Apr 2022
Topics Documentary, Nature, Photography, Social Justice
The Ogiek are one of East Africa’s last hunter-gatherer populations. With a distinct culture and traditions tied to their natural environment, the community has a long history of resistance, fighting both eviction and lack of political power. The Ogiek in the Mau Forest Complex have been collecting fruits, hunting wild animals and practising beekeeping in the trees for centuries, but the Kenyan government insists that the community is a threat to the Mau. Consequently, the Complex is also a major water catchment area which has been dramatically reshaped by human interventions.

2017 brought a major change in the Ogiek’s fight: the community won a case against the Kenyan government in the African Court of Human and People’s Rights. The court ruled that the government had violated the Ogiek’s right to their ancestral land, and demanded that the community be appropriately compensated - but little has been done to implement the decision.

Stemming from the landmark court ruling and from the community’s ancestral knowledge, this project uniquely focuses on the Ogiek’s right to development and land rights via documentary photography and participative methods working in collaboration with Ogiek artists. This is especially important given the historical and political marginalisation of the community and, lately, the Government of Kenya’s non-fulfilment of the court ruling. The project, therefore, creates another channel for both the democratisation of knowledge, intended for the wide public as it overcomes language barriers – and an act of speaking truth to power. Moreover, it builds on - and shares - indigenous knowledge and sustainable conservation practices that are outside currently dominant approaches to land as a resource.

The grant will enable me to return to the Mau Forest Complex and, with the collaboration and support of the Ogiek community and local partners, develop the project's second part focusing on the communities living in the Southwestern part of the Mau Forest and their resistance to cultural assimilation. It will also enable me to extend the collaborative elements to photography combined with poetry and oral heritage by Ogiek artists.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

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65 Kilometers

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