ARTICLE: NIGRIZIA
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
The Threatened people of the Omo River Valley Ethiopia
Installation at MUDEC in Milan
Con gli occhi delle vittime | Through the eyes of the victims
Nigrizia Italy, II mensile dell’Africa e del Mondo Nero | December 2018
By Stefania Ragusa
Photographs by Jane Baldwin
In Ethiopia, a development project risks wiping out 200,000 people. At the Museum of Cultures, an exhibition tells the point of view of those who resist. An initiative by photographer Jane Baldwin, in collaboration with Studio Azzurro and Survival International.
Enter into the room and immediately be captured by the great terracotta river that “moves” still and sinuous on a long sculptural table. The visitor is invited to take a fragment of that terracotta and to drop it, through a jar, into one of the small bags hanging on the walls. At that point the corresponding screen lights up and the story begins. It may be that of a widow of the Hamar ethnic group, who explains: "This river is like mother's milk for me"; or a Kara woman, who tells how her day always begins with a visit to the river, to get water for coffee; or two young Dassanech, who ask: "Will the river continue to live or will we lose these fertile lands and water in the future?" Or it is summarized in a glance, like that of the adolescent Mursi met in a camp temporary, mounted on the banks in the dry season. The audio of the women’s original voices telling their stories is heard. The screen reveals the translations and images emerge gradually from the darkness, to be defined in vivid black and white portraits. It is a suggestive modality that emphasizes the centrality of people: those who are rarely given a voice and under normal conditions no one would care. But today their life is threatened.
The river we are talking about is the Omo, which is born in the Ethiopian plateau and, after a journey of about 800 kilometers, flows into Kenya, the lake Turkana since last June included among the endangered heritage of humanity. Hamar, Kara, Dassanech, Mursi are the peoples who have always lived alongside these waters, in an economy of self-sufficiency and in harmony with the environment. It is at least 200 thousand people. The threat that is looming is the construction of two new dams: after the gigantic Gibe III, completed in 2016, Gibe IV and Gibe V are "expected". In this case, the Italian Salini Impregilo will be the one to realize them.
The objectives? To increase the production of energy and its commercial sorting, to convert the land to intensive agriculture. A combination that will bring great gains and great evils: not only the end of the river's civilizations, but also the destruction of the extraordinary ecosystem of which the Kara and the others
have been custodians until today, as well as the opening to the notorious land grabbing.
‘If the only thing left to speak is the river’ Jane Baldwin, an American photographer and activist, traveled for ten years in the Omo Valley, photographing women and collecting their testimonies. In collaboration with the Studio Azzurro research group, who created this multimedia installation, with an evocative and eloquent title, which mixes in a narrative framework photography, video, fine art, information and poetry. If talking only the river, in a few essential steps, brings us into the point of view of the "victims": treated with hardness and sufficiency by the government, ignored in their essential requests, aware but not resigned.
"With my art, I want to draw attention to the threats facing the people of Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley and Kenya’s Lake Turkana,” explains Baldwin, “My hope is that this installation will increase awareness and instill empathy, awakening our humanity to the issues facing the peoples of this region face.”
"Like all the Indigenous peoples of the world, even the Indigenous people of Ethiopia’s Valle dell Omo are threatened by racism, theft of land, forced development and genocidal violence,” echoed Francesca Casella, who heads the Italian section of the non-governmental organization Survival International, engaged for almost 50 years in the fight against the extermination of indigenous peoples and present in the project. “We hope that this immersive experience will encourage the visitor to participate in the battle against one of the most urgent and gruesome humanitarian crises of our time.”
‘If Only The River Remains to Speak’ is hosted until 6 January 2019 at MUDEC, the Milanese Museum of Cultures. You do not have to pay the ticket and the visitor can, if he wishes, take with him, as a souvenir and memento, a small piece of terracotta, a symbolic fragment of the Omo.
