We have grown accustomed to having access to water or electricity, but such facilities are still a luxury in some parts of the world. According to international NGO WaterAid, one in ten people have no clean water close to home in the world, while in Ethiopia almost four in ten people don't have access to clean water.
Water scarcity has a negative impact on the health of people and it is estimated that a child dies every hour from diseases resulting from lack of clean water. Besides, over 70% of the people who have the responsibility of collecting clean water for their families are women and girls. They spend hours every day walking long distances to get water, something that affects their health and wellbeing, but also reduces their opportunities to access education.
Hoping to raise awareness about water scarcity, Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh created a while back a series of 12 striking images.
Entitled "Water Life" and commissioned by WaterAid, the beautifully arranged compositions in vivid colours wouldn't look out of place in a fashion magazine. The series revolves indeed around a palette of yellow, electric blue, white and red, and features beautiful women in African body paint, walking around a stark landscape carrying with them jugs of water or dragging along yellow water containers.
Yet there is more behind the pictures created by the Ethiopian photographer: some of the images were created at the photographer's studio in Addis Ababa (where the artist was born and where she relocated in 2007, after she left Canada); others were shot in extreme landscapes in one of the hottest and driest places on earth, Dallol, Afar, in Northern Ethiopia, where temperatures can reach 120°F (50°C).
The images were inspired by all the women walking and carrying heavy containers of water Muluneh often encountered while travelling all over Africa. Their presence in the images aims at bringing awareness about access to clean water, but also prompts us to think about the responsibility of women - especially those ones in rural areas - to collect water and about the risks they run into while walking long distances.
The women portrayed look like goddesses: they wear long robes and turbans, and they represent perseverance, courage, strength and dignity.
At times they drag behind them the yellow "Kufuor" gallon containers used to store and carry water that can easily be spotted in Africa. The cans tied to a rope look like shackles and hint at the fact that carrying the water is like being imprisoned. Some of the women in the pictures hold a coffee pot or "jebena", a reference to a woman's traditional role and to the burden she's got to carry.
The doors that can be seen in some of the pictures also assume metaphorical meanings: they may be painted in blue to represent access to water, or in red and in this case they may be placed at a higher level to express a lack of access to water; windows represent a quest for a better future.
The moon framed by red fabric forming wing-like shapes behind a woman reminds us that lack of clean water also means that girls are forced to stay home from school during their cycle, missing out on their education.
The taps and pipes in another image remind us that Ethiopia has got a water reserve underground, but there is no infrastructure to get the water out of the ground.
Through all these metaphors and symbols the images recount the stories of different women, while refocusing on the hardships they go through, on the challenges they face and on issues such as health, sanitation and education, reminding us that water can't just be a luxury for a few people, but must be normal for everyone, anywhere in the world.
Muluneh considers herself an Afrofuturist: traditional African body paint is reinterpreted in a futuristic way, while stereotypical images of the continent are challenged to provide us with a different perception of contemporary Africa.
Aïda Muluneh's images were showcased at London's Somerset House during the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, and are currently part of the exhibition "Crossroads Ethiopia" that just opened at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo (on until the end of November 2020).
Muluneh also curated the exhibition that is divided in two parts, one featuring images taken by seven of Ethiopia's most famous photographers, and the other dedicated to pictures by British photographer Finbarr O'Reilly, who documented the effects of the conflict with Eritrea and also took pictures of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed Ali and of the women in his government. Earlier on this week, Abiy Ahmed Ali was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation and for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.
All images in this post by and copyright Aïda Muluneh
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