The Nomadic Hyena Handlers of Nigeria

The following are the accounts of photographer Pieter Hugo on his trip to Nigeria to investigate the Hyena Handlers.

The Naraative and pictures are from his book The Hyena and Other Men.

It all started with the picture above. A friend had emailed photographer Pieter Hugo this bizarre image taken on a cellphone in Lagos, Nigeria. The caption read, ‘The Streets of Lagos’, and a newspaper publishing the photo reported that the men were bank robbers, body guards, drug dealers and debt collectors.

The image went viral online and the myth of these street toughs in Nigeria with Hyenas grew. Pieter was captivated and knew he had to learn more.

Through a journalist friend, Hugo tracked down a Nigerian reporter, Adetokunbo Abiola, who said that he knew the Gadawan Kura as they are known in Hausa (a rough translation: ‘hyena handlers/guides’). A few weeks later, Pieter was on a plane to Lagos.

Abiola met me at the airport and together we took a bus to Benin City where the ‘hyena men’ had agreed to meet us. However, when we got there they had already departed for Abuja.

In Abuja we found them living on the periphery of the city in a shantytown – a group of men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys and a few rock pythons. It turned out that they were a group of itinerant minstrels, performers who used the animals to entertain crowds and sell traditional medicines. The animal handlers were all related to each other and were practising a tradition passed down from generation to generation. I spent eight days travelling with them.

The spectacle caused by this group walking down busy market streets was overwhelming. I tried photographing this but failed, perhaps because I wasn’t interested in their performances. I realised that what I found fascinating was the hybridisation of the urban and the wild, and the paradoxical relationship that the handlers have with their animals – sometimes doting and affectionate, sometimes brutal and cruel.

I started looking for situations where these contrasting elements became apparent. I decided to concentrate on portraits. I would go for a walk with one of the performers, often just in the city streets, and, if opportunity presented itself, take a photograph. We travelled around from city to city, often chartering public mini-buses. 

I agreed to travel with the animal wranglers to Kano in the northern part of the country. One of them set out to negotiate a fare with a taxi driver; everyone else, including myself and the hyenas, monkeys and rock pythons, hid in the bushes. When their companion signalled that he had agreed on a fare, the motley troupe of humans and animals leapt out from behind the bushes and jumped into the vehicle.

The taxi driver was completely horrified. I sat upfront with a monkey and the driver. He drove like an absolute maniac. At one stage the monkey was terrified by his driving. It grabbed hold of my leg and stared into my eyes. I could see its fear. 

Two years later I decided to go back to Nigeria. The project felt unresolved and I was ready to engage with the group again. I look back at the notebooks I had kept while with them. The words ‘dominance’, ‘codependence’ and ‘submission’ kept appearing. These pictures depict much more than an exotic group of travelling performers in West Africa. The motifs that linger are the fraught relationships we have with ourselves, with animals and with nature.

The second trip was very different. By this stage there was a stronger personal relationship between myself and the group. We had remained in contact and they were keen to be photographed again. The images from this journey are less formal and more intimate.

The first series of pictures had caused varying reactions from people – inquisitiveness, disbelief and repulsion. People were fascinated by them, just as I had been by that first cellphone photograph. A director of a large security company in the USA contacted me, asking how to get in touch with the ‘hyena group’. He saw marketing potential: surely these men must use some type of herb to protect themselves against hyenas, baboons, dogs and snakes? He thought that security guards, soldiers and his own pocket could benefit from this medicine.

Many animal-rights groups also contacted me, wanting to intervene (however, the keepers have permits from the Nigerian government). When I asked Nigerians, “How do you feel about the way they treat animals”, the question confused people. Their responses always involved issues of economic survival.

Seldom did anyone express strong concern for the well-being of the creatures. Europeans invariably only ask about the welfare of the animals but this question misses the point. Instead, perhaps, we could ask why these performers need to catch wild animals to make a living. Or why they are economically marginalised. Or why Nigeria, the world’s sixth largest exporter of oil, is in such a state of disarray.

Pictures Of African Kings Taken Decades Ago

Daniel Laine was a French photographer who travelled across the whole of Africa between 1988 to 1991 taking photographs of powerful African Kings "whose dynasties marked the history of Africa until the middle Twentieth Century".

And he focussed on African monarchs who continued to "retain a traditional and spiritual authourity that is difficult for the Western mind to comprehend".

Laine encountered some difficulties in the process: A war in Sudan prevented him from taking the photograph of the King of Shiluk who is a descendant of black dynasties that ruled Egypt. The King of Swaziland refused to be photographed.

He eventually succeeded in taking the pictures of 70 Kings and the photographs and details are contained in a book he wrote.

Below are pictures of some of these monarchs, all the words and descriptions are those of Daniel Laine.

 Keep in mind also that these pictures were taken decades ago and some monarchs portrayed may have passed to the Great Beyond and new persons may currently be occupying these positions.

But these pictures are important for historical purposes.

Joseph Langanfin (Benin):Representing the Abomey dynasty, Joseph Langanfin is the president of CAFRA, the council of Abomey’s royal families. With this title, he is considered as the official representative of the kings of Abomey. He presided at the centenary ceremonies for the death of King Glele, who was his great grandfather.

The Ooni of Ife (Nigeria):In 1980, Sijuwade became the fiftieth Oni (King) of Ife, one of the most ancient African Dynasties. Formerly, during his coronation, an Oni had to embrace the sword of justice, and enter into his palace on a cloth stiffened by the dry blood of sacrificed men and women. Today the Oni is a rich businessman, with several vaste properties in Nigeria and England.

Ngie Kamga Joseph-Fon of Bandjun (Cameroun):

The Fon (King) is the brother of courageous and powerful animals. At night, he has the power to transform himself into a panther, where he haunts the forest, runs through the savana and drinks from torrents. When a panther is killed by a hunter, the Fon from Bamileke region are afraid. Will one of them not perish from the death of his double. Formerly a chief administator and cabinet chief for the finance Minister of Cameroun in 1964, Kamga Joseph is the thirteenth Fon of Bandjun. On the day of his predecessor’s funeral, he was stopped in the Bandjun market by two Bamileke chiefs, “the hangmen”, in the middle of the nobles and princes who wept the deceased King. Wearing a head dress made of sisal as a sign of humility, he was taken to the noblemen, the “tafo meru”, where he learned during nine weeks how to be a King.

Halidou Sali - Lamido of Bibemi (Cameroun):

Halidou Sali, the twelfth Lamido (king) of Bibemi, received his kingdom in 1958. He is a descendant of Aido Samba, one of the 42 Kings of Adamawa, who during the eighteenth century carried the flag for the Jihad (holy war) of Ousman Dan Fodio. 

Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa III - King of Akropong -Akuapem (Ghana): A graduate from the University of London and an economic advisor for the Ghanaian administration, The King of Akropong holds for the last sixteen years the “sacred seat” of the Akuapem-Asona, one of the seven major Akan clans. To his right, his “spokesman” carries the royal emblem, the elephant, a remembrance that his kingdom was founded by force.

Abubakar Sidiq -Sultan of Sokoto (Nigeria):

 This photo was taken fifteen days before the death of the Sultan of Sokoto. He had reigned for more than fifty years. At the time of his successor’s coronation, who was chosen by a council of “king makers”, a conflict erupted. Two royal families disputed the choice; the consequence: one hundred deaths.

Amazing Pictures of Phone Masts Disguised To Look Like Something Else

Mobile phones and their networks have become something we are now used to having, some people even think its a basic right to have a mobile phone.

This ubiquity means that mobile phone companies must erect their masts all around us in order to ensure that there is strong and adequate network coverage for everyone.

The problem is that some people complain that these masts have become eyesore that destroys the landscape of their otherwise beautiful environment. Some have gone as far as obtaining court orders against the erection of such masts in their localities.

Some very brilliant and resourceful engineers have attempted to solve this problem by erection such masts such that they blend into the lands scape and people don't even notice.

The following are pictures of some of these masts and towers.

Mobile Phone/Church Bell Tower in LaVista, New England. 

Mobile Phone mast like a tree.

Mobile Phone tower disguised as a palm tree.

Mobile Phone towers disguised as Cactus in Tucson, Arizona.

Mobile Phone mast disguised like a Church Cross in Lake Worth, Florida.

Mobile Phone tower made to look like a tree.

Mobile Phone antenna concealed to look like brick exterior of a house in Sopot, Poland.

Look exactly like Palm Trees.

Mobile Phone Cactus mast in Tucson, Arizona.

Looks like a Fir Tree in Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. 

Mobile mast/Church Bell Tower: Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, Dallas, Texas. 

Mobile Phone tower flagpole, College Station, Texas.

Another one made to look like a Palm Tree.

Made to look like a Super Tree 

Constructing a Mobile Phone tower Cactus in Arizona.

Sworn Virgins of Albania Who Live All Their Lives As Men.

In the European country of Albania there are women who live all of their lives as men. They have taken a vow of chastity (usually at an early age) and becomes Sworn Virgins or Burnesha.

This elevates her to the status of a man and such women usually cut their hairs, wear male clothings and could even change their names. Male gestures, swags and expressions are practiced until they become second nature. All these together with a vow of celibacy turns a "She" into a "He".

This step is usually necessary because of a society that generally maintains an oppressive rule over the female gender. Women are seen as properties of their husbands and the rights to vote, drive, conduct business, drink, smoke and even to swear were the exclusive preserves of men.

This means that a family without a partriach or a male heir is usually in danger of losing everything and so a female needs to come in and become the partriach.

With modernisation and civilisation this practice is increasingly becoming obsolete, but it is still practiced in not a few places...even till today.

If All The World Had Just 100 People

With the population of the world surpassing the 7 billion and counting very fast. A research website called 100people.org has made a compilation which would help people "better understand the complex issues facing our planet and the resources we share by framing the global population as 100 people".

Below is a compilation of 100people.org statisical findings into 14 image macros to further simplify the message they are trying to get across.