It was the promise of an exciting new project that almost didn’t happen.
The team: a group of four spectacularly talented, confident individuals who wanted to travel the continent and show that Africa isn’t necessarily what it has been presented to be over the years.
Photographer Mutua Matheka, Joe Were, a travel and documentary photographer, the artist and designer Lulu Kitololo and the storyteller Josh Kisamwa.
Their mission was a plan that encompassed journeying through more than 13 cities, covering over 15 thousand kilometers over 8 weeks. They would depart from Nairobi and drive through Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The aim would be to document the public spaces, the people, the architecture and the culture that exists within these spaces.
You can read more about the project HERE.
The team was looking for $28,000 in backing and managed to pass the threshold at the eleventh hour – cue the start of an adventure that would be fun, risky, educational but most of all necessary.
They are at over $30,000 and counting.
(Youtube/ Unscrambling Africa)
So now what?
How have their plans been shaping up and what should backers expect from the team?
Mutua Matheka says: “ Three years ago an idea took root in my brain and grew into a plan to photograph all African cities. See, I photograph Nairobi city and have done so for the past 6 years. It has given me an immense appreciation for this city and given me a strong desire to see other African cities and meet people in those cities to see for myself and document, that others may also see. I have always felt that this continent was misrepresented in the photos I see or rather represented in a very one-sided manner. One that emphasized poverty, decease & wildlife over urbanity, progress & growth….”
The aim had been to have set off by now, however, there have been a few setbacks that pushed forward their start date.
The team now expects to leave between the 20th to the 23rd of the month but being as fully prepared for a journey that they will not be able to predict will be one of the challenges.
Good luck to the team as they venture out to Unscramble Africa!
Image: Kickstarter/ Unscrambling Africa
