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Visual Anthropology Reviewalso seeks photo essays.

The word limit is 2,500 words, and the number of images

should be appropriate to the essay itself. Submission ofwork that includes drawing and painting in addition to, or

instead of, still photography is also encouraged.

As a guideline, a photo essay consists of a number of

photographs with written text directly related to the

photos. The author can present the photos in a particular

order or randomly ordered, before or after the text.The author can also place the photos within the text. The

images will thus contribute an overall collection of photographs

to the essay.

The author should address in the written text the question

of Why photography? The essay should reflect on

the content of the images and the making of the imagesthe cultural and historical context of their making and the

aesthetics of the images. Finally, the authors text should

reflect on how text and image interact with one another,

perhaps on the tensions and affinities that might

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My Attempt at a Photo Essay

The assignment: A photo essay consisting of 24 images,

with captions, plus an abstract. For a journal special issue on Africa and

transition.

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Beauty, Change and Home-Making

in Western KenyaThe building, renovation and decoration of home are central to the ethics,

etiquette and aesthetics of the lives of people in the rural areas of WesternKenya. Homes are highly visible structures that provide sites andoccasions for social interaction, criticism and commentary on a daily basis.Furthermore, the actual practice and technique of building homes solidifies

alliances between husbands and wives, between in-laws, and between theliving and the dead. The Kiswahili term maridadi describes the pleasingvisual beauty of a home. This term condenses the ideas of ethics, etiquetteand aesthetics made real in the building of a home. The groomedappearance of a home materializes and broadcasts the good manners of itsdwellers in a way that is solely visual. Maridadi is the result of a particularapproach to managing the appearance of the dwelling as well as to thegardening of the space surrounding the dwelling. Local discourse on home

building highlights the recent influx of new materials and the increasingdifficulties in maintaining the pleasing appearance of homes. Thesechanges include the replacement of mud with cement walls and grass withtin roofs, and new financial obligations such as the paying of school fees.

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The walls of a house are built from the inside. Women from the villageof Madivini showing students from James Madison University how towork with this mix of mud.

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The surfaces of the home require regular re-finishing with a mix of dung,clay and mud when they begin to crack, become dusty and dirty peoplesclothes. This house-keeping skill typically belongs to women. The re-

finished surfaces are ngaathey shine.

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Grass roofs with tin roofs in the background. Grass insulates

homes. During heavy down-pours, the noise of the rain on tinroofs will bring conversations to a halt.

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Prior to cement and tin, women and men, linked together by local relations,

cooperated on the building and maintenance of walls and roofs,respectively. With the arrival of these new building materials,

professionals assume this work.

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Twelve years ago, the roof was grass. There are mud walls underneath

the cement.

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On the left is an outdoor kitchen (one that is separate from the mainhouse). After a woman completes the building of this kitchen, herhusband will rarely again eat food prepared in his mothers kitchen.

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After her husband dies, a woman will fill up the doorway through

which he used to pass, and cut a new door through which she willnow move as a widow.

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Cement first appeared in this area in the form of graves.

Traditionally, graves face the front of the home. The home islocated with future grave sites in mind.

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Maridadi- well-groomed and even lawn and hedge-rows;

smooth walls; straight edges on the corners of the house;maize plants, in the background, all growing at about the

same height.

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Drawn flowers enhance the maridadiqualities of a home. Flowersbest represent the sense of balance and clarity of line that is at thecore of this aesthetic of home-making.

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When people tell stories about their homes, they often reach a point where they stopand begin to narrate what hindered the making of their homes. The most frequentlycited obstacle is the burden of having to pay increasing school fees.

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Part of you. From the start. Cement offers the romance of permanency.

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Paint is the medium of professionals--it finishes walls permanently.

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Painted buildings in Kakamega

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The drawing of flowers on the walls of homes is less common today than it

was in the past. However, flower imagery still adorns homes in the form ofembroidered table cloths, napkins and furniture covers.

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The lines on the cement wall of a Quaker meeting house suggest the shape ofthe bricks that lie under the cement and evoke the look ofmaridadi.

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Those who previously drew flowers now find work designingartwork for store-fronts in the marketplace of Madivini

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Members of cross churches, such as the African PropheticChurch, draw crosses on the fronts of their homes.

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A Catholic household.

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Faith without action is dead [see James 2:17]

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Children decorate their homes at Christmastime. By 2010,this mud wall had been covered in bricks and the imagerywas gone. Bricks are not smooth enough to serve as

surfaces for drawing.

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This gentlemen used to work in Nairobi. He is now retired. Each

morning he wakes up and sweeps his compound. Only when hisgarden is tidy does he sit down for breakfast.

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People walking by see the pile of freshly swept leaves and the tidycompound, and know that the old man is doing well and stayingstrong.

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The home is greatly admired for its beauty. The owner recently

passed away and his neighbors doubt that his grandson will beable to maintain it.

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The main editor who passes the issue sentback a question about your essay.

Let me say first of all that I understand if youdecide not to put in the work she is requesting. Ilike your piece, but she is concerned and saysthe article looks at Western Kenya throughanthropological lenses that may be pushing

stereotypes about Africa in an age when there isa more balanced picture to present in the area ofarchitecture. She requests that we provide animage of Kenya that is not solely rural or povertystricken. (She is an art historian with expertise in

architecture and she is actually in Kenya as wespeak on research). So she asks that weconsider delivering an essay that covers thegamut of architecture in Kenya.

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Photographer: Zwelethu Mthethwa