By KARI MUTU

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Renowned photographers Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith have released a new book of photographs called African Twilight: Vanishing Rituals and Ceremonies.

The double volume has 830 pages of stunning images from traditional communities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo and West Africa.

African Twilight is their 17th book. The African Twilight Exhibition is currently taking place at the Nairobi Gallery.

The book will be officially launched in Kenya on March 3, at the African Heritage House in a festival of music, dance and cultural attire.

The two women recently told me about their travel experiences and the work that goes into publishing a book.

Fisher, who is Australian, first came to Kenya in the 1970s to film a documentary about the Maasai.

After graduating from art school, American-born Beckwith travelled the world studying ethnic cultures like the Maasai, Turkana and people of Lamu.

Says Beckwith, “I was fascinated by societies that weren’t creating art, paintings and textiles for decorating a wall but rather for ensuring their survival or protection.”

The two women met in 1978 after Beckwith took a hot-air balloon safari in the Maasai Mara. The pilot was Fisher’s brother.

At first they were not sure they could work together. But shortly after, they realised they both wanted to create a comprehensive visual record of African ceremonies from birth to death.

For the past 40 years, Fisher and Beckwith have visited 44 African countries together and captured more than 200 different cultures.

“We have an advantage that being women, we end up being able to photograph both men and women,” said Fisher.

They said it takes years to compile sufficient material for a book. Before each trip, they conduct extensive research and create time charts of significant cultural events, some of which only occur after several years.

Sometimes ceremony dates change unexpectedly because of adverse weather, war, or the death of a prominent person.

For example, recording the male and female initiation ceremonies of the Pokot people in northern Kenya took more than three years.

Reaching remote ethnic communities means driving through very difficult terrain to places beyond roads and maps.

Beckwith says, “You have to be open to serendipity, then trust people to help you.’

They have travelled on camels, sailing dhows and in dugout canoes.

“To get into Surma in Ethiopia, near the border with Sudan, we had to organise a mule train of 15 animals with everything we needed for a five-week stay,” Beckwith said.

They keep a journal of each day’s experiences, the people they have met and the ceremonies witnessed. To date they have over 200 handwritten journals.

Of particular interest in Africa Twilight is the royal families in the Congo, a country that has been very difficult for them to enter.

Fisher says that for African Twilight they had to travel farther than they did for previous books to find ceremonies that are still happening.

A chief of the Wadabe people of Niger, after meticulously perusing African Twilight, described it as “medicine not to forget.”

Consequently, the two are keen to ensure the long-term preservation of their material.

Now both in their 70s, Beckwith and Fisher are looking for a place to house their collection of more than 500,000 images, a thousand hours of film, and complete exhibition pieces, most likely through a digital platform.