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Connecting Ports and People – A photo exhibition in the Western Indian Ocean region

5 September 2022 3 min read Comments

A photo exhibition in the Western Indian Ocean region

Ports play a vital role in the global economy, with over 90% of goods being traded across the ocean. Yet ports also have a large impact on the lives of people living along the coastline, from changing their landscapes and providing employment opportunities to affording opportunities to connect to the rest of the world.

The large role that ports play in coastal communities means that port security is crucial to the well-being of a country’s culture and economy. Ports are often spread over thousands of hectares of sea and land, meaning that criminals have many opportunities to smuggle illegal weapons, drugs, and commit multiple crimes.

The UN Office on Drug and Crime’s Eastern Africa office has enhanced port security in the Western Indian Ocean and recently held photo exhibitions in Madagascar, Mauritius, and Tanzania to showcase how ports and people are interconnected, thus underscoring the need to maximize port security.

A picture tells a thousand words, as our photo exhibits show below:

Mahajanga, Madagascar

Photographer: Rijasolo

“Whether they are port dockers, dhow captains, fishermen or simple evening strollers, their economic and social life is directly or indirectly linked to this maritime environment. My role as a photographer is to reveal this friendship between them and “their” sea,” explains Rijasolo, the photographer.

Mahajanga, Madagascar; © Rijasolo

Mauritius

Photographer: Keivan Cadinouche

“A port is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. A port never stops. There are a lot of actors who gravitate around this area. And indirectly, the port creates a very close link between its inhabitants, its surroundings and its activity.

I also had the chance to meet men and women who work there every day. They do jobs that we do not necessarily know: divers who inspect the hulls of ships, taxi boats, supply boats, shipyards with teams of 500 people capable of repairing all the parts of a ship, fishermen who sew the tuna fillets, propeller spinners… It’s a world of enormous proportions.”

– Keivan Cadinouche

Bain de dames – decotees praying by the sea; © Keivan Cadinouche

Elizabeth Ville
– Children bathing in the channel near the port

© Keivan Cadinouche

Worker cleaning the imposing chain
of a cargo ship

Zanzibar, Tanzania

Photographer: Abdu Nasser Naizi

Salim Othman Bakar, a 40-year-old fisherman from Kizingo. He’s been fishing since the age of 10 and is a father of five.
Fishing enables him to provide for his family. © Abdu Nasser Naizi

Chande Khamis is a 37-year-old carpenter form Sogea. He has been a boat captain and welder for ten years.
His dream is to own his own boat to help him make more income for his family. © Abdu Nasser Naizi

Ali Hamad, 19, started fishing at age 15 with his father. Fishing helps him to support himself and family. He lives in Pemba. © Abdu Nasser Naizi

Tatu is 43-year-old single mother of seven. She is a seaweed farmer who lives in Paje with her children. Seaweed farming is her only means of income. © Abdu Nasser Naizi

Further information

With financial support from the European Union (EU), UNODC’s Global Maritime Crime Programme (GMCP), in collaboration with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and INTERPOL, are implementing a programme on Port Security and Safety of Navigation in Eastern and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean Commission is coordinating this project across Angola, Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, and Tanzania. To learn more about GMCP, click here.