Intensity

I photographed my host-brother Abba in the family's cattle corral. He has a way with animals; he is seemingly fluent in chicken or sheep or bull, clicking away to subdue the animals. This young bull hardly put up a fight, his mom on the other hand grazed the cheek of my older host-brother with her horns!


The story of Abba intrigues me. My host-father's mother (our "kaagaa" or "grandmother") went to Mecca on her Hadj (in fact she has been three times). The most recent time she came back with Abba. He had been orphaned, left in Mecca at the age of 4. A few years ago, his birth-mother comes to town looking for him. She is Sudanese. Evidently he refused to go with her, and is essentially considered one of La Famille Cisse.


I appreciate the intensity with which Abba gazes at the beholder.