Some personal experiences shape us forever, dividing our lives into a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. They might be sudden events, like a moment when something just clicks and after a long standstill. Or maybe it’s a chance encounter with someone who, in retrospect, turns out to be a life-changing figure in our lives. Or perhaps […]
22
Apr
Apr
Tattoos, piercings, scarification, and other permanent body modification reveal one of the oldest and most universal forms of nonverbal communication. Since the dawn of humanity, the body has been far more than a biological vessel: it is canvas, shield, and narrative. Upon it are projected identities, hierarchies, beliefs, and senses of belonging that transcend the […]
24
Dec
Dec
The Durbar Festival is a cultural, religious and equestrian celebration held by the Hausa people annually, usually coinciding with major Muslim festivities. It was born as military parades in the 14th century. During the celebration of the Durbar Festival, each noble house parades before the Emir, acting as a regiment, to demonstrate their loyalty to […]
22
Jul
Jul
Bwiti is a cult or spiritual movement practiced by the Fang tribe of Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Gabon, as well as other ethnic groups such as the Punu and Mitsogo. The etymological root of the word bwiti is a distortion of the word Bo-hete, which means empowerment or release of a fluid. Therefore, bwiti would […]
25
Jun
Jun
Foreign visitors started visiting the Mursi people in the 1980s, attracted by their unique tradition of stretching their lower lips with wooden or clay disks. Until then, the Ethiopian region of the Omo River Valley had been closed to foreigners (including Christian missionaries and Western NGOs) since being conquered by King Menelik in the late […]
12
Jun
Jun
When Joan Riera (founder of Last Places) was studying Anthropology in the mid-1990s at Richmond University in London, he came across a rare book titled ‘The Dukkawa of Northwest Nigeria’. The author was the anthropologist Celsius Prazan, a pastor from Chicago who lived among several tribes of northwest Nigeria in the 1970s. As today, Joan, […]
29
May
May
Comprising over 12 million individuals, the Bakongo people are one of the largest Bantu-speaking groups in Central Africa. They developed agriculture and commerce and became the founders of the Kongo Kingdom in the 15th century. The descendants of this powerful African kingdom were colonized in the 19th century by the Belgians, the French and the […]
07
May
May
One of the most interesting peoples unknown to the outside world is the Mikea. There are barely 1,500 individuals, and they live inside the thorn forests of southwestern Madagascar. Reading about the Mikea people, we have learned that they are more of a socioeconomic group than an independent ethnic group. According to French anthropologists who […]
03
Apr
Apr
The We or Guere people are made up of about 800,000 people and are one of the most important in the Ivory Coast and Liberia. They are known for being great artisans, especially for their masks, which are one of the main differentiating elements of this society. These masks are associated with the animistic spiritual […]
11
Mar
Mar
Africa, that great continent of more than thirty million square kilometers, one and a half billion inhabitants and fifty-four sovereign nations with thousands of different cultures that, erroneously, tends to be homogenized. That is the macro scenario. But it is the narrative about small regional stories and particularities what this territory urgently needs. The demystification, […]
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