John Kenny

West African Societies

Black and white portraits from some of West Africa's most remote societies, including the Wodaabe and Fula in Niger, the Tuareg in Mali, the Tamberma in Togo and the Betammaribe in Benin, who practice a uniquely intricate form of facial scarification.

I spent two months travelling through the arid Sahel on the southernmost fringes of the Sahara. An area of little development interest provides the backdrop to the unique cultures of West Africa's most remote groups. Most of the societies were almost entirely removed from the developed lifestyles of their fellow countrymen and women, and the people that I encountered had an appearance that looked to be little changed from past generations.