Botswana features at Mkapa wildlife photo
Writerawards
The 2022 Benjamin Mkapa African Wildlife Photography Awards winners were announced recently at the Mkapa Awards Ceremony and Exhibition Grand Opening ceremony held at the Nairobi National Museum in Nairobi, Kenya recently.
The exhibition of 77 prints and four videos will travel to other museums and galleries in global locations. The awards, organised by African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and Nature’s Best Photography (NBP), boasted over 9,500 entries from photographers in 57 countries.
Amongst the winners is James Gifford who entered under the category of Africa in Motion with a short video titled ‘Living With Elephants’ captured in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The video captures the lives of people who have for many years had to co-exist with elephants and other wildlife.
Through the video, the people of the area share their stories on the human-wildlife conflict, and how they have learned to protect their crops without necessarily harming the elephants. Another photograph of significance is the one taken by Saeid Zokaei Arani who resides in Gaborone.
Arani is honoured under the Mobile category, with a photograph tilted ‘Lunar Rainbow’ taken in neighbouring Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls. Explaining the concept behind the awards, a press statement from the organisers reads: “AWF works to ensure wildlife and their habitats thrive in modern Africa, and along with Nature’s Best Photography’s mission to display the fine art of photography, our combined goals are to attract nature photographers at all levels of expertise and all ages to share their passion for Africa, while encouraging young talent to become advocates for generational behavioural change towards wildlife conservation.
This impressive body of work brings immediate and long-lasting impact to public understanding and stewardship of wild Africa. Adding a very personal legacy connection to this programme, the Mkapa Awards are named in honour of the late, iconic African leader and former Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa, for his dedication to conservation education throughout Africa, and his impactful support of AWF programmes across the continent.
‘Bringing Africa to the World, and the World to Africa’ defines this global competition, geared towards developing multi-media platforms that engage and involve Africans and also those travelling to Africa in a blended narrative of conservation awareness and visual storytelling.”
Speaking at the awards ceremony, AWF CEO Kaddu Sebunya said, “Through this competition and numerous other strategic partnerships, AWF is committed to finding these voices, helping them, and amplifying their voices – we remain committed to helping define and refine Africa’s agenda for conservation and development and representing these voices, ... trumpeting these voices for African conservation to the world over.” AWF senior vice president and programme co-founder, Craig Sholley further said: “In our second year of this unique photography competition, we were delighted to see interest spread globally and in particular throughout Africa.
The subject matter of images submitted represents not only greater species diversity, but also focuses on a broader set of critical issues and the Africans championing conservation on the front lines.” Also present at the awards ceremony was the US Ambassador to Kenya, Margaret ‘Meg’ Whitman who was invited as the guest speaker. She said: “Art, like the photography on display as part of the second Mkapa Award exhibition, has the power to transport us and help us see our planet in new and interesting ways.
African Wildlife Foundation, Nature’s Best Photography, and the participants in this year’s Mkapa competition understand that power. Their work values the essential role of conservation efforts in a thriving, modern Africa. They use their talents to encourage us to appreciate the many creatures—great and small—with whom we share this planet.