Everything is connected
Channel: Colin J. McMechan
Date: 2013-06-01

This all started while being welcomed into a Masai village along the safari track between the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in northern Tanzania during March 2013. I didn't have a take-away from that experience other than a bunch of digital images and a colourful memory of contact with these traditional herders and their tribalistic ceremonies. No deep, resonating take-away...until now.

This project grew organically from the handheld DSLR video I shot. Upon my return to Canada, I thought about the parallels between human and non-human forms: the pogo-like dance ceremony of the Masai men reminded me of giraffe with their heads outstretched to the sky; the competitive flight into the air of the Masai juxtaposed with jousting mammals and primates.

Kilimanjaro is such an iconic image of Africa that we often visualize it as something separate from the expansive environment at its base, and yet it is enveloped by the web of the region's natural history. Kilimanjaro today reflects the reality and pace of planetary change on this part of the world. What shocked me most when Kibo Peak came into sight during that sunset was its melted icecap. The "snows of Kilimanjaro" have all but slipped away since I last saw the mountain in the 1970s.

I've interlaced with my still shot of Kili images of juvenile giraffe and elephants. They are as cute as their parents are majestic. What effects will global warming have on such wildlife, which are similarly iconic in the African landscape? I'd like to think that the enduring flow of nature and traditional peoples could never be interrupted: the annual mass migrations of wildebeest and zebra; the traditional way of life for the Masai including their chants and dances; the hope engendered by the interconnections of life that we are fortunate to witness and hold sacred. The final scene of the impala staring down a young buck impostor in defence of his harem symbolizes a challenge to all of us: Are we prepared to stand down or will we fight to the death?