An Intimate View of the Diverse Cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa

In a convergence of brilliant color and compelling visual narrative, this new collection of photographs by Pascal Maitre reveals an Africa unfamiliar to most Westerners. He portrays a wide range of experience in sub-Saharan Africa: in Niger's desert, soldiers juggle goats and machine guns; within the forest, a rosary dangles from the chest of a warrior in a Bassorian initiation ceremony. In this startlingly beautiful land, ornamented by the marks of human struggle and worship, contradictions are plentiful.

Rich in detail and elegant composition, Maitre's photographs immerse us in an Africa beyond the familiar media depictions. He shows an Africa living with the contradictions of tradition and modernization, of ritual headdresses and plastic flip-flops, of tribal wars and machine guns, of ancestral deities and nonbelievers.

Covering an immense geographic area with numerous visits, Maitre has been exhaustive in his quest to show the Africa that he has come to understand and love.

A lively preface by Cameroon-born author Calixthe Beyala sets the stage for Mon Afrique