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A "Visual Ethnography of the Africa Human Rights Education Project"
is a book that puts together many images that were created during a visual study undertaken
in 2011 and 2012. This project depicts part of the Amnesty International
African Human Rights Education Project in Burkina Faso,
and it is shaped through a multi-disciplinary approach,
bringing together disciplines of Sociology, Visual Sociology,
Art, Photography and Human Rights. The project was focused on following the whole
process, from concept to delivery, coordinated by Moussa
Ouedraogo, Human Rights Education Coordinator at Amnesty
International Burkina Faso, who is also the co-author of the book.
Through the use of photography, we navigate within the dynamics and development
of this human rights education project. We tried to create a visual narrative that
did not need any words in relation to the explanation of it;
that could actually represent the interrelations of theoretical concepts,
the forming of the process of brainstorming, representing and reflecting the reality of
workshops within human rights education aspects in Burkina
Faso, empirical actions, empowerment and participatory
intervention with children, adults and elders on a wide variety
of subjects. The project was following a concept of human
rights education and human dignity, and this was structured by Moussa into different
micro-projects. These micro-projects were related to different
needs that were present in Burkina Faso and so they were calling for
different kinds of mobilisation and active participation
for social change within the country.
In terms of methodologies that were used, there was a wide variety of choices,
and often theatre and active participation were called into action, for example,
when considering the focus I was taking for my PhD studies in relation to children's
rights. In this case there were different locations,
aspects that were structured within formal and informal education,
in areas where it was really difficult to access,
in terms of geographical needs and logistics. This also called into reflection various aspects
of impact and debates that were shaped within
young people in Burkina.
There is as well an importance for me as an artist,
photographer and visual sociologist, of how the visual communication was trying
to reflect the whole feeling of this process.
As I said, from concept to delivery, this photo-reportage could structure a visual
narrative that could give a chance to share the very
process in order to create engagement with an audience
(that could be set outside Burkina Faso and in an international setting).
It could also give options of evaluation of a project
within a qualitative basis or for support of
a quantitative research approach. It could also reflect concepts of visual communication
in relation to human rights education that could allow
thinking through different ways of engaging an audience.
It creates a window into a reality of a different perspective
of development of the project. I believe the visual aspect of this narrative
is actually enriching an approach to share
the whole stages of the process, and it is forming a new way of learning from
it. This can be achieved not only in an academic
setting but also in non-academic setting.
When we talk about human rights education it is important to connect with fields that
are formal or informal education. The visual project that has the deeper impact
is that project that connects with different settings,
being cross-continental and at the same time open and available to people's interpretations
and understandings. This visual project was important in order
to create material that could analyse different ways
of seeing the production and the way of engaging social
impact. I think this project is bringing together
different views, as it is multidisciplinary.
It is bringing together perspectives that are sociological,
that are artistic, social driven and related to the concept
of the reality of human rights. And so it has a human rights education, as
well as, a human rights communication and human rights
campaign angle. Bringing together all these ingredients,
I think the visual approach can play an important role
in pushing further the potential of human rights education.