Projects

Chocolat Negro works on a variety of interesting, from a cultural point of view inspiring projects. On this page we are presenting the most important ones to you.

The Mdantsane Way- Life In The Second Biggest Township In South Africa

The Way Home, Der Weg Nach Hause - The Work of German Street Photographer Juergen Schlichting 

 

The Way Home is my own personal project. Dr. Juergen Schlichting was a German Street Photographer and scientist whose extraordinary works spans several decades from the 1950's to 1980's. He was my mentor and uncle. At the age of 46 years he lost his two year long  battle with lung cancer. His work, a valuable testimony of a time gone by, is shown  to the publich for the first time after 30 years.

 

NARA, LA SAHELIENNE - once upon a time in Mali

Exodus

This online journal is a past time account of a seven year stay in a small village, called "Nara in the Sahel" situated in Mali, West Africa close to the Mauretanian border. It is a look back in narrative form into the past and a photographic documentary of a miraculous and wondrous place. All the photographic work exhibited here was still shot on film. It tells the tales and adventures of the Malian men and some women who went into " Exode rurale ". Labor migration, one of the biggest phenomen in West Africa, has influenced the life of each and every family I have met in the Sahel. 

My own personal stories, lessons and adventures that I have collected in many hand written diaries for seven years can be found here as well. I was a wanderer, a migrant,an adventurer myself who went to seek work in another country. I share my thoughts on Field Research and Development Aid for Africa.

But my focus is on the human side of it.

 I speak about what can happen when you immerse yourself in a foreign culture deeply, a culture very much different from your own. A culture, so fascinating that it can make you loose your way on your wanderings on foreign shores and not find your way home - partly because you do not want to go home and partly because you do not know how to travel back. 

Once in Exodus it can become difficult to stop because life has become so much richer and brighter. Or let me say, this is how it was for me. In simpler words this is the story of the "Sahel The Great Enchantress".