Witness Image

Haratin, the mask of modern slavery – portraits

by Luca Catalano Gonzaga

Jharkhand - India - 2018

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Jharkhand - India - 2018

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Varanasi - India - 2017

The dark side of India

Kigali-Rwanda - 2014

The forgotten Batwa

Nouakchott, Mauritania - 2013

Haratin, the mask of modern slavery

Nouakchott, Mauritania - 2013

Haratin, the mask of modern slavery - portraits

Temuco, Chile - 2013

Mapuche, people of the land

Dhaka-Bangladesh - 2010

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Mongla-Bangladesh - 2010

The Island of forgotten women

These portraits, by Luca Catalano Gonzaga, have been taken 50 years after Richard Avedon shot the portrait of the enslaved William Casby, entitled “Born in Slavery”. They tell about the Haratin people of Mauritania, descendants of the Black Moors, the historically enslaved population “owned” by the White Moors, a powerful minority. Although “Haratin” means literally “those who have been freed”, these women and men still live in slavery, generation after generation, treated by everyone else as a ‘property’: something only worth buying, selling, trading or destroying. Haratins live in villages in the countryside, work a land which is not theirs and don’t receive a salary or any other form of compensation. In the villages of Daguag, Jedida, Tejala (Brakna District), Mbeida (Gorgol District), many Haratin who have been invited by the leader of their village wait for their turn to have their picture taken inside a hut, anonymously. (text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

 

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