A Rare Look into Northern Cameroon with Photographer Désiré Danga

July 18, 2019
DUNIA Mag
Posted in Art & Photography Interviews

Northern Cameroon (Credit: Desy Danga)

DUNIA Magazine had the honor and pleasure of featuring the work of Cameroonian photographer Désiré Danga in our Summer 2018 print edition.

MEET THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Desy Danga

DUNIA MAGAZINE: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Désiré Danga: My name is Désiré Danga, aged thirty, from Figuil in the North region. I am a social entrepreneur and guidance counselor at a rural college in Mayo-Danay, in the Far North region where I live. I am passionate about photography, social media and all that is related to digital communities and social innovations, as well as issues related to women and girls in North Cameroon.

How did you discover your love for photography? How have you improved your craft over the years?

Désiré Danga: Honestly, it was by chance that I fell into photography. In secondary school, my father gave me a silver camera, but I only used it for family ceremonies without much curiosity. It was really with my discovery of the Instagram social network that my passion for photography was revealed and I began to learn from other people’s posts. So I learned on the job and I really don’t consider myself as a photographer, if yes, just an amateur because I think I do naive photography, totally. I do everything by feeling, without calculation, without technique… strictly speaking. That is how I try to live photography. And since a friend gave me a professional camera, I try to improve myself day by day through practice and by reading some tutorials on the internet.

What are some of your favorite places/people/things in Cameroon to capture and why?

Désiré Danga: Most of my photographic work is based in Northern Cameroon, although during my travels I also share photos from other regions. Through the hashtag WoilaViews – #WoilaViews (i.e. North Cameroon by image – Woila meaning North in Fulfulde), I try to convey a more cheerful and picturesque image of this part of the country through clichés of landscapes, peoples, cultures and scenes of daily life. The Far North has suffered for too long from [negative] stereotypes and it now deserves to be seen from a different perspective, more photographically than humanly speaking. And I’m modestly trying to break this distorted mirror. The people here are selfless, smiling and full of life and happiness despite the lack of security, the presence of the Boko Haram sect in the area, the social precariousness and the harsh climate.

What do you wish to accomplish through your work in photography?

Désiré Danga: Through my camera lens, I try to share the beauty of the lush and lunar landscapes of the North, its Edenic sunsets, and above all, the raw emotional form of the people of these regions rooted in their traditions and customs. A mother who extirpates her sorrows in dancing, excited to enjoy life, a father who expresses his happiness in sharing, palavers and the joys of daily markets, a child who gloats his dreams on the playgrounds with a smile full of innocence… One derives pleasure and is transformed by all this, and in my case, I am transfigured every time I film these pale and lively shades of humanity. The precious emotions captured in absolutely banal and unexpected settings are of an unspeakable happiness; this chance to be able to photograph people with their hearts in their eyes helped me to create a bond and for that alone, I think I try to share and give visibility, even on a small scale, to this Woila I love so much.

In another, more militant and thematic context, I am currently working on the scarcity and access to water in the greater North, but also on the difficulty of women’s work. One day I would like to show the world the daily difficulties endured by these women that I have named “queens of labour” in maintaining their homes, in a photographic exhibition, if possible here in Cameroon or elsewhere.