Discovered this great little documentary from the BBC this week, that I thought was well worth sharing here on the blog. The subject of the documentary is about China’s increasing influence and role within the economies of many African nations and the subsequent impacts on the people of those countries.

The Chinese Are Coming | BBC

I think the documentary gives a good overview of some of the issues at play and outlines the key challenges Africa is facing with its new friendship with China. If you weren’t aware of China’s inroads into Africa, this is a a great documentary to start with to get you up to speed with the basics.

Thanks to Danwei for originally posting this on their blog.

Africa Through a Lens | BBC

Came across a very interesting article on the BBC website this morning titled “Africa through a Lens”, that I wanted to share with you and spread the message about. According to the article…

“Thousands of old photographs from across Africa – as seen by British colonial staff stationed there – have been digitised by The NationalArchives and put online, in the hope that the public can help identify some of the people, places and customs captured on film.”

There’s a 4 minute slideshow which runs through the pictures with a commentary by presenters on BBC Radio 4. It’s well worth 4 minutes of your time.

Some of the images reminded me of the work of the great George Rodger, one of the founding members of Magnum (under-rated and overlooked a lot, in my opinion) and his work in Africa. You can view his profile on the Magnum site here.

BBC World Service

Last month I was interviewed by the BBC World Service’s Outlook programme for an article on my work on desertification for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The interview ran over the new year and has proved to be a wonderful new way to spread the message about this issue (the BBC World Service gets around 37 million listeners worldwide apparently).

If you missed it, then you can click on this link here to listen to the entire interview.

Here is the text that ran on the BBC World Service Website:

“Some of the most striking images on display at December’s Copenhagen climate change conference were pictures of China taken by a young British photographer.

Sean Gallagher travelled across the world’s most populated country on what is known as the ‘desertification train.’

And he documented his journey in photos to show how life is a constant struggle for those living on the edges of China’s deserts.

BBC World Service

China is fighting a war against creeping sand – year on year its deserts are expanding and joining to create a massive dustbowl.

It is estimated that 20 per cent of China’s land area – some 1.74 million square kilometers – is now classified as desert.

One of the main stops on Sean’s trip was Hongsibao – an environmental refugee town built from scratch by the Chinese Government to house those forced from their homes by the sandstorms and water shortages.

Lucy Ash spoke to Sean and asked him how these environmental refugees feel about their new home.”