I traveled to Tanzania and Kenya in June of 2019 and completed an extensive amount of visual work documenting local social aid groups and a rural and isolated Maasai community. 

My group and I were invited to meet and interview the Maasai Boma community by Frank Sabore, our guide and a Maasai elder from the community.

The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are among the best known local populations internationally due to their residence near the many game parks of the African Great Lakes, and their distinctive customs and dress.

In 2019, I traveled with a group of all female African-American professors & professionals affiliated with RJOY, a restorative justice organization focused on domestic and international need-finding for locally run social aid groups.

Born out of a spontaneous teaching friendship between Liberthi (first image), a 12-year old Maasai boy and myself — the following images were captured collaboratively. Liberthi guided me throughout the Boma community and visually directed me — or after small technical lessons — opted for taking the images himself.

This project explores themes of cultural perspective, re-centering firsthand tribal narratives, the joys in first meetings, and the empowerment in utilizing artistic tools to tell one's own story, which in this case, is both Liberthi's and my own.

‘Liberthi’s Vision’ was selected for a six-month exhibition in Wallenberg Hall at Stanford University by Stanford Arts in 2019.