Mauritius, portrait photographers were engaged
to produce identity photographs of Asian and Afri-
can immigrants, demonstrating English colonial
rulers’ use of photography for social control. Per-
haps the most infamous interaction between colo-
nial authority and photographic representation
occurred in Rwanda and Burundi, under German
and later Belgian control. Photographs were used
to underscore European anthropological theories
about racially-based distinctions between indigen-
ous populations: pastoralist Tutsi, a minority ruling
elite, and majority, agriculturalist Hutu. Photogra-
phy provided visual ‘‘evidence’’ for colonial officials
and missionaries of the Tutsis’ ‘‘European’’ quali-
ties, and thus supported the preservation of Tutsi
dominance. After independence, this situation fos-
tered violence that reached an awful apex in the 1994
Rwandan genocide.
Native elites in Madagascar and Ethiopia recog-
nized the political relevance of photographic por-
traiture. On Madagascar, photography provided
a means of self-representation and state building
for the rulers of the Merina kingdom before the
1896 French conquest, and the medium’s role in
public life continued in the colonial and post-colo-
nial eras through official photography agencies
FTM and ANTA. In Ethiopia (which survived as
an independent state through most of the colonial
era) photography played a persistent role in domes-
tic politics. Using images of uncrowned ruler Lij
Iyasu, Western scholar Richard Pankhurst pieces
together how photographs became weapons in the
internal political struggles of early twentieth cen-
tury Ethiopia in his article ‘‘The Political Image:
The Impact of the Camera in an Ancient Indepen-
dent African State’’ (Pankhurst 1992). After noting
a local belief that opposition among the country’s
Christian nobility to Lij Iyasu was fostered by a
now-unknown doctored photograph of the prince
in Muslim dress, Pankhurst examines extant
authentic portraits of the prince in both Christian
and Muslim dress. Pankhurst carries the story for-
ward, discussing the use of faked photographs to
discredit Emperor Haile Selassie around the time of
his overthrow in 1974.
In East Africa, commercial portrait photography
proceeded from the coasts inland. The daguerreo-
type arrived on Mauritius as early as 1840 and, by
1843, the first photographic studio was established.
Joseph Razaka, Madagascar’s first indigenous
photographer, opened a studio in 1889 that he
operated until his death in 1939. Early commercial
studios on the mainland coast included those of the
Coutinho Brothers and A.C. Gomes and Son, both
active in Zanzibar. Englishman William D. Young
ran studios in Kenya and was the ‘‘official’’ free-
lance photographer for the construction of the
Uganda railway. In Ethiopia, portrait studios
were initially run by Armenians, including the Boy-
adjians, a dynasty of royal court photographers. At
the end of the century, Ethiopian studios were run
mostly by indigenous photographers who contin-
ued to produce mostly formal, studio-based images
for life passages and rituals including weddings and
baptisms. Important studio photographers in Eth-
iopia include Negash Wolde Amanuel and Ato
Kebede Guebre Mariam, with photographs taking
on deep cultural meaning in the realm of familial
relations, rituals, friendships, and courtships. The
postcolonial history of this genre and its integra-
tion into society has been addressed by Heike Beh-
rend in a series of articles on Kenyan and Ugandan
portrait photography, including ‘‘A Short History
of Photography in Kenya’’ fromAnthology of Afri-
can and Indian Ocean Photography(1999), ‘‘Frag-
mented Visions: Photo Collages by Two Ugandan
Photographers’’ fromVisual Anthropology(2001),
and ‘‘Imagined Journeys: The Likoni Ferry Photo-
graphers of Mombasa, Kenya’’ from Photogra-
phy’s Other Histories(2003). In these articles, she
highlights the contributions of South Asian photo-
graphers in Kenya, analyzes the elaborate collage-
based practice of two Ugandan portraitists, and
discusses the role of backdrops in the work of street
photographers in Mombasa, Kenya. These articles
situate photography firmly within East African
culture as a means of documentation, commemora-
tion, and self-identification. Together, Behrend’s
articles begin to demonstrate how portrait photo-
graphers in East Africa create for their customers a
space in images for wish fulfillment and imagina-
tion, allowing—through painted backdrops, mon-
tage, and composite printing—for patrons to
access luxuries, travels, and social relationships
which would normally be out of reach.
KEVINMulhearn
Seealso:Documentary Photography; Peress, Gilles;
Photography in Africa: An Overview; PortraitureFurther Reading
Barnard, Roger. ‘‘Camerapix.’’ InAnthology of African and
Indian Ocean Photography. Paris: E ́ditions Revue Noire,
1999; 232–235.
Behrend, Heike. ‘‘A Short History of Photography in
Kenya.’’ In Anthology of African and Indian Ocean
Photography. Paris: E ́ditions Revue Noire, 1999;
160–165.
———. ‘‘Fragmented Visions: Photo Collages by Two
Ugandan Photographers.’’ Visual Anthropology 14
(2001); 310–320.AFRICA: EAST AND INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS, PHOTOGRAPHY IN