South African photographer Shem Compion remembers exactly when his love affair with the Great Rift Valley started.
In 2002, in his twenties and looking for journey, Compion saved what he might, bought what he didn’t want and purchased a Land Rover. Together with a good friend he hit the street and headed north. They wouldn’t return dwelling for seven months.
Their journey was Compion’s first publicity to the Rift — often known as the East African Rift System — which carves its manner 4,000 miles from Botswana and Mozambique within the south to Djibouti and the Red Sea within the north, and up into Jordan. Formed by tectonic plates slowly tearing aside, its valleys wend via 11 nations, rising inch by inch, till at some point, many tens of millions of years from now, the ocean will start to flood the land; a stark and exquisite reminder of the impermanence of all issues.
On his street journey, Compion ventured to Nakuru, Kenya, the place the land drops away and Lake Nakuru stretches out with huge drifts of pink flamingos, framed by mountains within the distance. “That was quite a seminal moment,” he mirrored. “It all came together for me right there.”
Compion, who skilled in conservation and wildlife administration, has operated safaris alongside the Rift whereas photographing its landscapes, wildlife and peoples for over 20 years. His portfolio has now been compiled into his seventh e-book and first artwork e-book, “The Rift: Scar of Africa,” a grand venture that seeks to seize its awe and abundance.
The e-book unfolds throughout 5 chapters, exploring the geological origins of the Rift, hominid evolution, its human inhabitants at present, biodiversity, and the affect of the Anthropocene — the time interval human exercise has had a major affect on the planet.
Compion describes the e-book as “part celebration, part bringing together science and conservation.” He solicited a variety of specialists to talk to his pictures, together with volcanologist David Pyle and anthropologist Veronica Waweru, together with notable figures similar to artist Ngwatilo Mawiyoo and Hailemariam Desalegn, former prime minister of Ethiopia.
That stated, lots of the pictures communicate for themselves — and the intrepid photographer.
For the e-book’s opening chapter, Compion needed to seize the lava pool of Tanzanian volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai at night time. His information, he stated, “took some convincing” to allow them to climb via the day in 35 levels Celsius (95 levels Fahrenheit) warmth to get there. Then, 10 minutes after reaching the summit, a storm got here in.
“We had a tiny pup tent where the four of us slept, sandwiched in like sardines,” Compion recalled. “We lay as the rain battered the tent all night. We woke up in the morning, the storm was still going, and we descended with our tails between our legs. On that occasion, we got no photographs at all.”
The failure prompted him to go to volcano Erta Ale within the Danakil Depression, Ethiopia. “They call (the area) the driest and hottest place on the planet,” he stated. “I got there and it rained.”
The Afar, a nomadic individuals dwelling within the space, recognized for mining its salt flats, can endure warmth, however Compion stated the soar in humidity triggered even the Afar to go out. The photographer, armed with sachets of rehydration salts, was the closest factor to medical assist for miles.
Compion has sought out many peoples and tribes dwelling alongside the Rift, growing connections with communities as he’s visited as a safari information or just a photographer.
The Omo Valley in Ethiopia is among the many most numerous areas, dwelling to the Bodi, Suri, Karo, Kwegu tribes and extra.
“In those areas the tourism is unregulated,” he stated, “and so normally with unregulated tourism practices you get bad behavior.”
“I wanted to avoid that and go right deep into the Omo,” Compion added. “We go there with small groups, so we can keep control over the relationship that we have with the tribespeople we are living with. We take that responsibility quite seriously, because we want a beautiful quid pro quo between everyone.”
Among the folks that have affected him essentially the most is the Suri (a part of the Surma individuals), well-known for his or her lip discs and brass bracelets.
Compion realized schoolchildren have been being taught in Amharic, the widespread language in Ethiopia, as an alternative of their native tongue, and it was affecting their training, he stated. So the photographer teamed up with language improvement nonprofit SIL Ethiopia to boost funds to coach lecturers to show in Suri — a program already helping 500 students every year.
“It’s a small project in the greater scheme of things, but it helps us build incredible relationships,” stated Compion. “I’m going to be down there three times in 2026 … I can’t wait, because these (people) are now my friends.”
He has additionally befriended conservationists, together with the late Marc Stalmans, whose unbelievable legacy is the restoration of Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, from a decimated looking floor throughout years of civil battle to a thriving biodiversity hotspot.
Compion remembers Stalmans as a scientist with “laser-like” focus, whether or not caring for his college students or a whole nationwide park. “For 20 years he wore Gorongosa on his sleeve. His passion was only matched by his incredibly detailed knowledge of every subject in Gorongosa’s magnificent ecosystem.”
In the 4,000 sq. kilometer (1,544 sq. mile) park, herbivore numbers have exploded lately — significantly antelope — creating plentiful meals for predators together with lions, whose inhabitants has rebounded amongst Gorongosa’s woods and grasslands. It’s simply one of many conservation wins Compion highlights alongside the Rift.
The Rift Valley can be changing into extra urbanized. Nairobi and Addis Ababa sit instantly on its borders, and are the obvious symbols of modernization, however in Compion’s e-book, indicators of improvement abound. Some are imposing however benign: a wind farm on a hillside, for instance. Others, like a fisherman hauling in a internet at nightfall, level extra subtly at issues raised by the Anthropocene.
Compion says alongside desertification, meals safety — particularly the depletion of fish shares in main lakes — is his greatest concern for the Rift. Though he’s seen sufficient to stay optimistic.
“All across Africa, there’s a groundswell of momentum (arguing) that local knowledge, Indigenous leadership, regenerative practices are the way forward,” he defined.
One instance he witnessed is a small agricultural change close to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Terraced farmers are protecting extra bushes in place, utilizing their root programs to forestall soil erosion, boosting their harvests — a change serving to transition subsistence farmers into growers of money crops, he stated.
“You make leaps and bounds in peoples’ lives — and the environment — whilst using Indigenous and traditional methods of working,” Compion added.
The ongoing seek for concord between all of the Rift’s occupants is a throughline of Compion’s e-book. He is aware of what is feasible, but in addition what might be misplaced.
“I don’t necessarily see wildlife, landscape and humanity as separate realms, but more as a single interwoven system of cause and effect,” he explains. “There’s a great ecological reciprocity in the Rift Valley, because your human choices ripple through ecosystems, and those ecosystems in turn define human possibility.”
“Africa,” he added, “has been a great teacher in the sense of, where time and empathy are invested into solutions, then coexistence becomes very sustainable.”
Despite his newest e-book being such a long-term venture, Compion knew it could be not possible to cowl the valley in its entirety. He believes he nonetheless has a lot to find about a spot he describes as an exquisite “paradox;” a geological function tearing the continent aside whereas binding so many individuals collectively. And he’s not executed exploring but.
“The more curious you are and the more you dig, the more you’ll find, and the more treasures will be unearthed,” he stated.
“The Rift: Scar of Africa” is revealed by HPH Publishing and out there now.