Snipers, stylists and Staff Benda Bilili: Andy Hall’s Africa – in pictures

Supporters of the ANC and its leader, Nelson Mandela, put up burning barricades in Thokoza township, south of Johannesburg, amid gun battles with rival Inkatha fighters during the run-up to South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. The image was taken on 18 April, the day the photojournalist
Ken Oosterbroek, a member of the Bang-Bang Club – a group of four conflict photographers – was killed while covering clashes between peacekeepers and ANC supporters in Thokoza

In 2012, countries across the ecologically fragile Sahel region were suffering from drought and fluctuating animal and food prices. Millions of subsistence farmers and pastoralists were affected as livestock grazing areas disappeared and desertification – caused by overgrazing and low rainfall – advanced. Here, Fatima Ibrahim Senussi (centre) and her neighbour (right) greet on arrival at their home in Andrabat, Bahr el-Ghazal province, northern Chad

Bare-knuckle boxers excite the crowd in the former apartheid bantustan of Venda, northern South Africa, in 2008, with dramatic fighting displays as part of the Musangwe boxing tournament. Local champions from the village of Gaba meet counterparts from a neighbouring village as part of a long sporting tradition that continues today is seen as a test of bravery and strength for Venda tribespeople of the Limpopo region. At the time of this photograph, women were not permitted to attend, but they can now both attend and participate

For years,
Dadaab camp in Kenya, housing people fleeing civil war and famine in Somalia, was the largest refugee camp in the world. In 2011, when this image was shot, the rate of new arrivals had increased sharply owing to drought in the region, creating severe overcrowding. Here, a family of new arrivals who have just walked for 20 days, wait to be processed in Dadaab’s Ifo section

Cuban soldiers with Angolan civilians celebrate at a parade in the capital, Luanda, in 1989, marking the official plan for the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola after a UN-brokered peace accord. In the Angolan civil war, the Cubans supported the leftist Soviet-backed MPLA against the anti-communist and US-backed Unita movement

Core members of the
Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili in Njilli, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2009: Ricki Likabu (trilby), Theo Ntsituvuidi (beret), and Coco Ngambali (on bike). The musicians went from sleeping rough to world fame, winning the 2009 artist award at the World Music Expo

Troubadors entertain local residents the village of Boboua, Central African Republic, in 2017

ANC supporters in Ladysmith, Kwazulu Natal, come out to greet Nelson Mandela on the campaign trail in April 1994 – 10 days before the start of voting in South Africa’s first democratic general election

A Kaizer Chiefs fan displays his passion for the football club in the domestic cup final against Mamelodi Sundowns at FNB stadium in Soweto in 2000. The venue was rebuilt for the World Cup final hosted by South Africa in 2010

Driven to desperation by food shortages, families in Sirguin, northern Burkina Faso, resort to digging for gold. Artisanal gold-mining is labour intensive: using very basic tools, the gold needs to be separated from the dusty earth or extracted from the rock. What people will usually find will allow them to buy only a dish of millet per day. Here, young children play in the holes dug up in search of the precious metal in 2012

ANC self-defence cadres return fire at Inkatha snipers firing from a nearby mining hostel in the run-up to South Africa’s first free elections in Thokoza township near Johannesburg in 1994. During this battle, the photographer Ken Oosterbroek lost his life and several others were badly injured

Sandstorms are a constant hazard in Dadaab refugee camp, north-eastern Kenya, 2011

A street scene in Kuito, central Angola, 2007, with a bullet-ridden building showing the legacy of decades of conflict in the country, starting with the fight for independence from Portugal, followed by 25 years of civil war

A schoolgirl walks back home amid the rubbish dumps of Mathare, Nairobi, in 2010

Relatives and survivors gather for a candlelit vigil in April 2013 at the site where, during the genocide of 1994, more than 11,000 Tutsi men, women and children were slaughtered by Hutu extremists as they sought refuge in the grounds of
Kibuye Roman Catholic church, Rwanda

A scene in West Point, the biggest slum community in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, in 2013. Oxfam is working to improve the lives of people in the countries urban slums and rural communities with better access to education, improved healthcare, sanitation and food security. Though the effects of two civil wars, from 1989 to 2003, are still felt, there is an improvement in reducing waterborne diseases; and while access to clean water and good sanitation is low, the situation is improving, with communities taking charge of their own sanitation and hygiene practices

Three farmers on their bikes in central Angola, 2007

A street in Podor, Senegal, in 2015. The town, in northern Senegal, hosts the Blues du Fleuve music festival, which is run and headlined by the country’s most famous musician,
Baaba Maal – who was born there. Bands and singers from Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia and Guinea are invited to participate alongside him in three days of music and dance to celebrate the region’s musical culture

Alaar Lokadelio has her hair styled as women gather in the shade in Kachoda, Lokitaung district, Turkana, Kenya, in 2011. In that year, the pastoralist communities of Turkana were experiencing the
longest period of drought in their history. With their livestock dying, they struggled to feed themselves, and depended on NGO food aid. Drought returned once more in 2019

Botswana’s number one lady seed detective Masego Kruger-Gaadingwe and colleagues Mathibidi Kooagile (with plant press) and Thuso Parabeng. Botswana’s seed detectives collect rare and endangered specimens for safe keeping in Kew’s Millenium Seed Bank, 2009