Het gezicht van de armoede [The Face of Poverty: Ten Years in the Life of an African Village] (2015)

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Dick Wittenberg (Text) & Jan Banning (Photos)
The stories are in the Dutch language only.

Publication date: September 25, 2015
€ 24.95 (ex shipping costs)
Publisher: Ipso Facto
ISBN 978-90-77386-16-3, NUR 320, 653
240 pages, hardcover, 220 x 240 mm, … photos (Jan Banning) + text (70,000 words in Dutch) by Dick Wittenberg
Design by Peter Jonker
BOOK PREVIEW: Click here

No one here wears glasses. No one here has a clock. No one here wipes his bottom with toilet paper. Is this poverty? The outside world confuses poverty with simplicity. They do not need much in this village to live well. They know all too well what harsh poverty is.
In a style that is as bare as the mud houses he writes about, Dick Wittenberg describes ten years of life in Dickson, a typical village in Malawi, the poorest country in the world. Photographer Jan Banning portrays the villagers indoors, with his usual eye for detail. He did this ten years ago. Now he does it again. The portraits and stories cover the period April 2005 to May 2015.
Dick Wittenberg is a journalist and writer. He worked for NRC Handelsblad for nearly thirty years and since 2013 has been writing for De Correspondent. In September 2015, publishing house AtlasContact published his book Prikkeldraad [Barbed Wire]; about the barbed wire that is dividing the world already for one hundred and fifty years. A history of good and evil.
From the jury report when awarding the VPRO Bob den Uyl Prize 2008 for this book’s predecessor, Binnen is het donker, buiten is het licht [Inside it is Dark, Outside it is Light] about a year in the life of Dickson:
“When reading this book, you will occasionally have to stop and catch your breath. Never before has poverty in Africa been portrayed so close and personal.”
Grants:
The book has been made possible with financial support from the Stichting Dioraphte.
Our return to Dickson in 2015 was made possible with financial support from the Postcode Loterij Fonds voor journalisten – Free Press Unlimited.
Links:
The Banjo Man (Malawi), interview and three songs.
Malawians Worry About Expected Food Shortage, Aug. 19, 2015.
Famine Threat in Malawi, July 19, 2015.
Binnen is het donker, buiten is het licht (predecessor of the present book, about Dickson/Dickisoni in 2005, sold out), 2007.

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