My intention in showing these images of Togo, west Africa, is to share a small portion of my very elementary introduction to Togolese life. My good friend Fidel and his family tirelessly and so graciously included me, translated for me, and took care of me like a daughter. Again this is just a glimpse from my western perspective, translated for me by my Togolese friends. Many thanks go out to them.

All images, text and Web site design by Kyra Rice

Many in Togo are sensitive about how they are represented in western countries. Time and again westerners will either mythologies the "African" as a single third person entity that endures, stoically and gracefully, hardships westerners can only imagine, or sensationalize Africa with imagery of safaris, voodoo ceremonies and extreme poverty. Faces of Africa, (Angela Fisher & Carol Beck with, Publisher: National Geographic, ©2003) is an example of this mistake by presenting "the exotic other" by overly focusing on sensitive material.

I have always been drawn to understand anything I could about Africa beyond the "myth." The eloquent novel by Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible, (Publisher: HarperTorch; ©2003) planted the seed of my patient determination to find some of the truths that Kingsolver reveals as requirements of all people—native or not—to live on that continent.

I fell in love with a Togolise man and my love for him changed my desire to fulfill a romantic myth into an objective interest in getting to know the family and place that the man I loved comes from.

"Africa is strong." I've heard these words asserting themselves with grace and pride into my consciousness from the margins of society, and is what I am now only beginning to understand—as the myth and as reality—upon my return to the west by way of the tiny little country of Togo.

Its strength is prehistoric. Its strength is one of enduring a recent history of colonial thievery, aid, and oppression, given in values foreign to all of Africa, with foreign currency and foreign cultures attached with the requirement and condition to adapt. That foreign aid, culture and control only to be withdrawn, and African countries like Togo left over and over with ghost cultures and ghost languages not native to the land, leaving a confusion of abandonment yet pride in some notion of "progress" and hopes of more of the same; a misguided desire for recognition by the colonial powers that left them this way.

I hope this history gives way to an even stronger Togo: one that ends the inbred corruption that exploits it's own beauty and strength which has kept it alive. Keeping the mind open is a good thing. But I hope Togo lets go of the illusion colonialism has ingrained: that aid is needed from outside the country. The only place where Togo is week is in not being able to recognize that it is strong: the local cultures have remained, the native languages never die, the land rich, and traditions that have kept people alive—through thousands of years of floods, droughts, locust, and colonialism—won't disappear. The Togolise have proven to themselves they can grow beyond the boundaries of tradition while holding onto what is important. Now I hope they will grow in a way that originates from a new vision from within Togo where "aid" is not sought after at the sacrifice of another aggressive take-over so that Togo may lead, nurture, and serve itself.

Putting together these words and images of my experience are clarifying the de-mystification of my own reduced image of a huge continent as well as my own idealistic mythologies that were naïve but in the de-mystification process, give hope directed toward more realistic goals concerning my potential future involvement in Togo. This process is also clarifying a passionate desire to live in all honesty, with freedom and intention.

I extend the warmest thanks to my hosts, Fidel, Adjoua and Jason, for their tireless translations and including me and taking care of me as family on this trip to their home.