A visual storytelling mentoring programme by the NOOR Foundation featuring works by:

Jean-David Niangoran, Emilia Doliani, Mira Mariani, Romane Dakwa, Zahui Yvann, Olivier Kouhadiani, Kra Kouassi

Mentored by:

Bénédicte Kurzen, Aïda Muluneh

Supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

With around 1.500 billion tonnes of carbon found in the organic matter in soil worldwide, soils are the second largest store of carbon after the oceans (40.000 billion tonnes). There is more carbon in the soil than in the atmosphere and vegetation combined. 

However, modern agricultural practices impoverish the soil and its capacity to act as a carbon sink. Deep tilling, fertilisers and pesticides disrupt the life cycle of the top soil’s layer, releasing massive quantities of CO2. The transformation of soil into dust causes desertification and reduces food productivity.

Regenerative agricultural practices such as no-till, cover crops between harvests and integrating livestock in the production can restore the soil’s capacity to sequester carbon from the atmosphere, reduce desertification and increase productivity. If these practices were to be adopted at a global scale, they could reverse climate change, provide farmers with stable incomes and produce highly nutritious food while restoring natural balance to the land. 

But there is little consensus on what regenerative agriculture is and a large part of the agricultural sector is still resisting the transition. Access to knowledge is essential to foster societal change. 

With the firm belief that visual storytelling can inspire change by sharing knowledge in accessible and compelling ways, the Embassy of The Kingdom of The Netherlands in Abidjan and the NOOR Foundation joined forces to support seven visual storytellers working in the region in the identification, research and realisation of stories that investigate and contextualise regenerative agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire. 

Mentored for six months by photographers and visual storytellers Bénédicte Kurzen (France) and Aïda Muluneh (Ethiopia / based in Côte d’Ivoire), and free to choose their preferred means of visual language - including reportage, fine art photography and deep archival research, the participants explored their surroundings in search of subjects, stories, data and people who are implementing radical changes to the ways we farm for our food. 

The adoption of regenerative agriculture practices has the potential to improve the livelihoods and resilience of farmers, processors and consumers. It can also help restore natural systems which, in the case of West Africa, are highly eroded from centuries of intensive farming.  

Dive into a world where the earth beneath our feet tells a fascinating story. My project, entitled “Wásē“, explores the crucial importance of soil in our lives and in the health of our planet.

Soil, that silent guardian of biodiversity, is the canvas on which life flourishes.

Without soil, there would be no agriculture, no life. This is where our planet’s greatest treasure trove of biodiversity resides, the very driving force behind our development. Soil nourishes not only our crops, but also a whole range of animal and plant life that shapes our world.

Yet despite its vital importance, our soil is in danger. The FAO is warning us that a third of the world’s agricultural land is in a state of deterioration, threatened by erosion, loss of biodiversity and pollution. In my photographic exploration, I delve into this complex relationship between man and the land, highlighting both its beauty and its fragility.

To bring this project to life, I immersed myself in an in-depth study of the soil, seeking to understand its very essence. I discovered a living, breathing universe, an entity that regenerates itself if we treat it with respect. 

But the future of the soil is uncertain. 

Jean-David Niangoran, aka Blvckvrtist, originally from Ivory Coast, is a photographer and visual storyteller whose works reflect the diversity of contemporary African society. Passionate self-taught, his bold visual language explores societal issues. His evocative image series such as 'FCFA' have attracted international attention. Honored with the SGBCI Young Talent Prize in 2021, he was then rewarded at the PARM Art Challenge in 2022. His work has been exhibited in Lagos, Nigeria, and Abidjan. In 2023, he joined the NOOR Foundation workshop in Abidjan, expanding his artistic horizon. It now adopts a conceptual and multidisciplinary approach, while retaining its artistic authenticity. Jean-David aspires to explore new cultural horizons and to question our relationship with the world. His audacity and commitment make him an essential figure in global contemporary art.

“Chocolate” from the Nahuatl word “xocolātl”: “bitter water.”

This work comes from the South. Just like its author and cocoa itself, it has traveled between Latin America and West Africa, establishing a connection between two regions rarely associated.

Having grown up in a middle-class family in Argentina, I always perceived chocolate as a product reserved for special occasions, and in my childhood mind, its abundance symbolized a certain social status. My years in France then showed me a different situation, that of chocolate becoming a common thing, included in the weekly shopping list of many families. Two years in Côte d’Ivoire then introduced me to a new facet of this industry, its production, and then this photographic work led me to learn about its history, ultimately bringing me back to Latin America.

The more I learned about cocoa, the more I realized that it embodied a striking example of the socio-economic and environmental challenges that we and our agricultural system are facing today. Requiring strict meteorological conditions and existing only in equatorial zones, it is particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the already observable impact crystallizes the risks we face today. Not only a victim, cocoa also proves to be responsible for climate change through the massive deforestation its production has caused. Nevertheless, it also opens perspectives on solutions, through, for example, agroforestry to which it is particularly suited. Through the blatant socio-economic imbalances of the industry that has developed around it, cocoa also questions us about the need to combine environmental preservation and economic justice. Finally, it is also its history that offers us a new perspective and questions us about the relevance of the system that has been put in place, this history of an initially unchosen link between two regions of the South that shared a climate and are now facing common challenges.

Sharing the lives of cocoa producers on both continents has been a unique experience, which I hope to visually convey through this day in the fields intertwining Côte d’Ivoire and Peru. From this experience, I come out convinced that efforts to make our agricultural system sustainable can only be relevant if they truly put producers at the center, who will be the main actors in implementing long-term solutions. I also hope that this project will inspire greater collaboration among Southern countries.

All the farmers who appear in this project implement regenerative agriculture practices.

I have followed the stories of women who act as guardians of their lands and communities around the cocoa planters.

Mafoudia is a passionate agronomy student who is writing a dissertation on the impact of climate change on the cocoa agroforestry system. She works on Ambroise N’kho’s plantation, an outstanding permaculture site. Mafoudia measures carbon emissions and soil health. After only 3 years of regenerative agriculture, biopesticides and composting, the soil is now healthy and rich in biodiversity.

She believes that the solution to the current cocoa crisis could lie in regenerative agriculture and incentivizing organic cocoa producers, as well as education.

Estelle, general director of an association of organic cocoa producers, organizes “Les Champs Ecole” to teach her people how to fight deforestation in times of climate change and how to regenerate the soil. “We grow organically, not only because we respect natural methods, but also because we respect the soil we live in. We want to leave things as we found them, in their natural habitat”

I have also met many other women who grow local crops to feed their families, who are often employed in the cocoa industry. When the harvest is good, they even sell cassava, yams and okra at the local market or as far away as Abidjan. They cultivate their land using ancestral techniques, respect the soil as in regenerative agriculture, use natural pesticides and use mulch to preserve the soil’s moisture.

Climate change is a pressing challenge facing humanity today.It is against this backdrop that “Renaissance”, a personal report, highlights the importance of the actions that some people are taking to reverse this trend and protect our planet from climate change for future generations.

To do this, they are adapting more sustainable lifestyles, such as favouring local and organic produce and recycling waste. For example, turning compost into organic fertiliser is beneficial for soil and plants. The resulting product, which is natural and sustainable, reduces the need to use chemicals that are harmful to soil and plants. This is why Sayouba Sawadogo, an agricultural engineer based in Abidjan, founded and managed Magic-éco groupe in 2020, the first branch of which was Magic-culture, whose role was to support, finance and monitor farmers’ projects. 

 He discovered a problem of soil impoverishment and degradation despite the constant use of chemical fertilisers during a supervisory mission. Production quantities were steadily falling. On surveying the land, he discovered that it was devoid of anything that would enable plants to produce normally. Sayouba decided to put a stop to this by finding a formula for transforming organic matter into fertiliser. So he launched Magic-compost, the second branch of the Magic-éco group, which will involve recovering organic matter such as cocoa peat, poultry droppings, coconut powder and dead grass through a carefully monitored process of transformation into organic fertiliser. Having obtained a positive result after several tests, he began marketing his product. In view of his commitment, he has won several prizes in Côte d’Ivoire and abroad. Bodji Toussaint, a resident of Ligrohouin village, 250 kilometres from Abidjan, is a trader and planter. After hearing about this product in 2023, he decided to come to town to buy the fertiliser and sell it to local planters.

Unfortunately, the drought has made it difficult for him to sell his stock to the villagers. The villagers think that chemical fertilisers are preferable to organic fertilisers, which are more effective on the land. But Gnaoré Christ, who used to work for a local company in Abidjan, finds himself back in the village after the death of his father in 2023. The eldest and only son in the family, he took over the running of the deceased’s plantation. Helped by his cousin Dalogo Armand in the field work, unlike the other planters, who were aware of the dangers of chemical fertiliser on the environment, they put their trust in organic fertiliser. They were happy to see their plantation keep its green leaves during the dry season, followed by a good harvest.

“When Hope Meets Nature” suggests a harmonious relationship between human aspirations and the natural world, where hope acts as a catalyst for environmental stewardship and collective action. Central to my work is the exploration and celebration of the innovative practices championed by INFPA (INSTITUT NATIONAL DE FORMATION PROFESSIONNELLE AGRICOLE) under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture. 

The institution does above-ground production in greenhouses, cultivating crops within a controlled environment. Greenhouses provide a controlled climate, allowing for year-round cultivation and protection from adverse weather conditions. Not only in crops but how animal excrement plays a crucial role in enriching the soil through nutrient cycling. I delve into the good and bad practices such as the use of pesticides. Pesticide residues can contaminate food and water sources, leading to ingestion, further health risks, and death. A clear example from the Gôh region in Gagnoa (Kpapékou), where a family of four suffered food poisoning from pesticides.

Despite the perception of agriculture as outdated or unremarkable, it serves as a dynamic and innovative field with significant potential for growth and development. Through my immersion at INFPA, I had the opportunity to engage with students who are passionate about driving change and innovation within the industry. These students are eager to pursue projects and studies that can revolutionize agricultural practices, yet they often face challenges in securing adequate financing and support. 

I talk about how regenerative agriculture, a transformative approach that remains underrepresented among practitioners in Côte d’Ivoire. Regenerative agriculture holds profound importance for the future, not only as a means of sustainable food production but also for its potential to address pressing environmental and social challenges.

Côte d’Ivoire faces environmental challenges like deforestation and soil degradation, threatening its ecosystems and biodiversity. This approach also helps mitigate climate change effects, ensuring the preservation of natural resources for future generations.

Through the figure of the protective divinity Goli, this series explores the symbolic and narrative power of the mask in Baoulé culture.

The photographs feature children from the village of Amanikro, acting out what are symbolic interpretations of the mask. Representing traditional guardians of social cohesion and order, the mask also symbolises strength and wisdom. Within cocoa-growing communities, the masks ensure sustainable farming practices, help combat child labour and promote harmony between ecosystems and cocoa cultivation. These functions have come to echo their contemporary role as “ecological brigadiers”.

Goli masks can represent a number of animals whilst performing a variety of roles. They report village events, accompany women during times of fertility and pregnancy, protect the village from all evils, settle conflicts between people from the same and from different villages, are present at funerals, chaperone the deceased into the afterlife and act as intermediaries between the physical and supernatural worlds.

The wearer’s physical appearance has been reinterpreted here, as has his role. Each photograph mimics either a creature, a moment of community surveillance or a beneficial action. The children, or rather the ‘Neo Goli’, interact with the village, a place which had nearly forgotten its existence and its importance after being relocated.

Appropriating ancestral symbolism, the children remind us that in addition to preserving the traditions, cohesion and strength of the village, present and future generations have a responsibility to protect the land and its resources.

Golikro II is the continuation by the author of Golikro, produced as part of the Advanced Visual Storytelling Programme supported by the Chocolonely Foundation in 2022-23.

The story of plantation in Côte d’Ivoire, in (West) Africa

Arthur Verdier (1835 - 1898) was a native of La Rochelle who arrived aboard the Sainte-Anne at the French trading post of Grand-Bassam where, in 1864, with the help of Dutch capital, he set up as a trader. In 1881, six years before the signing of the French treaties that established the French presence in this part of the Gulf of Guinea, he set up a coffee plantation in Sanvi country, on the banks of the Any lagoon at Élima. The first plantation in Côte d’Ivoire. In 1893, when Côte d’Ivoire was officially proclaimed a French colony, a Jardin d’essai was created in Dabou. The successful addition of this group of territories to the French colonial domain required, among other tools, the management of nature and population perceived as hostile. In 1900, the Dabou’s Jardin d’essai became a Botanical garden and was transferred to Bingerville, where it is still located and retains the same name. 

After a few trials at the Colonial Laboratory of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, the former Jardin des Plantes, the Colonial Garden at Nogent-sur-Marne in France was created in 1900 to “study the characteristics of tropical products with a view to their use by French industry, and to propagate and disseminate the plant species that supply these products1”. A number of West Indian and American plants were introduced to Bingerville and Côte d’Ivoire from the Nogent Garden, or from other Botanical gardens in the French Empire, whether alive, dead or from seed. Maize, manioc, cocoa, rubber, and cashew nuts’ trees are all examples of so-called useful or economic Ivorian crops that originated in the West Indies and the Americas. Along with other plants, they have survived the era of Botanical gardens, and the scientific and aesthetic display of their mastery of nature. At the beginning of the 20th century, they became part of experimental stations. Away from urban areas, through a choice of varieties, larger-scale experiments, and the addition of fertilisers, species that were already cultivated had to be improved. Botanical research was totally dedicated to profitability. 

Grand-Bassam, Dabou, and most certainly Sassandra, Grand-Lahou and Fresco, which I have not yet been able to research, were already home to “plant ruins2” before independence, the heritage of a Côte d’Ivoire that extended well beyond the coastline. These gardens were home to what can be described as intensive agriculture, the forerunner of the agriculture we have inherited. It seems to me that we cannot do without exploring the historical roots of this agriculture if we hope to regenerate it. 

Connection between slave trade and agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire, in (West) Africa

The history of African and Ivorian agriculture to which I have had access is based mainly on European written sources. Some have drawn on African oral sources on both sides of the Atlantic, in particular for the so-called vernacular names of plants, and by invoking the myths of certain peoples.  

From the middle of the 15th century, the Portuguese established plantations where Black African slaves worked. Sugar cane, which would later be introduced to the “New World”, was grown. Several islands on the African continent were laboratories for what would be established on a larger scale in the West Indies and America. In the second half of the 16th century, the transatlantic slave trade expanded. Networks of gardens were established along the routes of the slave-trading explorers. Port gardens in France were necessary for the acclimatisation of African and American plants before they were transferred to the Jardin du Roi, later Jardin des Plantes in Paris. The fort gardens on the West African coast provided sustenance for the extremely large numbers of people who were drawn into this new trade, whether willingly or by force. They were also among the first places where West Indian and American plants were introduced to Africa. At the time of the abolitions, freed Africans returned from the Americas and contributed to the introduction of more West Indian and American plants and their spread in Africa. At the end of the 19th century, the French presence on the “ivory coast” dared to extend beyond the coastline. On the Gulf of Guinea, some gardens adjoining the forts built at the end of slave trade’s routes, including the one at Dabou, were transformed into “Jardins d’essai” and then into “Botanical gardens”. These were instruments of the Europeans’ desire to exploit Africa’s natural resources without intermediaries, systematically and on a massive scale. 

The NOOR Foundation is a non-profit organization fuelled by an unwavering passion to inspire action on the most pressing challenges of our era through the power of visual storytelling. 

Education is the bedrock of our endeavours, we are called to commit to the discovery and support of emerging visual storytelling talent from a plurality of backgrounds all across the world. We facilitate the development and production of the stories that matter, learning and co-creating every step of the way. We actively promote the creation and dissemination of impactful narratives, crafting a diversified web that strives to ignite a transformative shift in how we portray and understand our world. 

Our mission is to create thought-provoking, multidisciplinary visual projects that make a meaningful impact on the world and inspire purpose-driven action. We aim to cultivate an environment where a vibrant tapestry of varied viewpoints can flourish, paving the way for a truly interconnected community with narrative threads spun all over the globe. 

Supported by The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands