Goudron Tanger - Le cap

Bruno Boudjelal traveled across the African continent from north to south, from Tangier to Cape Town, between 2006 and 2013. The journey began with a commission from the daily newspaper Libération, which sent him to bring back color images of another world, documenting distinctive territories and individual destinies. Numerous explorers, travelers, and, before them, traders had crossed Africa from north to south. Today, the routes that many would like to travel freely across the continent no longer exist. The main reasons include the closure of border crossings, the abandonment of railway lines, or their complete disappearance. This situation can be explained by a lack of political will among African leaders, but also among those who trade with Africa. Yet the people of these countries have a genuine need for such connections, because opening up Africa above all means allowing Africans to move freely within their own continent. Building and renovating roads between countries is one of the flagship projects of Pan-Africanism. This idea, which emerged in the late 1960s in the spirit of freedom that accompanied successive waves of independence, offered a vision of migration far removed from the one we know today, which is more closely associated with the search for a better life in Europe and exile. Bruno Boudjelal traveled across the African continent from north to south, from Tangier to Cape Town, between 2006 and 2013. The journey began with a commission from the daily newspaper Libération, which sent him to bring back color images of another world, documenting distinctive territories and individual destinies. This book retraces the “tarred road” that Boudjelal traveled to bring to life the itinerary he had imagined for so long.