PHOTOS: Humans of Comoros, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

“The Humans of _____” concept is a photo project featuring street portraits and interviews of regular people collected from all over of the world. Originating with Brandon Stanton's popular Humans of New York, the idea has generated hundreds of spin-offs worldwide, from Latin America to South Asia to the Middle East and North Africa.
Though the African island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean counts its own Humans project, the phenomenon hasn't taken off yet on the nearby Mascarene Islands to the west or on Comoros to the northwest. We hope that the many talented photographs from the region will take up the challenge. To get started, here are a few photographs from Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Réunion.
Humans of Comoros
The following photo was taken by David Stanley in Moroni, the capital city of Grande Comore (Ngazidja). A young woman can be seen transporting a jar of water. Access to clean water is still a struggle in many part of Comoros:
Children collecting water from public taps in Moroni, Grande Comores, Union of the Comoros. Photo by David Stanley, CC License BY-2.0
Humans of Madagascar
Joey Ayoub, a Global Voices contributor who recently published a photo post on the Humans of the Middle East and North Africa, helped create the Facebook page for Humans of Madagascar. He then passed on the project to Lalah Ariniana, also a Global Voices contributor living in Madagascar. Here is the latest post on the Humans of Madagascar Facebook page:
“Tarika Mainty”a band created by kids playing drums and dancing in the streets of the Capital City by Lalah Ariniaina with her permission
In the accompanying blog post, Lalah goes into further detail about the life of these three children who started a band to earn a living [fr]:
j’ai fait la connaissance de trois garçons d’une dizaine d’années du groupe « Mainty » (Noir). Fabrice est à la batterie, Christian fait du bruit avec une corne (comme celle qu’on utilise pendant les fêtes d’anniversaire) et Cédric danse. Ils offrent des petits spectacles de rue en faisant le tour des quartiers du centre-ville.
I met three boys who are all about ten years old. They created the band “Mainty” (Black in Malagasy). Fabrice is on drums, Christian is using a self-made horn (like the one used at birthday parties) and Cedric provides the dancing. They do small street performances by touring neighborhoods of downtown Antananarivo.
Humans of Mauritius
There isn't yet a Humans of Mauritius blog, so the Humans of Dubai page posted a few photos to initiate the project. Here is a photo of a typical snack store in Port Louis:
Man in front of grocery store in Port Louis via Humans of Dubai with permission
Humans Of Reunion
A Humans of La Réunion page also hasn't been created yet, but a good starting place is the photos shared by Ile de La Réunion Tourisme (IRT) Facebook page. They provide a wide variety of photographs illustrating the diversity of the island. Here is a photo of artists from Saint Maxime, Reunion island:
Maxime Laope and their kids in Reunion with their permission