The jury of the Visa d’or de l’Information numérique France info awarded, this Thursday, September 1 in Perpignan, its prize to the web documentary “Africa’s Rising Cities”, directed by Max Bearak, Júlia Ledur and Dylan Moriarty, for the daily website The Washington Post. A vast survey that testifies to the extremely rapid growth of African cities and its multiple challenges.
“Africa’s Rising Cities” draws a dizzying conclusion. Due to rampant urbanization in Africa, dozens of cities will join the ranks of the world’s largest megacities by 2100. Several recent studies predict that by the end of this century, Africa will be the only continent with experiencing population growth. Thirteen of the world’s 20 largest urban areas will be in Africa – up from just two today – as will more than a third of the world’s population. The whole problem is that most of these future megalopolises are already failing to provide a decent environment for the vast majority of their inhabitants.
The team of washington post delivers a production that is both aesthetically successful and well documented. The figures, which are particularly impressive, are presented throughout the web documentary in the form of dynamic infographics which give a very concrete idea of the explosion of the urban population. We thus learn that Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria, already completely congested, could go from between 15 to 20 million inhabitants currently to 80, even 100 million in 2100. While the city of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, would increase from 15 to 60 million inhabitants.
Gross inequalities
But “Africa’s Rising Cities” gives particular importance to reporting – with photos, videos and texts – in five cities on the African continent (Lagos, Khartoum, Kinshasa, Mombasa and Abidjan). The floor is given to their inhabitants who testify about their daily life and the difficulties they face in areas that are already overpopulated and insufficiently equipped to meet transport, sanitation, health or employment needs. We also note the glaring inequalities between a majority of dilapidated, poor, underserved neighborhoods and islands for the privileged where a minority lives with a flash of wealth, particularly in Lagos and Kinshasa. The authors have nevertheless avoided the pitfall of repetition, by choosing a different theme for each city. Thus, the report on the port city of Mombasa, in Kenya, is the occasion to evoke the massive presence of China, in particular in the construction of infrastructures.
“The jury wished to reward ‘Africa’s Rising Cities’, for the importance of the subject dealt with by the washington postthe diversity of the angles chosen, the richness of the treatments both in the strength of the testimonies and in the use of images and cartographic data on a global issue that goes beyond the borders of the African continent”, estimated the members of the jury, at the end of their deliberation, on August 26th.
“A special mention was also awarded to “Ukraine 2022: The “sonoramas” of reporter Eric Bouvet”, an independent project produced with Amaury Mestre de Laroque and broadcast on Youtube, for the strength and intimacy of the testimonies of a photographer from day to day on a field of war”, says the jury. The latter was composed, this year, of Samuel Bollendorff (photographer and director), Christophe Champin (assistant to the director of RFI, in charge of digital), Agnès Chauveau (deputy general manager at INA), Benoît Leprince (first secretary of drafting at Sunday newspaper), Lucas Menget (deputy editorial director of franceinfo), Eric Scherer (director of the MediaLab for Information and International Affairs at France Télévisions) and Gaïa Tripoli (head of photography at New York Times).
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