Rashaida woman under her tent, Eritrea, in the danakil desert. The picture looks peacefull, but you have to image 20 kids wanting to pause behind me, shouting, laughing, and jumping around!
One of my best souvenir during a photo "session"! I'm not sure they've met many photographers on their trip, but they all look straight in the camera.Rashaidas come from the arabia, and now live all along the red sea coast.
The women wear a veil, but their hair is not covered, and they do not fear the foreigners men!
The Rashaida tribe came to Eritrea from Saudi Arabia about 200 years ago, they live in the desert along the coastline of the Red Sea, are muslim, and their homeland extends from Massawa, Eritrea, to Port Sudan, Sudan; they are nomadic, the men are excellent camel traders and some even go to Emirates to take care of the rich people's animals; Rashaida women always wear veils to cover their nose and their mouth, but not the hair, Rashaida live in isolated communities, preferring not to live with people of other tribes, in Eritrea, they are seen as "gypsies", with very bad reputation, they are the only ones to avoid the army time
Une femme de la tribu des rashaida en Erythrée.Isolés dans le desert, ils ne croisent pas souvent des touristes,mais il est surprenant de voir la manière qu'ils ont de fixer l'objectif lorsqu'on les prend en photo...Les Rahaidas sont plutot mal vus par les eritréens qui les considèrent un peu comme des gitans.Le contact avec eux est difficile, mais quelques polaroids detendent vite l'atmosphere!
© Eric Lafforgue
www.ericlafforgue.com 