A Million Shillings - Escape from Somalia

by Alixandra Fazzina

This book follows the journey of desperate emigrants, or tahrib, to their embarkation points with smugglers on the coast of Somalia, on a perilous voyage across the Gulf of Aden, and onward in the search for a better life. The cost is just $50, or one million Somali shillings. With a one in twenty chance of not making it to the other side alive, it is a price they must risk their lives for. Even then, it is a journey which for many will remain unfinished. Alixandra Fazzina was awarded in 2010 the Nansen Award, the highest accolade from the UNHCR for her work for refugees, and the High Commissioner of UNHCR writes the foreword for this book. Alixandra Fazzina s photography focuses on under-reported conflicts and the often forgotten humanitarian consequences of war. Having studied fine art, she began her career as a war artist in Bosnia. Since then, she has worked independently as a photojournalist throughout Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. She worked over a period of two years to chronicle the exodus of migrants and refugees from Somalia to the Arabian Peninsula. For this work A Million Shillings- Escape From Somalia , she was a finalist in the Care Award for Humanitarian Reportage and the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Vic Odden award from the Royal Photographic Society. A Million Shillings - Escape from Somalia was finalist for the POYi (Pictures of the Year International) Best Photography Book of the Year Award 2010.

Genres: Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mujda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this harrowing book a five for the reason that it powerfully relays the horrific stories of refugees fleeing from a life of misery. The photography focuses on the unreported and widely unspoken-of ramifications of war. The writing is authentic and personal.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a harrowing, haunting work that sugarcoats nothing. Tracking the dangerous human smuggling routes from Somalia into Yemen, the author/photographer paints a picture of the dim prospects of those fleeing. Things in Somalia may be awful, but the journey to, and across, the Gulf of Aden, are rarely better, and what lies ahead in Yemen equally uncertain. When I was in Yemen, I remember feeling rather aghast that the opportunities in the country could somehow reflect a step up for those fleeing - and yet, that remains the case, a testament to how very dire the situation is in the Horn. The photographs and text (which, admittedly, could have benefited from some copyediting) tell an important story, and the content is sufficiently jarring that there's no need to editorialize.

[Brian Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darkness hides much terror and tragedy in Alixandra Fazzina’s dark images and sad account of refugees and migrants fleeing violence in the Horn of Africa for respite in Yemen (of all places). The photos were made in 2007 and 2008, when Yemen could still be a destination of refuge; but the story of this exodus can easily stand in for the subsequent migrations from Africa & Syria to destinations in Europe. The danger and exploitation remain as constants. Fazzina didn’t intend for A Million Shillings: Escape from Somalia to be a typical photojournalism picture book: she wasn’t looking to the photography book marketplace. A Million Shillings was intended as a documentary project to influence policymakers. The Forward was written by António Guterres, then heading UNHCR, now Secretary-General of the United Nations. It’s a book of short essays and captions that tell the harrowing human toll of the unfortunate masses seeking the slightest measure of safety on another continent.

As a project, it’s a wonder that Fazzina made it out alive. Many of the photographs appear to be clandestine exposures, and no wonder. She had to stay constantly on the move to avoid kidnapping (or worse). It’s a testament to her courage, professionalism, and resourcefulness that she was able to embed deeply into Somali smuggling culture as no other Western journalists have been able to do. Without Fazzina’s amazing document the situation would be simply unimaginable.

Any reader of this book would also benefit from finding and watching Fazzina’s 2010 talk at the Annenberg Space for Photography.