Boys of Volta

_
Boys of Volta by Jeremy Snell is a sensitive portrayal of the people and environment surrounding Lake Volta, Ghana. This enormous man-made lake is the largest in the world, spanning half of Ghana; its surface is scattered with eerie tree trunks where once you would find dense forests. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, authorised the Akosombo Dam that led to the formation of Lake Volta in 1965, an act that displaced 78,000 people, up to 200,000 animals, and engulfed 7,800 km2 of vegetation and rich, arable farmland. Lake Volta ushered in great change for the country, dramatically altering the lives of many of its inhabitants and ecosystems.

Fishing is now the main industry for the people surrounding Lake Volta. Once made up of generations of farming communities, their livelihoods were overturned by the outset of the lake. Since then, families have been forced to adapt, embracing new opportunities through the promise of life on the water. However, the lake’s great expanse has brought undercurrents of terror to the region. The illegal trafficking of children and child labour persists across Lake Volta. Young children are targeted for fishing because of their mobility and small, dexterous hands, for untangling nets – they are often bought, sold and stolen from homes across the region, a consequence of severe socio-economic pressures. Regrettably, it is estimated that 20,000 children are living and working in slavery, it is this most pressing concern that drew Jeremy Snell to Lake Volta.

The celebrated Ghanaian-British writer, Nii Ayikwei Parke, who grew up near Lake Volta, concludes his accompanying essay in Snell’s monograph, The Boys of Volta, with the following poignant sentiments: “What Lake Volta reflects is every bit of our complexity and describing it as merely a lake is almost insult, but to capture elements of its existence in photographs is to at least give it the honour of speaking for itself; to express its unsettled character, the spirit of the people who live around it, the unbowed industry of those that live off it, its amalgam of novelty and ancient – all imbued with cinematic dignity, timeless as sunset.”