Africa Is a Country

Photography: 'New Men'

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Photography: 'New Men'

By
Sean Jacobs

[slideshow]

From new work by Cape Town-based photographer Araminta de Clarmont. A photo series on ikrwala (young Xhosa initiates) posing in new clothes–symbolizing their status as “new men”–after returning from initiation school. De Clarmont photographed the young men, who all still attend high school, in the classrooms where they get a formal education: “… As their suits demand instant respect – so too do the men wearing them. Yet what may be the validity of believing in a fresh start, when one’s surroundings have not changed as one has oneself?“

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