James Otieno
The People of Mathare
My name is James Otieno
I am a 14 year old boy and I live in one of the biggest slums in Africa. With my family I live in a place called Bondeni in a single room. For the house we have to pay five hundred Kenyan Shillings ($6) per month. My aunty has a small job selling food like tomatoes, sukuma wiki and fruit like mangos and oranges. Sometimes she also sells chang’aa. I like helping my aunty in selling chang’aa because I lost my father in the year 1994. At that time I was only two years old. In the year 1997 I lost my mother too so up to now life has been very hard for me. Sometimes I go to school but sometimes I don’t because of the lack of money for school fees.
I do thank God for what I have with me now. I started photography in the year 2002 and at the same time I was playing football for Julius’s team in Mathare slum. I like taking photos of the slum and would like to become a professional photographer.
March 2007
