Wells Michael

Hands.
The Ugandan child's hand, in contrast with that of the missionary, looks like the claw of an emaciated bird or something found on an archaeological site. This picture juxtaposes famine and the affluent West, even if the background hand is that of a well-meaning missionary who has contributed himself willingly. Ugandan and other African famines have been heavily reported in the Western press. There are many pictures of the dead, which raise questions about how the people died and how quickly they decay - on the practicalities of famine, that is to say. Texts on the question of Africa almost always raise intractable moral issues regarding the rights and wrongs of intervention. A picture such as this, which is more emblematic than explanatory, encapsulates the texts, capturing above all their element of guilt and self?accusation and the meaning or that well-fed and tended supporting hand.