Hyenas and other people

Once, a photographer from Cape Town, Peter Hugo, received a curious photo from a friend traveling in Nigeria. It showed people walking through the city with hyenas. They led these big and scary animals on a leash, like dogs. After a while, Hugo himself went to Nigeria and found these strange people.

Peter Hugo was born in 1976 and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a South African photographer, specializing mainly in portraits, and his work is related to the cultural traditions of African communities. Hugo describes himself as a "political photographer with a small p". One of the most famous works of this photographer is the series "Hyenas and other people". For the portrait of a man with a hyena, Hugo won a prize in the "Portraits" category at the World Press Photo contest in 2005.

1. Mallam Galadima Ahmadu with Jamis in Abuja, Nigeria. 

A few weeks later, we flew to Abuja, where several traveling artists agreed to meet us. They lived on the outskirts of the city, in squalid shacks – a few men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys, and a few pythons.

They were a group of itinerant minstrels, healers, and wild animal tamers who made a living by entertaining the crowd. 

All of them were close or distant relatives and engaged in a craft that they inherited from previous generations.

I was struck by the way they treated their animals-sometimes with boundless love, sometimes with some inexplicable cruelty. And I decided to focus on portraits and shoot just such moments — sometimes monstrous, sometimes touching, but always paradoxical."

2. Garuba Yaku from Rando, Nigeria.

Simple craft allows you to somehow survive, showing tricks with animals and offering unpretentious public healing remedies for all diseases. Hyena handlers pass on their skills from generation to generation, have a recipe for a special liquid, dipping into which you get protection from the hyena bite, and special spells for controlling wild animals.

3. Dayaba Usman with his monkey Claire, Nigeria. 

The world of these complex relationships on the verge of survival, where the familiar concepts of power and submission have long lost their meaning, caused a mixed reaction of society: curiosity, distrust, concern for animals, disgust, anger…

4. Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara. 

5. Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara. 

6. Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara. 

7. Alhaji Hassan with Ajasco. 

8. Hyena people from Abuja, Nigeria. 

9. Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara. 

10. Mammy Ahmadu and Mallam Mantari Lamal with the hyena Mainasara. 

11. Abdullah Mohammed with the hyena Mainasara in Ogere Remo, Nigeria.