Maasai community elder womanAli Zoeb · 2020

Maasai elder woman, wearing traditional beadwork jewellery. The Maasai use beaded jewellery as an everyday adornment to represent wealth, beauty, strength, warriorhood, marital status, age-sect, children-borne, social status, and other important cultural elements. They are also presented at ceremonies, at rites of passage, and to visitors as a sign of gratitude and respect.Ali Zoeb is a Tanzanian photographer with an eye exploring the emotionality of people to capturing the traditional old-world portraits. Ali’s photographic flairs bring together diverse streams to co-exist and flow at the same time, driven by the issues he feels strongly for. Photographing the people and communitys of Tanzania, such as the Maasai and the Hadzabe, Ali wants to reveal that the value of such pictures doesn’t come so much from the physical image itself, but more from his subject’s back-story and message.In the third edition of the Wise Wall Project, we are collaborating with the culturally rich and one of the oldest communitys in the world, the Maasai community, in Arusha, Tanzania, in partnership with Vikram Solar Ltd., Vijana Inspiring Foundation, Lions Club of Dar es Salaam and Arusha City, and Google Arts and Culture. Along with building an on-ground community centre and museum for the community, we are bringing an exclusive insight into the life, lifestyle and learnings from this inspiring community.The Wise Wall Project is an initiative of Project FUEL that aims to document, design and strengthen the wisdom of rural communities and marginalised villages using art and community outreach programmes. The arts lead the way to raise support for the challenges these villages face today like migration, quality education and access to basic amenities like water and roads.