As the 24 qualified countries were battling each other on the pitch at the ongoing TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire 2023, some young female photographers were capturing the historic moment through their lenses.
The TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Côte d’ivoire 2023 has seen young female photographers getting the opportunity to capture every move of the players, emotions of the fans and goal celebrations.
Just as most of the footballers on the turf, these young photographers have had a roller coaster ride to the big stage on the continent.
These are four of the young female photographers and what the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON stage mean to them.
Weam Mostafa Elsayed – Egypt
The Egyptian has practiced photography for over a decade and has been to two TotalEnergies CAF AFCON competitions.
Weam Mostafa Elsayed has battled lot of challenges coming up including many doubting her qualities but has managed to sail through it all.
“Being a female photographer is a challenge itself especially in the sports field. Many people used to think that we were not good enough or even as good as the men. But I loved to challenge myself and everyone to prove them wrong” she said.
“I covered two TotalEnergies CAF AFCONs, the first one when I started pursuing my passion for sports photography in 2019 in Egypt and now my second as an official CAF Photographer for the tournament. The experience itself is not like any other tournament I covered, TotalEnergies CAF AFCON is huge, it unites the whole continent and your pictures as a photographer is about history. Those pictures will live forever and for me as I meet people and photographers from all over Africa and elsewhere, I get to gain more experience and be better at my work,” she added.
iLa Yeboah – Ghana
iLa Yeboah is a Ghanaian photojournalist, who got the opportunity to go to Cotê d’Ivoire to cover her first TotalEnergies CAF AFCON after starting her journey two years ago.
For her, embarking on the journey was non-negotiable after her accreditation was approved. The experience from capturing the key moments was her major highlight.
“Well, I have met thousands of photographers both young and old from different countries. It is a great honour to speak to few of them. Because most of them speak French. But I have had fun. The Fans’ reactions to goals is just beautiful; the African colours are all over match venues.”
Sarjo Baldeh – Gambia
Sarjo Baldeh from Gambia has worked as a photographer for seven years and despite the challenges of not being able to purchase the right equipment, she has managed to get to the top.
Making it to the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON was a dream come true and an achievement she doesn’t take lightly.
“The experience in this AFCON has been beautiful and I have learnt a lot throughout. I realized be a sports photographer you need to focus, be fast and not be lazy to capture the best scenes”,she said.
Justina Aniefiok – Nigeria
Justina started her photography journey six years ago after quitting as a footballer due to lack of support from her family.
She got the chance to cover the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON in Cameroon and according to her, that was her biggest breakthrough.
“Cameroon 2021 brought me to the limelight. I had to hand everything over to God to take perfect control as I was scared of how I will survive when I get to Cameroon. But everything went well. I’m proud of myself because, I was able to overcome my fear and to showcase my work to a large audience.”
Khady Sy – Mauritania
In 2015, Khady Sy from Mauritania started a career in photography.
Nine years on, she was at Stade de la Paix in Bouake to capture the historic qualification of her country to the knockout stage of the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON. It doesn’t come any better than that for any photojournalist.
“It was also an opportunity to get to know colleagues from across the continent. The qualification at the expense of Algeria will remain one of the historic moments of my career. The celebrations with the Mauritanian players and supporters remain etched in my memory”, she said with excitement.
Seunmanuel Faleye is a brand and communications strategist. He is a covert writer and an overt creative head. He publishes Apple’s Bite International Magazine.
