White Forest

The Bandia forest was green. A granary and a pharmacy for the people living around it, a paradise for the bees whose honey was known throughout Senegal.

Then the mechanical shovels sank their teeth into the earth to extract the limestone. A veil of dust covered everything, and the forest turned white. The trees are dying, the bees have fled.

But not Abdou Seck, a 72-year-old beekeeper. Around his hives, which now yield so little honey, the hum of the last bees mingles with the roar of the trucks carrying the stone away. The urbanisation fever that has taken hold of the country demands ever more of it.

Abdou is still fighting. Out of love for his trade, his land and his forest. Whatever its colour.