I met this woman at a naming ceremony I was attending in the village next to mine. I asked to take her photo because her…
My new niece was given my Gambian name, Fatoumata, and my host sister says she will call her “Jessica.”
Sweat leaked down my cheeks and off my nose although I stood in nothing but my underwear. It was eight days after arriving in country — only the fourth with this family — and my Gambian sisters were stripping me bare below the corrugate iron roof that absorbs the African heat.

