Three generations of my family lived along the Rift, in Kenya. After traversing this 6,400km scar of Africa for over 20 years, I came to realise how much this area offers us. This is where life began. Where geology, ecology, and culture collide. On the banks of the Zambezi River, where it starts to exit towards the Indian Ocean, the inspiration crystallised into producing The Rift: Scar of Africa.
This great scar in the landscape houses the greatest mammal abundance on the planet — and the most diversity; it houses singularly unique cultures and is the greatest repository of our human origins. It also houses adventure: climbing volcanoes across the Rift made for great expeditions into the unknown.
Some trips I didn’t get any images; on others, a treasure chest — such is the nature of travel in Africa. I knew, however, that there is power in imagery. The proclamation of America’s national parks in the 1930s was due to photographers’ pioneering work. My hope is this book will crystallise people’s appreciation of what the Rift offers us and how it connects all of us to Africa. In it I wanted to weave scientific insight, human experience, and artistic vision into a book that celebrates and raises up African narratives.
I had the images, and I was pleasantly surprised at how generous the expert contributors were to lend their voices to the project. It speaks to how the Rift connects people. My hope is that this landmark book, together with the contributors, will bring together these many intangibles into one coherent theme that celebrates, educates, and inspires. The more I delved into the project, the more I realised the Rift is more than the sum of its parts. It is a living, breathing organism.
There are environmental threats and there is also hope. Across Africa, there is a groundswell of momentum to include local knowledge, indigenous leadership, and regenerative practices to improve life within the Rift.
Any person, from Ethiopia to Mozambique, paging through the book will feel a connection to the Rift, and that is the legacy of this project. It’s not only about the lions and elephants, but also about the people, our origins, and the environment that ultimately binds us together.
This book is a gift. Not only to those who will hold it in their hands, but also to all of us who are looking for something solid to hold on to.
EXTRACT
Foreword: What Holds Us Together
By Sabrina Dhowre Elba, UN Goodwill Ambassador for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and co-founder, Elba Hope Foundation
The land holds memory.
Before I ever stepped into climate advocacy, I carried my mother’s stories — softly told but searing in their weight. She grew up in a pastoralist family in the Horn of Africa, where the land wasn’t just something beneath your feet; it was family, identity, sustenance, threat, and salvation all at once. To live in harmony with the earth was not a romantic idea — it was survival.
Working as a Goodwill Ambassador for IFAD, I’ve witnessed echoes of that same reality across the African continent. In remote farming villages and vibrant pastoralist corridors, I’ve met women who coax harvests from dry ground, communities who rebuild after flood or drought, and youth who are inventing new ways to thrive in old places. Their work is not peripheral to global progress — it is central to it. Their voices are not optional in our climate discourse, they are essential.
That is what makes The Rift so profound.
This book is not merely a collection of essays or a catalogue of scientific discovery. It is an invitation to reawaken our sense of connection — to landscapes, to history, to each other. It travels through the Rift Valley, from Ethiopia to Mozambique, but its relevance stretches far beyond any one region. This is where life began. Where geology, ecology, and culture collide. Where the stakes of the Anthropocene are visible in every dry riverbed and migrating bird.
And yet, this is not a story of despair. It is a story of potential.
Through the Elba Hope Foundation, which I co-founded with my husband Idris, we have committed to supporting those living on the frontlines of climate change — not as victims, but as visionaries. Our work focuses on creating pathways for rural resilience, particularly among women and youth. We believe that real change begins in the hands of local communities and grows outward when nurtured with investment, imagination, and justice.
That’s why this book matters. The Rift does not flatten African narratives. It honours them. It weaves together science and spirit, biodiversity and belonging, legacy and urgency. And importantly, it amplifies the voices of African women — whose leadership is critical if we are to restore not just land, but balance.
There is power in beauty. This is not lost on the photographers, scientists, artists, and storytellers who shaped this project. But the beauty of The Rift does not ask us to admire from a distance. It calls us to act. To protect. To reimagine. Part of the proceeds from this book will go to educational partnerships across African schools — ensuring the next generation doesn’t just inherit a fragile planet, but is empowered to defend it.
In a world that often feels divided by borders, beliefs, and algorithms, the earth remains one of our last shared truths. And the Rift Valley — cracked, ancient, awe-inspiring — is both metaphor and map. A reminder that what seems like rupture can also be the beginning of something new.
This book is a gift. Not only to those who will hold it in their hands, but to all of us who are looking for something solid to hold on to.
Let it remind us: the ground beneath us is sacred. And the future is still ours to shape.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shem Compion is a South African photographer, filmmaker and naturalist whose work has taken him from volcanic peaks to remote wildlife hides across Africa. His images have featured in top international competitions and major productions, including the BBC’s Planet Earth and Tales by Light on Netflix. He co-produced the documentary Zero to Zero, capturing SA’s Covid-19 story, and has published seven books. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Shem continues to push creative boundaries in nature photography.
