A young girl seeks shade under one of the few trees standing in the common in Wute, a dying village in southeast Ghana. The girl, Akos, is the 9-year-old granddaughter of the village chieftain, Kudzo. An uncertain future awaits. Once a thriving community, Wute has lost many of its families to the capital, Accra, 90 miles west of here. Farming used to comfortably sustain Wute’s residents from one generation to the next. But government support, always a given, has mostly disappeared. The weather has changed as well, making the timing and length of the crucial rainy season unpredictable, diminishing crop yields. Most significantly, farming no longer appeals to the majority of Wute’s young men, so they’ve left for Accra in search of more promising – and less arduous – careers. Many are ill-prepared for city life or have the skill set for anything other than menial work, leaving them trapped between two vastly different worlds.
[Editor’s note: Click on photo for full frame]