By Philip C. Winslow

This is the last of three parts of a photo retrospective on three countries where Philip C. Winslow has worked since the mid-1990s: Angola, Sierra Leone, and Myanmar (Burma). All photos © Philip C. Winslow. Read part one and part two.

Thirty years ago when I was reporting the civil war in Angola, a Catholic nun needed to explain to people in a remote village what a journalist was, why I was there. With no word in the local language, she created one that translated as “the people who come and ask a lot of questions and then go away.” Her delightfully accurate description stayed with me for years as I interviewed people in other countries whose lives were in turmoil or about to get that way.

Looking back now at Angola, Sierra Leone, and Myanmar (Burma) is partly a late-in-life feeling that I owe people whose stories I wrote down before habitually leaving for somewhere else. My sense of benign debt follows the plea that I (and many reporters) frequently hear in troubled places: “We are alone. Please tell our stories.” Tell their stories I did. Some may find the notion that I “owe” highfalutin; it was a job, right? I reported, and moved on to other stories.

Memory and fondness (or loathing) are personal, and what we pick up along the way stays with us. Many of the people I’ve interviewed and photographed are displaced or dead. I’ve had the privilege, and the luck, of being able to go away, as the nun said. Most of these people had less opportunity. Many fled as terror descended. Or, they stayed put because wherever they were was home. Decades later, I want their lives, or at least their faces, seen through other eyes and remembered. That’s all they asked of me.

III — MYANMAR (BURMA): BETWEEN PEACE AND WAR, 2009-2011 

In February 2021, Myanmar’s long-dominant military overthrew the elected government and set about to crush the shoots of democracy once and for all. Some years before that, I traveled parts of the country: across Yangon, Bago and Mandalay divisions, through northern Kachin and the Shan states; through the plains, down south through Kayin and Mon states and back again. This was initial research for a planned book on the Irrawaddy River, which I was not able to finish. I moved around mostly unhindered through a country in fragile balance between partial peace and today’s savage war on civilians. Some people I met had already been displaced by the fighting or were being forcibly rehoused in “model villages.” Others knew what was coming and allowed me to document their stories. The documentation is not exhaustive: often just pictures of ordinary people whose lives had not yet been wrecked.

 

Wardan jetty, Yangon

 

Crossing the Irrawaddy, near Myitkyina, Kachin State.

 

Waiting for cargo. Yangon docks.

 

Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon. Her family runs a retail shop.

 

Southbound train to Mawlamyine, formerly Moulmein.

 

Mawlamyine to Yangon

 

Kachin State

 

Between Yangon and Mawlamyine, Mon State.

 

Bhamo Township, Kachin State

 

Merchant Road, Yangon

 

Confluence of the Irrawaddy, Mali and N’Mai rivers, Myitsone, Kachin State.

 

Myitsone Pagoda. A planned dam will leave the ancient pagoda and many villages under water.

 

A riverside restaurant owner and a friend’s daughter on the beach. The Irrawaddy confluence is a major national tourist attraction. Shops offer fresh grilled fish, cold beer and the smell of clean river water. Even in 2010 business had fallen off due to fighting in Kachin State. As the war intensified, most shops closed.

 

Thanbyuzayat, Mon State. A father watches his son get a haircut before becoming a novice monk.

 

Shwedagon Pagoda

 

Shwedagon Pagoda

 

Shwedagon Pagoda

 

Shwedagon Pagoda

 

Shwedagon Pagoda

 

These backstreet Yangon kids asked me to take their picture. I didn’t pose them; this is how they arranged themselves.

 

She and her family have farmed along the Irrawaddy for generations. Many farmers have been forcibly displaced for the hydro dam projects. She served sliced pomelo dusted with fiery Kachin chilies, and anticipated my reaction.

 

Sidecar drivers wait for customers near the Yangon waterfront.

 

Downtown Yangon during monsoon.

 

The Sittang River, close to where British forces blew the original bridge in February 1942.

 

Offloading cargo at the Yangon jetties.

 

The barrels contained a tar product. It took four men to lift one.

 

 

 

 

On board a Yangon River ferry.

 

Waiting to cross the river after shopping in Yangon.

 

Snack sellers on the quay.

 

The ferry from Yangon to Dala.

 

Near Waw, Bago district.

 

Mawlamyine to Yangon train, with his granddaughter.

 

Farmworkers near Lashio, Northern Shan State.

 

Northern Kachin State

 

Northern Kachin State

 

Panning for gold on the Irrawaddy, Kachin State.

 

Panning for gold on the Irrawaddy at Myitsone.

 

Washing ore on the Irrawaddy, standing in the river in the rain with a bad cold.

 

Near Waimaw, Kachin State. The area is rich in gold, jade and poppies. Fighting continues between the Myanmar forces and the Kachin Independence Army, with regular casualties, destruction of villages and massive displacement of civilians.

 

Crossing a river east of Waimaw. Fighting and shelling have driven tens of thousands into camps for the displaced.

 

Three generations of a family in Northern Shan State. They had been trying to finish their home but were repeatedly driven out by fighting in the area.

 

 

 

About the Author 

Philip C. Winslow has been a journalist for fifty years; he has worked for the Christian Science Monitor, the Toronto Star, Maclean’s Magazine, ABC Radio News, CTV News, and CBC Radio. He also served in two United Nations peacekeeping missions and spent nearly three years living in the West Bank. He is the author of Victory For Us Is to See You Suffer and Sowing the Dragon’s Teeth.