Mohamed 'Mo' Amin: Photojournalist Extraordinaire

Mohamed Amin, photographer and frontline cameraman extraordinaire, captured the pain and passion of Africa like no other. ‘Mo’ trained his unwavering lens on every aspect of African life, never shying from its tragedy, always rejoicing and celebrating its successes.

Mo was born in Nairobi on 29 August 1943 and was the second son of seven children. Mo’s parents were Muslim and emigrated from Punjab, India to East Africa in 1927 to seek new opportunities. Growing up, he encountered racism and would fight against prejudice for the rest of his life.

Mo’s father, Sardar Mohamed, worked on the Kenyan railway, ‘The Lunatic Line’, which stretched from the coastal city of Mombasa to Lake Victoria. The railway assigned Sardar to work in Dar es Salaam in the early 1950s. The family moved to the then-British-ruled Tanganyika which later became Tanzania. Mo’s mother, Azmat Bibi Mohamed, took care of the children at home.

When Mo acquired his first camera, a second-hand Box Brownie for 40 shillings, his future was set. While at secondary school at Tanganyika, 11-year-old Mo signed up for his school's photography club and started learning the art of photography and darkroom skills. 

While studying, Mo decided to turn his passion for photography into a business and career path. He would photograph school football games and fashion shows, sell his work and split his earnings with those he had photographed. 

In 1963, Mo opened his photography agency Camerapix in Dar es Salaam. A few years later, he moved back to Nairobi to further establish the business. The demand for his photographs was high. Eventually, the business grew to include both photography and video.

Before the age of 20, Mo was working as a freelancer in Dar-es-Salaam. His work appeared in the national newspapers and gained attention from international news agencies. 

Mo's international breakthrough came in 1965 when, at 22-years-old, he set out to cover the revolution in Zanzibar. His pictures of a secret Soviet military training camp got him arrested by the authorities and he was tortured for 28 days in the notorious Kilimamigu  prison. 

In the 1960s, Mo fell in love with fashion designer and model Dolly Khaki. Dolly was an Ismaili Muslim, while Mo and his family were Sunnis. Though she was not considered a good match by Mo's parents, the couple married in secret. Dolly gave birth to their son, Salim, in 1970.

Rising at 2 am every morning and with Camerapix offices in 22 countries, Mo witnessed and recorded the alternating currents of his beloved continent and beyond. Always first, his photographs would delight and shock millions of television viewers and newspaper  readers.

Mo was nicknamed “Six-Camera Mo” because he constantly worked on several jobs at once and could shoot film and stills simultaneously.

In 1977, French media had secured exclusive rights to document the coronation of the Emperor of the Central African Republic, Jean-Bedel Bokassa. However, Mo went undercover wearing a top hat and tails, and his photographs were published all over the world.

Mo travelled to Korem in northern Ethiopia on 9 October 1984. He and Michael Buerk filmed and photographed the devastating 1984 Ethiopian famine. The story aired across the world and opened the eyes of millions. People were dying, from neither war nor disease, but simply of hunger. He went on to say that nothing that he had witnessed in 25 years of covering wars, disasters, riots, and even the previous Ethiopian famine in the 1970s, could have prepared him for this.

Mo's photographs were published in every single newspaper globally. The world saw the brutal reality of the famine. In response, political activist and musician Bob Geldof created the charity group Band Aid and organised the Live Aid concerts to raise money for Ethiopia. Harry Belafonte put together USA for Africa to record the song "We Are The World", and US President George H.W. Bush pledged $1bn to the famine relief and invited Mo to the White House.

In 1991, Mo lost an arm in an ammunition dump explosion in Ethiopia. His sound recordist, John Maathai was killed while 3 other colleagues were injured. With the help of his myoelectric prosthetic arm, Mo was back in the field only three months later to carry on with his work. 

Mo built up strong relationships with world leaders and journalists, which allowed him exclusive access to some of the continent's greatest stories. He was the only photojournalist allowed into Idi Amin's Uganda. His Muslim background allowed him to be the first to photograph and film the Hajj in Mecca.

Mo was frustrated by the depressing narrative of Africa that the media transmitted. In 1994, he launched the weekly TV show 'Africa Journal', which reported stories on the positive growth of the continent. 

Mo was killed in a terrorist attack on 23 November 1996. The Ethiopian Airlines flight 961 was hijacked and crashed into the Indian Ocean killing 125 people including Mo and his colleague, Brian Tetley. Survivors would later report that Mo had tried to talk the hijackers out of their plan. He fought until the end and lost his life in the way he would have liked best - amid the largest scoop of the day.
 

Many millions are alive today because Mohamed Amin risked his life time and time again.”
Former US President George H.W. Bush

“God sent you for this hour my son.”
Mother Teresa