Nsenene

The photo book that inspired the film and production of GRASSHOPPER REPUBLIC.

Huge swarms fill the sky shortly before sunrise. So, night after night during grasshopper season, many Ugandans stay up till dawn to catch the critters. Flurries of hectic activity alternate with long periods of waiting around and killing time. Given their high protein content, they remain a promising source of food for the future, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). However, deforestation has decimated migratory insect populations in recent years and some cricket species are now critically endangered. Italian photographer Michele Sibiloni has captured the Ugandan grasshopper harvest, an activity that straddles the very fine line between past and future, tradition and modernization, in his highly atmospheric visual idiom. His immediate cinematographic sequences speak volumes not only about the Ugandan situation, but also about the future prospects for our planet as a whole.