PANGAEA Author: Daniel Cheng Yang, Kakuma - Turkana: Africa's Forgotten Peoples

Photo by Dick Bancroft

DANIEL CHENG YANG
Daniel.C.Yang@gmail.com

Daniel Cheng Yang has a passion for social justice. Born in 1983 to a multicultural family, his international perspective has taken him to former conflict areas, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Laos, Cambodia, and Chiapas. He traveled solo to East Africa several times between the ages of 15 and 18 to immerse himself in the Sudanese and Somali refugee experience at Kakuma and document it. He also was able to capture a rare glimpse into the indigenous life of the Turkana near the camp.

His work has been displayed at the Louvre in Paris and in New York and Yokohama as part of a United Nations worldwide photographic exhibition. In January 2003, Dan was honored with a solo exhibition of his images of Africa at the Minnesota Center for Photography. The exhibition was made possible with the assistance of a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, by an appropriation of the Minnesota State Legislature, and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a US federal agency.

Daniel is a graduate in political science and social justice from Hamline University, Saint Paul, MN. KAKUMA - TURKANA, Dueling Struggles: Africa's Forgotten Peoples, published by PANGAEA in 2002, is his first book. Dan has also traveled in Latin America to Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba to promote indigenous rights by working with governments and social movements in the regions.

He has served for the past several years as a community engagement specialist for the Native American Community Development Institute (NACDI), Minneapolis, MN. He also maintains a broad range of personal interests in the global community.