SACRED NILE by Chester Higgins and Betsy Kissam. (© Chester Higgins)
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
February 2026
TADIAS — As February begins, our focus at Tadias turns not only to the past, but also to the living currents of connection, creativity, and shared cultural memory that flow through Africa and its global diaspora.
In Sacred Nile, his recent yet timeless book, American photographer Chester Higgins Jr. returns to one of Africa’s oldest cultural arteries: the Nile River. More than a waterway, the Nile has long symbolized continuity, layered histories, and shared human journeys — themes that carry relevance in conversations taking place today on the continent and beyond.
Higgins’s photographs have long resonated with Ethiopian audiences, from the spectacular rock-hewn churches of Lalibela to the rich cultural tapestries of the Omo Valley. His work has helped shape global visual understandings of the country’s spirit and complexity.
As Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, notes:
What makes Sacred Nile so spectacular and singular is what emerges from every image: an artist’s compassionate and intelligent gaze, sustained by an abiding faith in the sacredness of each human being.”
Video: Chester Higgins speaks at the United Nations
Higgins’s photographs have been exhibited in museums around the world and widely published in The New York Times, where he worked as a staff photographer for 38 years. He first visited Egypt and Ethiopia in 1973 and has continued documenting ancient sites in Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, as well as contemporary religious ceremonies, ever since.
Betsy Kissam, a freelance writer and editor at Chester Higgins Projects, has accompanied Higgins for decades on his field journeys through the Blue Nile countries. Sacred Nile is their fourth and most recent book together.
The book invites viewers to trace the river’s course and the visual echoes of cultures connected through its waters — from the Ethiopian highlands where the Blue Nile begins, through the gorges of Sudan and Egypt, and into the broader stories that have linked these regions for millennia.
This Black History Month, Higgins’s work offers a distinctive lens for reflection — one that honors continuity over conflict, connection over isolation, and shared creative heritage over divided histories.
Beyond photography, the symbolism of the Nile also carries contemporary significance in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), inaugurated in September 2025. Now the largest hydroelectric facility in Africa, the GERD stands as a testament to long-term vision, collaboration, and national capacity. Like Higgins’s work, it underscores how stories about water, land, and shared purpose continue to matter — and continue to ripple outward.
Across continents and centuries, these artistic, cultural, and symbolic currents remind us that Black history is not only something to remember in February, but something continually in the making — visible in the flow between places like Addis Ababa, the Nile Valley, and diasporic spaces shaped by memory and creative expression.
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You can learn more at sacrednile.com or purchase the book on Amazon.
Related:
Chester Higgins Is Capturing the Spirit of Africa | Black America
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