Mohamed Amin (29 August 1943 – 23 November 1996) was a

Kenyan The Demographics of Kenya is monitored by the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics. Kenya is a multi-ethnic state in East Africa. Its total population was at 47,558,296 as of the 2019 census. A national census was conducted in 1999, although t ...

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...

. Amin's filming of

Michael Buerk Michael Duncan Buerk (; born 18 February 1946) is a British journalist and newsreader. He presented BBC News from 1973 to 2002 and has been the host of BBC Radio 4's '' Moral Maze'' since 1990. He was also the presenter of BBC One's docudrama ...

's report of the 1984 Ethiopian famine brought international attention to the crisis and eventually helped start the charity wave that resulted in

Live Aid Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a m ...

concerts. Amin died in November 1996 when his flight

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled international flight serving the route Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked en route from A ...

was hijacked and crashed into the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

near

Grande Comore Grande Comore (; ) is an island in Comoros off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population is about 316,600. The island's capital is Moroni, which i ...

Life and work

Amin was born on 29 August 1943 in

Eastleigh, Nairobi Eastleigh is a mixed-use neighbourhood in Nairobi, Kenya. It is located east of the central business district. It is known for its business prowess.

, to a family of Punjab descent. He developed an interest in photography at school.Episode One, '' Mo & Me'' He founded the ''Camerapix'' company in 1963 in

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

and moved the company to

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

three years later. During the 1970s, he became one of the most relied-upon African news photographers, reporting on wars and coups all through the continent, and his pictures were often used by Western news media. Amin's most influential moment came when his filming, along with

's reporting of the 1984 Ethiopian famine brought international attention to the crisis and eventually helped start the charity wave that resulted in

concerts. Apart from Ethiopian famine, he contributed exclusive photos of the fall of

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 30 May 192816 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until Uganda–Tanzania War, his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a Military dictatorship, ...

and of

Mengistu Haile Mariam Mengistu Haile Mariam (, pronunciation: ; born 21 May 1937) is an Ethiopian former politician, revolutionary, and military officer who served as the head of state of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991. He was General Secretary of the Workers' Party o ...

, and was author of numerous books, including ''Journey Through Pakistan'', ''Pilgrimage to Mecca'', and covered various themes like East African Wildlife and the

Uganda Railway The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the lin ...

. Amin also published issues of ''Selamta'', the

Ethiopian Airlines Ethiopian Airlines (), formerly ''Ethiopian Air Lines'' (EAL), is the flag carrier of Ethiopia, and is wholly owned by the country's government. EAL was founded on 21 December 1945 and commenced operations on 8 April 1946, expanding to intern ...

in-flight magazine. Amin was not only active in Africa, but also in the Middle East. He covered the Palestinian

Black September Black September (), also known as the Jordanian Civil War, was an armed conflict between Jordan, led by Hussein of Jordan, King Hussein, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by chairman Yasser Arafat. The main phase of the fight ...

uprising to seize control of

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

in September 1970. He was able to move among the Palestinian forces where Western journalists could not. In 1991, Amin lost his left arm during an ammunition dump explosion in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

during the

Ethiopian Civil War The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991. The Derg overthre ...

. Mohamed Amin, 53, Camera Eye During the Famine in Ethiopia
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. November 26, 1996.

Death

Amin boarded

on 23 November 1996, with 61-year-old Briton Brian Tetley, a colleague who wrote the text for Amin's photography books, to travel to Nairobi after a business trip to Ethiopia. Hijackers stormed the cockpit of ET-AIZ, the

Boeing B767-260ER used for the flight, and forced the pilot, Leul Abate, to fly east over the

to Australia. Amin attempted to rally the passengers to attack the hijackers and confronted the hijackers, trying to stop the scenario. ET-AIZ ran out of fuel and Abate ditched the aircraft off the coast of the

Comoros Islands The Comoro Islands are a group of volcanic islands in the Mozambique Channel, an arm of the Indian Ocean lying between Madagascar and the African mainland. Three of the islands form the Union of the Comoros, a sovereign nation, while Mayotte be ...

. ET-AIZ broke into pieces, and as Amin was standing, his body hit the airplane wall causing his death. He was 53."Ocean Landing" or "African Hijack," ''

Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...

'' Tetley also did not survive the crash.

Legacy

In June 2006, '' Mo and Me'', an

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

documentary film about Amin was premiered. It won Best International Documentary at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. Al Jazeera and Camerapix funded the film. Amin's son, Salim Amin, runs the Camerapix company as of 2008. Mo Amin is the inspiration for the A24 news channel, a proposed independent pan-African 24-hour 'African voice for Africa' which commenced broadcasting from Nairobi on 19 September 2008. Mohamed Amin worked with numerous journalists and writers, including

Tahir Shah Tahir Shah (, ; ''né'' Sayyid Tahir al-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد طاهر الهاشمي); born 16 November 1966) is a British author, journalist and documentary maker of Afghan-Indian descent. Family Tahir Shah was born into the '' saadat'' ...

and Colin Blane, as well as

References

External links

Mohamed Amin Foundation

on December 9, 1996 of ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' - Announcement of deaths of Mohamed Amin and Brian Tetley
INSIDE AFRICA: At the Movies
"

''

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

''. February 24, 2007. -- interview transcripts, discussing Mohamed Amin and ''Mo & Me''
''Mo & Me''
-

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amin, Mohamed 1943 births 1996 deaths Kenyan photojournalists Ethiopian Airlines Kenyan amputees Members of the Order of the British Empire Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1996 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the Comoros Mass media people from Nairobi 20th-century journalists Kenyan people of Indian descent

Life and work

Death

Legacy

References

Further reading

External links