Travelling removes borders, says top photojournalist

There are three kinds of “travel” that ease the severe perennial global issues of acceptance, said a recent second-time UAE visitor who backpacked through 11 countries 20 years back.

“My target was to reach South Africa. I had $2,000.00. In Uzbekistan, my $400.00, the only one left was stolen. I had no bank account. So only 11 countries in one year and seven months on a backpack; hitchhiking, living with the locals and volunteering,” Agustinus Wibowo told Gulf Today.

A third generation Chinese whose grandfather became the headmaster of one of the earliest Chinese schools in Indonesia, the 44-year-old was raised in the traditional Chinese way by his Mandarin- speaking parents whose hometown in their adopted homeland is the “small town” of Lumajang in East Java Province.

“My father has strong sentiments of China being great. He sent me to study at the Tsinghua University in Beijing. I studied in public schools where it was always that the children of the Chinese were always either rank one or rank two. I was good in Math and Physics. I did not like Engineering. So I enrolled in Computer Science. It was hard work in China. I only slept for four hours each night. I had to study.

“But, my China experience was great,” Wibowo continually reminisced, adding that after years of having encountered all forms of “name-calling, bullying, and attacks” – at the time (1967-1998) when the Chinese and their descendants at the slightest were frowned upon – for the first time he felt that huge sense of belongingness, unscathed and un-scared of any form of untoward incident especially when out of the streets only because of his different skin tone and “slanted eyes.”

“No one bullied me. That gave me the courage to travel. My first year in Mongolia. In 2003 after the USA invasion of Afghanistan, I was there.”

Afghanistan ignited his interest in photography; enchanted by the locals’ “very strong faces and very strong expressions.”

In 2004, Wibowo tagged along as a “volunteer” with his journalist and photojournalist friends who covered the Aceh Province distressing tsunami.

He who had become curious of photojournalism because of the positive feedback on his photos by his photography club mentors and fellow students, dropped a bomb, before his father: “I saw how honourable the work of journalists and photojournalists is. You get to dangerous places where nobody dare to go. You get so many stories. I told my father I did not want to continue Masters in Computer Science. That I wanted to be a photojournalist. He got so angry.”

Back in China, came the “overland” sojourn: Tibet, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Khyrgistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iraq and Iran. He blogged with photos to let his kin and kith know that “I am still alive.”

The management of the Indonesian “Kompas” newspaper hired him as their correspondent in Afghanistan where he lived for three years.

In 2017, Wibowo was successfully admitted at the “Indonesian Writers in Focus” programme of Jakarta’s National Talent Management for Arts and Culture.” He chose to immerse into the “Indonesian diaspora” in The Netherlands. He specifically learnt more about his Javanese heritage in in Suriname.

The man has published books complete with photographs because “writings complete my photographs and photographs help me remember the mood and the experiences.”

“Selimut Debu”/”A Blanket of Dust” features the war-scarred landscapes of Afghanistan. “Garis Batas”/”The Borderline” witnesses the struggles of former USSR states with history, geography and identity.

“Titik Nol”/”Zero: When the Journey Takes You Home” is his last days with his late mom who succumbed to cancer.

It took him three years to conclude his latest – “Kita dan Mereka”/Us and Them.” His “healing book.”

That for man to move forward, each must consciously take the “physical travel, the historical travel, and the contemplative travel” since over and above man’s imposed “borders,” these, when fully understood, is replaceable by “harmony.”

Wibowo participated at the “Discovering Ancient Cultures” panel with Dr. Hina Jamshed from Pakistan and Hani Abd AlMurid from Egypt of the “Sharjah International Book Fair.”

At the American University of Sharjah, he discussed with Women’s Studies undergraduates, “Women’s Voices Across Cultures.”