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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
In Chicome, Mozambique, Orlando’s soccer ball is made from plastic bags twined with tree bark.
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
“This is what goes on here every day at 5 p.m.,” Jessica Hilltout says of this scene in rural Ghana. “In every village, no matter the size, there are numerous soccer fields. And no matter where I was, as the sun would set, I witnessed moments of magic: people united around a ball after a hard day’s work. Football is one of life’s essentials, like food and water.”
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
Before his school day starts in Gondola, Mozambique, 13-year-old Isaac demonstrates his ballmaking technique. Using yarn, worn fabric, and an inflated condom, he can make a soccer ball in about 30 minutes.
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
Bound with rope, plastic bags equal a ball in Bibiani, Ghana.
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
In urban Kumasi, Ghana, factory-made balls abound. Michael Sarkodie holds one on the Anokye Stars field. Sani Pollux started the club in 1956. “Soccer keeps them out of trouble,” he says of the 150 boys he coaches.
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
A golden plastic trophy is proudly displayed in a home in Lomé, Togo.
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
Handwritten journals helped Hilltout explain and document her project. At the top of this entry is a promise she made to herself to return to Africa with new balls and equipment. A year later she did just that.
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
For this logbook entry, Hilltout photographed handmade balls on the red dirt of a Ghanaian village. “They were given to me as a thank-you when I returned to the village with equipment and honored the promise I made,” she says. On the opposite page she wrote her thoughts and reflections. “My logbooks help me construct my ideas.”
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
Carlos Ribeiro stands on a ball he made from rubbish in Inharrime, Mozambique, where boys learn to make balls at age five.
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
Young Thandile keeps his head in the game for South Africa’s Cape Town Stars.
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
Mensah Dosseh bought his soccer shoes at a market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, then adorned them with the name of his favorite team—Barcelona.
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Photograph by Jessica Hilltout
Players in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, aim the ball at this petit poto, or mini-goal—two and a half feet high and wide. “You don’t need to be rich or have a manicured pitch to play soccer,” says historian Peter Alegi. “You just need a flat space and a makeshift ball.”
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