Yvonne Toba
Abidjan
-
Côte d'Ivoire
"I would restore the rule of law, promote inclusion and equality, tax the wealthy, prioritise civic education and reduce corruption."
"I draw the red line at Injustice, inequality, and corruption."
"I draw the red line at Injustice, inequality, and corruption."
I became an activist when I began to realise the injustices my community suffered because of their land.
My work focuses on social justice, democracy, the civic participation of youth and women, and land and environmental rights for rural communities. We promote freedom of expression and strengthen leadership and entrepreneurship for women and young people through trainings, awareness campaigns, advocacy, discussion groups, and mobilisations.
We work mainly with youth and women, alongside all organisations and individuals who share our values, to make our collective efforts stronger and more effective.
What keeps me going is knowing that I carry on my shoulders the hope of several Ivorian communities who believe in me and in this struggle.
Yvonne Toba is a woman human rights defender known for denouncing corruption, bad governance, impunity, and social injustice.
Her activism focuses on social justice, democracy, the civic participation of youth and women, and land and environmental rights for rural communities. She works to strengthen leadership and entrepreneurship among women and young people, organising training workshops, awareness campaigns, public consultations, advocacy efforts, discussion groups, conferences, and citizen mobilisations.
As the National Coordinator of Novox Côte d’Ivoire, she is committed to fighting land grabbing, defending peasant communities, and promoting equal access to justice by raising the voices of the voiceless.
Meet The Photographer
Macline Hien
Hien Macline is an Ivorian photographer whose work lies at the intersection of documentary, the sensitive, and the poetic. Trained at the National School of Fine Arts in Abidjan in the late 1980s, she has been developing a demanding practice for over three decades, rooted in the social reality of her country and open to intercultural dialogue.
Her gaze captures the essence of bodies, places, and silences. Sacred ceremonies, everyday gestures, major social transformations: she photographs with the patience of listening and the precision of sensitivity. Her approach combines analog and digital photography, studio and reportage, memory and movement. Always eager to learn, she has participated in numerous workshops and masterclasses in Africa and Europe (World Press Photo, Reuters, Goethe-Institut, Zeitenspiegel) and collaborated with institutions such as UNOCI, UNFPA, IFAD, and the Coffee and Cocoa Council. She has also served on the jury of several photography competitions.
Her images appear in various collective and solo publications, including Food in Africa (2012), Ancestral Arts of the Civilizations of Côte d’Ivoire, The Journey (2021), Côte d’Ivoire, Paradise of Cocoa (2021), and Abidjan, Nest of Artists (2024). She has exhibited in museums, galleries, cultural centers, and festivals in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Ghana, Canada, the United States, France, Germany, and Italy. In 2024, she received an ASCAD Recognition Award for her overall contribution to photography and the institution's visual memory. In 2000, she had already been awarded the Grand Prix du Jeune Plasticien (Young Visual Artist Grand Prize).
Hien Macline photographs the world as one writes a journal: with fidelity, emotion, and quiet rigor. Each image is a fragment of history, a witness to the present, and a gateway to what remains to be seen.
all content © FIA 2025 except where stated
all portraits of photographers © the photographer
exhibition curation, website and content design by Thom Pierce and Ed Pomfret