Artist retraces street child life

Yosef Haimanot is retracing his journey as a street child in Africa

A film maker who was a street child in Africa at the age of 10 is returning to make a documentary of how he lived.

Yosef Haimanot, 33, arrived in the UK after stowing away on a ship at age 13 and went on to study film in Wales.

He made a film on a return home after 20 years. This time he plans to retrace his three-year trek on foot through Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

Artists Matt Clark and Melanie Hobday are joining him for the month-long trip, but this time in a vehicle.

Mr Haimanot: "Things have definitely changed. At that time, there wasn't any border conflict.

"We will be hiring lots of people, bodyguards and guides. We need it for safety."

The renuion with his mother was the basis for his first film

He admitted to being worried there was some part of the planning for his friends that he had missed but added: "I'm sure when we get there things will be be fine."

The aim is to recount how he achieved the journey and then survived at a street child in Djibouti before he and his brother stowed away on a Greek freighter in the harbour.

While he captures the journey on film, the two other arists hope to draw on the experience for their own artworks on the culture and lifestyle differences.

Mr Haimanot's first film on his childhood and emotional reunion with his family, Mothersland, was screened at Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre.

Still images of the trip exhibition by a photography student colleague were exhibited at the city's Butetown History and Arts Centre.