AWOKO

A Portrait of the Awoko Newspaper
Freetown, Sierra Leone
There are about fourteen different daily newspapers in Freetown, Sierra Leone. On
White Street, towards the west of the city, the printing press that produces the AWOKO
newspaper operates five nights a week. The men work the presses all night, from about
10pm through till 5am, when the newspapers get collected to be distributed around the
city.

Some have been with the same press for thirty years, originally working in Ghana, and
moving with the machine ten years ago when it was purchased by a company in Sierra
Leone. None of the equipment used to assemble and print the layout is digital.