| The bittersweet beauty of this carved tusk reminds us how ivory trade
caused the demise of thousands of African elephants and changed millions
of human lives. The forced labor used to transport countless tusks to African
coasts kept the slave trade alive, while more recently master carvers in
Hong Kong and Japan are unemployed due to the international ban on ivory.
Tusks have now become an exquisite underground currency.
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One Continent. Many Worlds." web site. All photographic images and
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Photographs by Dick Meier |