30/05/2026
Robert Slingsby
A night in Tum
Oil on canvas 120 x 100cm
This painting is autobiographical, drawn from one of Slingsby’s most unforgettable field trips to the southern Omo Valley in Ethiopia. Near the volatile border with South Sudan, the expedition vehicle became hopelessly mired in volcanic mud. For three days, Slingsby and his team were stranded in this remote terrain, working alongside a 12-man detachment of government soldiers sent to protect them.
Together they constructed a makeshift road from branches and stones, inching the vehicle toward freedom through a landscape both breathtaking and treacherous. The days were marked by a strange duality, quiet endurance under pressure and moments of adrenaline, none more intense than the sudden appearance of six ‘Rambo-like’ Nyangatom men from the thickets. Swathed in bullet belts, their silent presence belying their fierce reputation, they melted back into the bush, as if from a dream or hallucination.
Finally, as the sun dipped low on the third day, the team reached solid ground. Too late to set up camp, they headed for the nearest outpost: a truck stop in the tiny town of Tum. There were no hotels, only the surreal glow of flashing lights, disco music and the unmistakable signs of a brothel, where a couple of rooms were negotiated for the night.
Ushered into a small room with green walls and a single bed, a place they could never have predicted, the team gathered, mud-splattered, exhausted, elated. There, in that unlikely room, laughter flowed freely, stories were exchanged and a profound sense of togetherness, so typical of Africa, took root; bond-friendship, born of survival, absurdity and relief. A Night in Tum captures that moment, as a celebration of camaraderie forged through adversity and of the joy that rises unexpectedly when people come together.
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