Beautiful Africa - 3rd edition!

Proud to present the 3rd edition of the one and only Beautiful Africa Blog Carnival - filled with a number of genuine quality posts that each in their own way have captured African highlights - as varied as they can be! We are glad to welcome onboard new contributers from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Mocambique, adding to our list of participating countries!

Personal experience

Szavanna is first up today, presenting A country for Xmas posted at Szavanna_blog, which describes her first encounter with South Africa coming straight from Hungary. An interesting read on multi-cultural experiences on a generously personal note. "I must say that though my second home can be an unbelievably hectic place to live in," Szavanna writes, "it is also a treasure chest of amazing traditions, beautiful landscapes & great music - all of which I could never have experienced, seen or heard - have I decided not to get on that plane to Joburg."

Tim Abbott presents I Bury the Dead And Start a Friendship posted at Walking the Berkshires, explaining in his own words: "Another life lesson from my years in Namibia." This post is a global highlight, showing how people from different citizenship, colour and religion come together in times of difficulties and make ever lasting friends.

Loomnie writes about life observation on a bus deck, in his post Respect posted at loomnie. Very interesting food for thought, well worthy of your time! "Whatever you think," Loomnie concludes, "each time you disembark from the bus you leave with a renewed feeling of respect for the stories their faces tell, for their resilience, for taking charge, and for constituting a very important part of the economic life of Nigeria."

Sights of Africa

This section specially introduced for this edition, provides us with a visual Smörgåsbord of African impressions!

First out in this category is Tauratinzwe who presents some beautiful pictures from Zimbabwe, in the post Mosi-oa-tunya posted at the site Observations of Africa. "The beauty of Victoria Falls, Mosi-oa-tunya, is overwhelming," the author writes. "The rainbows are stupendous and, on special full moon lit nights, moonbows accent the view..." If one did not already now that Victoria Falls were breathtakingly beautiful, one will know now!

Sahelsteve represents one of the editor's pick this edition, with this amazing picture of Fulani commuting posted at Voice in the Desert. Coming from a similar sandy landscape, my delight and fascination should come as no surprise. Now I'm only eager to hear your own thoughts on the matter, so click away, have a closer look and then come back to post your impressions! I wonder if this isn't the sort of picture that will inspire Izz to write a book!

Omyword wraps up this category with some true African beauty caught by the professionals in her post Sunset in Beira Moçambique posted at Triomf Movie.

Culture & Traditions

Keith (another editor's pick) presents Happy Birthday Burkina Faso! posted at Under the Acacias where he tells the story behind Burkina Faso's Indepence Day and the pride that the citizens share.

Other

howidiedtoday presents a good read in her post Recommending West With The Night As A Good Summer Read posted at Travel Betty, adding: "Hi Ishtar [and everybody else!], I just finished this book and have been recommending it to everyone. The writing is superb and the portrayal of Kenya is certainly refreshing. I think you'd love it!

Thanks,
Travel Betty"
Thanks for the tip, Betty!

Ishtar presents Niger in the news posted at Ishtar News. This post compares firsthand experience with the vastly different picture presented in the news. This article actually highlights the main reasons why the Beautiful Africa Blog Carnival was founded in the first place, because as we know (but so rarely see!) there is more to Africa than what hits the news. "Despite being the least developed country in the world, Niger has a wonderful and rich culture; a beautiful horizontal landscape with an amazing variety of colors (red dirt and white sand mixed under a deep blue sky, dotted with green acacia trees), unique values and its own "slow-slow" pace. Stress is not heard of in Niger. People generally take life as it is and do not care for our Western ambitions."

Keith gets to end this edition with a wonderful post entitled I love Africa posted at Under the Acacias. This post too was an editor's choice... Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Warm greetings and big applauses for all the contributions! You certainly contributed to a rich edition!

... Now on to the comments! [This is where you come in...]

Will leave you with the standard carnival ending:

Thank you for your contributions. That concludes this edition.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of beautiful africa using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Warm greetings,
Ishtar & the BA Team