Beautiful Africa - 4th edition!

Welcome to the 4th edition of the carnival!

As always, this month's selection includes great submissions as well as some posts chosen by the BA team. This month's edition includes posts about Tanzania, Namibia, Niger, South Africa, Mali, Nigeria - sit back and enjoy!

Personal experiences

As a perfect start to this month's stories Tauratinzwe presents Karibu kwa Afrika at Observations of Africa. "Back in time to 1970 when, fresh out of university, I first arrived in Africa. It seems like yesterday" . He tells us about the day he arrived in Arusha, Tanzania for the very first time.

Ishtar's Time for tea at IshtarNews is a shorter piece that explains why tea drinking is such an important tradition in many parts of Africa - read the post to get the feel for all the ingredients of a "tea drinking event" in Niger.

Keith presents They have so little, but posted at Under the Acacias. His experiences with the communities of Burkina Faso made him reexamine many of today's destructive habits in the Western world - read his thoughts on this topic.

Sounds of Africa

I believe that the stories told by songs and instruments can be a powerful way of conveying a message or introducing a country and its people. In this section I am introducing you to two musicians - one from Mali the other from South Africa both playing the blues in their own unique way.

Rouvanne presents Unique slide-guitar with a spoon - Hannes Coetzee to the USA at Peak People : an inside look. "Hannes Coetzee, an old spoon-sliding guitarist who burst onto the music scene in 2003 as part of the Karoo Kitaar Blues project with South Africa’s David Kramer, comes from the small Karoo town of Herberstdale." His unique quitar style has since become world famous - to see what I mean - visit Rouvanne's post and check the video with Hannes' performace.

Kikuyumoja presents Je chanterai pour toi at Kikuyumoja's realm . His post introduces you to Boubacar Traore, or Kar Kar as he is known - one of the great masters of the Malian blues. "KarKar uses those old melodies that are believed to be our national heritage. He has given them a new meaning" - says the post which has a lot more info about the man and the documentary created about his life.

Sights of Africa

Vaibhav presents Never seen anything like this in my life at Habitually good. The post is about the video called "The Battle of Kruger" - "Lions playing tug-o-war with a crocodile over a buffalo calf they just caught. And this is not even half the drama that unfolds in this 8 minute video." I have been to the Kruger National Park many times - and every day I spent there was full of experiences I will never forget. Watch the video to get the idea.

Culture & Traditions

Ishtar presents National Day celebrations continues at the race track at IshtarNews. This is Ishtar's second post on the national day celebrations in Zinder (Niger) - "I have yet to see my first camel race in Zinder! Somehow I always tend to miss it; but on the other hand, this particular afternoon was filled with so much program that by the end of the day you just could not desire more..." - to get the full story, best is to read the two posts together - perfect selection of photos that talk for themselves.

Tim Abbott presents The Name of the Rain is It Will Come at Walking the Berkshires. "Waiting is not always enough. Sometimes it takes the best that you have to bring the rain." - Tim tells about the people of Owamboland in Namibia and the traditions they practise to help bring the long awaited rain.

Creative Writing

RefinedOne ends this edition of the carnival with Eko ile! ….you just got to luv her at the RefinedOne blog. A beautiful poem about Lagos - as she explains : "to help you get a feel of Lagos… try putting NewYork city, Florida, Hollywood LA, and not forget the flavours of Islands, and maybe you’ll get the feel of this little/big city".

I hope you enjoyed this month's selection and that the posts above inspired you to write posts that can become part of future editions of this carnival.

If you have a new post to submit for the October edition please use our carnival submission form, the October posts will be reviewed by Loomnie. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Greetings to All,
Szavanna and the BA Team