Monday 18 August 2008

Beautiful Africa 9th edition

Welcome to the 9th edition of Beautiful Africa. Even though the editions might come a bit less regularly - we do plan to publish one every two months so keep sending in the posts.

This edition includes amongst others a solar cooker recipe, writings by three very talented bloggers, you can also spend some time discovering South Africa's wildlife, get to see the Olive-backed forest robin, a newly spotted bird species from Gabon, read a post about South African jazz and also about a Malian Wassoulou musician. We do have some new contributors as well as our regular bloggers adding to the mix. Sit back and enjoy!

Personal experiences

Let's start with one of Esther's favourite posts the 'Sauce de Tanout' Solar Cooker Recipe posted at esthergarvi.com. Esthers intro goes : "The Eden farmers and their families mix the cooked Maerua crassifolia leaves with crushed peanuts, decorate with an onion and sell it in the village. There is a lot of money to be made this way, because the meal is good! And so when making one of the two casseroles I was going to serve with the Boscia senegalensis grains a few nights ago, I did my very own take on the choice of ingredients favoured by the Eden farmers, and hence the name of the casserole: Sauce de Tanout. "

My pick as a special personal experience is Abri's entire blog, Uit die Blou van Onse Hemel - it being a collection of photos as Abri and his friend flew from Cape Town to Potchefstroom in a helicopter and decided to live-blog it all. "Two helicopter pilots on a crazy trip through and around South Africa with a Robinson 44. Our final destination is Potchefstroom where we will stay a few days before we hit the sky again to our home sweet home the Cape of Good Hope." Click to visit the blog and see their journey.



Music of Africa

From Tony's place read Kwa Tebugo - jazz coming home. "After more than 30 years, a South African musician who has achieved great acclaim in Britain and Europe is coming back to get the land of his birth jumping with the power of his backbeat."



Next find out about The Songbird of Wassoulou posted at Szavanna_blog. "Oumou Sangare (born February 25, 1968, in Bamako, Mali) is a Malian Wassoulou musician, sometimes referred to as “The Songbird of Wassoulou.” Wassoulou is a historic region south of the Niger River, and the music there is descended from traditional hunting songs, and is accompanied by a calabash."


Sights of Africa



Next up is Pilanesberg posted at Szavanna_blog. This is a small photoalbum introducing you to the park. "Pilanesberg Game Reserve is in the Bojanala Region of the North West Province, adjacent to Sun City. Set in the crater of a long extinct volcano, the Park ranks among the largest of the parks in South Africa (it is in fact the fourth largest park) and covers an area of 55 000 hectare."

GrrlScientist presents New Bird Species Discovered in Gabon posted at Scienceblogs.com. "A new species of bird has been identified by ornithologists from the Smithsonian Institution. The bird, which was first discovered in Gabon, a small country in Africa, was unknown to the scientific community until now. Interestingly, this species is part of a larger group of closely-related birds in southwest Gabon known as the Gamba Complex."




Creative Writing


Loomnie submitted his Fola, A Short Story posted at Loomnie.com. "Fola stood before her father’s sickbed, staring at him with what seemed like rapt attention but she wasn’t seeing anything. As she stood staring, her feelings traversed the fields of sympathy, pity, disgust, and anger. These feelings were so deep that the images they called-up in her mind were so overwhelming she felt they would choke her if she didn’t run out of the hospital ward." Click to read on ...

Rushay's Bpm and therapy in one session is next posted at Rushay.org. His post speaks of itself - here is the start : "Instinctively walking the path to rhythmic drum woven beats thats been manipulated digitally and fed to hungry Africans over decades have left us malnutritioned.I have given this so much thought,how music feeds a world thats hungry not just to move the body but also to feed and sustain the soul."

Tauratinzwe concludes the list of posts with Mr Bean posted at Observations of Africa. It goes : "One day Baba Nyemba went to town to get some meat. At the butcher shop he saw a nice piece of steak in the window that was just what he wanted." Read on to find out Baba Nyembas day at the butcher shop.

Mr Bean's story ends this edition. Thank you so much once again for your contributions!
Submit your blog article to the next edition of beautiful africa using the carnival submission form. Help us make this blog represent all parts of Africa - if you know of a post that would fit the idea behind this carnival - please make sure you let us know about it!

many greetings to all, keep blogging!

Szavanna & BA Team

Thursday 14 August 2008

9th edition coming up soon

Hey there!

Just a short note to let you know that the next edition is coming up soon - you are welcome to add your posts. Personal experiences, creative writing, photoalbums, music related posts, or even a mix of all of these are welcome! If you have a post in mind, please submit it here.

I end with Rushay's photo - check out his photos on Flickr - he has a great collection!


Fingoville, Grahamstown, South Africa the efforts of artist to uplift the community