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

Nomad gathering - photo from Ishtar News

The 3rd edition is coming up soon. Only one day left!

Just wanted to let you all know that any post that has qualified but does not make it to this carnival edition due to lack of space, will be reported to the next edition. In other words, you will not have to resubmit. At present, the Beautiful Africa carnival is running once a month, but as interest increases, we plan to run the carnival more often.

Nomad gathering - photo from Ishtar News

Since opening this Beautiful Africa site, we've had visitors from 58 cities. Our top visitors seen by the amount of time spent on the site (reading through the material and checking on the links!) are as following:

1. Stuttgart
2. Pleasanton
3. Danderyd
4. Falkenberg
5. Paris
6. Ashburn
7. Tampa
8. Hot Springs Village
9. Gothenburg/Göteborg
10. Johannesburg
11. Bologna
12. Cardiff
13. Herndon
14. Mulhouse
15. Berkeley

Hope you find your town of residence on the list! If not, you might want to think about visiting more often...

See you all tomorrow!
The BA team

Third edition approaches!

Just wanted to let you know that the next edition of Beautiful Africa is due in a week. Time to read through your blog again and look at the posts you've written (in order to see if there is anything amidst all the lines that you've already written that has captured a Beautiful African issue in a positive or constructive way); or, to sit down and write something according to your heart's desire. Will not post site promotions (hotels & rentals), off-topic issues or negative rants however, so if you want to portray a problem, you need to offer some sort of a solution as well... Constructiveness is the key!

You can submit your contribution to the upcoming carnival edition by clicking here.

Greetings from the BA team

Global visitors

Well, since this site opened a few days ago, we have had visitors from Falkenberg, Halle, Kuala Lumpur, Cape Town and Mumbai!

Will be fun in a month's time to check out the keywords that brings people over... :-) They're hilarious over at Ishtar News. In fact, that reminds me that I have to write another post about it soon!

Now by the way, the next edition of Beautiful Africa is due on August 16th. Time to start looking over your blogs!

Warm greetings from a chilly Sweden,
Ishtar

Beautiful Africa - 2nd edition!

Welcome to the second edition of the Beautiful Africa blog carnival! There is a wider spectrum of countries being represented this time, which gladdens me!

We start off with Nigeria, where Ugo Daniels presents Iwa Ji Ofu (New Yam Festival) in Igboland! posted at AfricanLoft. "The Iwa Ji Afo is one of the biggest festivals celebrated by the Igbos," Ugo writes. "This day symbolizes the conclusion of a work cycle and the beginning of another." Just like another AfricanLoft reader commented, this post awakens my memories of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. I wish I had had this post at hand when I tried to explain the importance of yam to fellow students. Thanks for reminding us, Ugo!

Next up is Omodudu who presents A Night In Cocody posted at Omodudu, saying, "Just reminscing about Cote D'Ivoire!" An interesting read about how something you don't understand and in many ways don't appreciate, still manages to win your heart.

Szavanna presents Ramatlabama girl posted at Szavanna_blog
where she shares her encounters with an easy-going young girl called Phindi who in 2002 was into Footy (a south african sport, in case you were wondering...) and was interested in learning computer skills. This post is about following your heart and achieving things that other people may very well deem impossible for you. A valuable read!

Neil Ransom presents Country Count 139 and Falling posted at Kate and Neil's Official Website. He grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, leaving when he was 18. "Now, 8 years later, most of what I experience of Africa is the language Americans use to describe it.
The African continent has 54 sovereign nations, colors ranging from dark black to bright white, hundreds of unique cultures, and thousands of languages and dialects. Grouping these 54 countries into one is akin to grouping North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East. It would be like me saying, “oh, I just got back from Norsamereuromiddast…" I really enjoyed this post.

Back to Nigeria, Loomnie inofficially presents On Friendship posted at Loomnie. He asked me to look through his site, and I picked out this post because of its genuineness.

In the previous Beautiful Africa Carnival, Tim Abbott presented 1/3 of the Water Planet. This time he presents The Waters Prevailed Exceedingly Upon the Earth posted at Walking the Berkshire. Go and have a look!

Bringing full focus to Niger, Ishtar (that would be me, yes) presents Niger's national parade posted at Ishtar News, which shows the great variety of cultural richness and heritage that resides within the same country border. Niger is not alone in being shared by a number of different people, all with their own language and cultural heritage. 2006 saw Niger's national day being celebrated in Zinder and the 1½ hour long parade that passed on our street really impressed me, because it brought together people from all corners of the country, each proudly displaying their own heritage, and yet unified under the same flag.

Now, last but not least, Izz wraps us this edition with his contribution I am what I am posted at Izzonline poetry, saying, "This is a poem that celebrates my life as an African." A wonderful and touching read which concludes: "I am what I am, because my Africa is beautiful." A great ending the Beautiful Africa Carnival Edition!

That concludes this edition. Thank you for your contributions! The next carnival is scheduled on the 18th of August. All in all, thirteen contributions were submitted, of which eight were accepted.

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.

Ishtar

Deadline due in three days

Just wanted to remind you all that the deadline for the Beautiful Africa is in three days. Time flies!

Ishtar

Next edition of Beautiful Africa coming up soon!

I'm pleased to inform you - especially those of you who felt that you missed out on the last carnival - that the next edition of Beautiful Africa is due in less than two weeks. So now would be a great time to sift through your blog and look at the posts you've written, and see if there is anything amidst all the lines that you've already written, which is probably a bit buried by now, that has captured a Beautiful African issue in a positive or constructive way. As stated on the Blog Carnival Homepage:

I will post just about anything about Africa, as long as the tone is positive and constructive. Personal touches are of extra value. I will not however post site promotions or negative rants. If you want to portray a problem, show or present the solution as well!

If the answer is yes; you should immediately submit it to our upcoming carnival edition, and the easiest way to do that is of course to simply click here. If the answer is no, now is the time to take the issue seriously and sit down and write. Forgotten the guidelines? Here's a reminder from what has been previously published:

The blog world is full of interesting carnivals, but I as couldn't find a relevant carnival about Africa, I decided it was time to create one. With so much negative information about Africa being portrayed all the time, I thought it would be nice if we could assemble some of those positive stories; stories that highlight Africa's beauty, dignity, variety and culture.

This is a carnival for all of those who have experienced Africa and have been touched or inspired by this so called "dark continent" in any way. You may or may not have been there yourself, it can be about someone else, a story that inspired you etc. The aim of this carnival is to bring forth all the dignity, beauty, variety and human warmth of this huge continent, which is so often neglected in international media today.It's a very open carnival actually - you don't even need to have been in Africa to submit a contribution. All you need is to be positive about it! This first edition will kick off in a few days, starting with "a personal experience of Africa". Anything you have to tell; sharing the magic of this vast continent.

There! See, I knew you would get inspired!
Forgot where to submit your post? Click here!
Submission deadline is July 18th 2007.

Ishtar

Beautiful Africa - 1st edition!

Proudly presenting Beautiful Africa's kickoff! This first edition has kicked off with a strong focus on the Middle East.

First of all (and first to contribute to the carnival!), Howidiedtoday presents Siwa, Egypt: An Isolated And Flourishing Oasis Populated By A Community Of Gracious Berbers, a dream holiday in a mysteriously beautiful oasis where people go out of their way to welcome visitors to their town.

"I know that most people think of Egypt as being Middle East," she says, "which is why I thought it would be even more unique for this article to be featured. "

Zenofeller presents Xenophillia, where he talks about Egyptian perfume! Ha, I have been to Egypt just once in my life, and that was 21 years ago. I remember our excursion to the pyramids, the mini Pepsi cola bottles and the tiny boutiques, filled with just that: perfume!

In Naseer and the Lute, Szavanna presents a story about Tunisian music lessons and tells what it was like to fulfill a dream and learn how to play the Arabian lute - "a beautiful string instrument" that similarly to the violin is "fretless".
Read and enjoy!

In 1/3 of the Water Planet, Tim Abbott presents his reflections on deserts and his firsthand experience with Namibia.
"Deserts are alive," he writes, "and have supported life of remarkable variety and resilience. "This is a very interesting post about one of the most fascinating landscapes on earth. Go and have a look!

In Best Dressed Nigerians Hated by South Africans, Izz talks about his encounter with African inter-racism in South Africa when looking for a decent barber.

"My point," he writes, "we can learn a lot from places that are melting pots of nations and kaleidoscope of cultures such as Sunnyside."

Beaman presents some good humour in Constance: Noodle and Laxatives in Berlin; a short truestory about a girl from Cameroon in Berlin.

Finally, there is a post at the former Ishtar News site entitled First day for the 19th time. I have been going back and forth between Africa and Europe for as long as I can remember, and yet, the cultural differences never cease to amaze me. For the Twentieth 'First day experience', have a look at Back in Niger hosted on this site.

That concludes this edition. Thank you for your contributions! The next carnival is scheduled in mid July.

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

Ishtar

Beautiful Africa - a blog carnival

The blog world is full of interesting carnivals, but I as couldn't find a relevant carnival about Africa, I decided it was time to create one. With so much negative information about Africa being portrayed all the time, I thought it would be nice if we could assemble some of those positive stories; stories that highlight Africa's beauty, dignity, variety and culture.

This is a carnival for all of those who have experienced Africa and have been touched or inspired by this so called "dark continent" in any way. You may or may not have been there yourself, it can be about someone else, a story that inspired you etc. The aim of this carnival is to bring forth all the dignity, beauty, variety and human warmth of this huge continent, which is so often neglected in international media today.It's a very open carnival actually - you don't even need to have been in Africa to submit a contribution. All you need is to be positive about it! This first edition will kick off in a few days, starting with "a personal experience of Africa". Anything you have to tell; sharing the magic of this vast continent.

Submit your post/article here! The carnival has three posts so far, two from Egypt and one from Black Africa.

Ishtar