April next

Dear Beautiful Africa Readers & Participants!

Sunset in Zinder, Niger by Anette Bengtsson

The 8th edition of the Beautiful Africa Blog Carnival will be posted end April, so there is ample time to assemble all those beautiful posts that highlights all the positive sides of Africa! Should the blog carnival fill up too early, it might be posted earlier, so stay tuned!

You can post your entries here - and if you know of a post that'd make a great submission, don't hesitate to contact any of the editors!

Warm greetings from around the world:
Ishtar in Europe (for two more days), Szavanna (in South Africa) & Loomnie (in Benin)

Beautiful Africa 7th edition

Szavanna started this post but was not able to continue it. As I am just putting together the final touches, I thought it would be nice to let the original text stay!

Hi there - hope you are already enjoying your well-earned December breaks.

This is the last edition for the year - and we hope to continue with new editions next year - please let us know how it went this year.

A big thank you one more time to Ishtar, who started this initiative and is supporting it regularly even tough connectivity is not the best in Niger.

Personal Experiences

The first post is by Ishtar Making friends at the race track posted on IshtarNews - what an interesting day spend at the Zinder race track...

Tim Abbott presents Teddy Landrover posted at Walking the Berkshires, saying, "A tribite to our old landrover, and the extraordinary friendship it allowed us to establish with Namibian bush mechanics."

Tauratinzwe presents Observations of Africa: Mwindaji* -- The Last Hunt posted at Observations of Africa, saying, "I still get an adrenaline flow remembering this experience. There's an epilogue involving a cobra, but that's for another campfire tale."

Alison Sharley presents Hope for Madagascar posted at Green Me, saying, "Hi -- great to find this carnival. My post is both personal experience and that of others doing work in Madagascar. Thanks!"

Culture and Traditions

Ishtar presents Ramadan celebrations in Zinder on Ishtarnews. The post starts saying : "This year, the Ramadan celebrations went by very quietly, due the region being split in three different groups, each choosing a different day of celebrations."

Sights of Africa

GrrlScientist presents Mirror Image posted at Living the Scientific Life, saying, "this animal is almost an icon for Africa itself!"

Sounds of Africa

Afromusing recently wrote about the CD Ngoma Process - The post says : "This is a CD that would fit neatly into the category ‘ World Music’, though i would call it something like Kenyan Ngoma. There is Kapuka, Genge, Bongo, time for the genre Kenya ngoma? The CD has the types of songs that have a cultural thumbprint; it is immediately identifiable to Kenyans."

Arts & Creative Writing

From Fasy's blog, The Other Side of Africa, here is Fatiha - a short story : "She is six years old and loves to listen to stories on the moonlight. Pure and innocent daughter of the Sahel, she loves to play with her friends on evenings and help milk the cows in the morning. Knee high, the only type of life she knows is happy-go-lucky."

Nasra sent us her poem entitled The Islands of the Moon posted at A window within Myself - in her post she also writes about her experiences growing up on the Comoros Islands ...."The first time I had set foot in Comoro Islands, I was a teenager but till now I recall the scene of the road which was constructed on frozen lava. Clearly it was evidence that the island at one time had perhaps tremendous volcanic activities. .... "

That concludes this edition. Thank you for your contributions!

Submit your blog article to the next edition of beautiful africa using the carnival submission form.

Upcoming March edition

Hi all! This is to let you know that the Beautiful Africa Blog Carnival is finally due again on the 20th of March. Submissions can be entered until the 17th of March.

Fazuma of Niger

In the meantime, take care!

Ishtar & the BA team

A sign of life

Just wanted to let you all know that the carnival is not down - just temporarily taking a little break as all of us editors are currently buried with work and projects. Ishtar is in Niger working for the Eden Foundation, Loomnie is on a West African Tour working on his PhD and Szavanna is in South Africa juggling with far too many projects at the same time. But keep those posts ready, for as soon as one of us have (a little) time over, it'll be Beautiful Africa time again!

Writing from a fairly cold Niger,
Ishtar

Carnival reminder

Hello to all those reading the carnival blog!

We are getting ready to publish the last edition of the carnival for the year - please post your entries - we still have spaces left for the 7th edition - on 17 December.

Ishtar is still in Niger - check her blog for the latest - here is one of the photos she sent recently :

Outside the sultan's palace, Zinder 2007

Beautiful Africa - 6th edition!

Welcome to the November edition of the Beautiful Africa blog carnival!

This month's edition introduces you to some great posts on Niger, Nigeria, South Africa & Namibia. Thanks for all those that submitted posts - looking forward to reading your future submissions in the coming months.

Personal Experiences

We start with a pick from Ishtar's blog called The Baobab forest posted at IshtarNews. Ishtar's intro goes ... " Mirriah is not only known for its market place however; in fact, it is even more known for its huge Baobab forest. These trees were sowed a very long time ago and are of great value to the families that owns them. During the rainy season, they produce the much desired Baobab leaves (that are sold at every market) and during the dry season, they produce the very nutritious and very tasty Baobab fruits."

Tim Abbott presents Namibeb Gure-aogu: The Environmental Shepherds of ≠Khoadi ||Hôas Conservancy posted at Walking the Berkshires, in it read about a "Community Based Natural Reseource Management: empowering those who live on the land to care for the resources on which they and wildlife depend in Namibia"

Sights of Africa

Tauratinzwe presents Observations of Africa: Africa Gallery posted at Observations of Africa. "Stroll through the Africa Gallery and enjoy photos from Eastern and Southern Africa."

Sounds of Africa

Loomnie submitted Asa’s Fire on the Mountain, Jailer and Other Songs posted at Loomnie.com. "Asa (pronounced asha) is a Nigerian lady who was born in Paris but grew up in Lagos. She later returned to Paris, where, according to her bio, she played with Les Nubians, Manu Dibango, Doctor L, and Tony Allen. Her first album was released on 16 October 2007. Sometimes, her lyrics are unpretentiously didactic, like in Fire on the Mountain and Jailer, but then, even those who don’t like ‘preachy’ songs will find her melody enchanting."

Szavanna presents It has to do with sounds. Natural sounds from far up north. - The music of Moses Molelekwa posted at Szavanna_blog. "Moses is an unbelievably gifted jazz artist from South Africa - he tragically passed away a few years ago. The post goes ... "When I heard Moses’s music for the first time - I thought - wow - and that is all I could think of - when it comes to words - and I was just sitting there listening. The richness and shades of his sounds is amazing and comes so naturally one note after the other."

Arts and Creative Writing

Nasra sent us ~My African Lady~ posted at A window Within Myself. Nasra is a poetess living in Oman - be sure to check her poetry and all the projects she is involved in.


Another Szavanna_blog pick is Meeting the Prince. "The story of how I got to meet and work with this exceptional and talented artist from Nigeria."



Other

A pick from Sarocks.co.za - a post entitled Bryan Habana is Rugby’s player of the year. "Since I am blogging from South Africa - the boks winning the worldcup will remain an unforgettable experience no matter if one is a sports fan or not. I was glued to the TV screen during the final just like most people here - seeing the Springboks hold the cup was a special moment."

The post on Bryan Habana concludes this edition. Remember to 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

Help us make this a great resource - please contact us if you come across great posts and bloggers that could be possible contributors to this carnival in the future.

Warm greetings and happy blogging,

Szavanna & BA Team

Technorati tags: beautiful africa, blog carnival.

Carnival reminder

Hi there everyone - hope you are well!

A quick note to remind you to submit your stories, poems and other writings - please do so - we still have spaces left for the 6th edition coming up very soon - on 18 Novemeber.

Ishtar is still very busy in Niger - she sent us some great photos - here is one :

Man and son selling dates at the Zinder market

Greetings to All from South Africa!

Anna & BA Team

Beautiful Africa - 5th Edition!

Welcome to the 5th edition of the carnival!!

We start by thanking everybody who submitted a post for this edition, and also those who agreed with the BA team to have a post from their blog featured in the edition. Those submissions that are not featured now will definitely have a place in the next edition. This edition includes posts from South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Nigeria and Mali.

Personal Experience
We open this edition of the carnival with Szavana's submission on her experience at the Medumo Jazz Fountain, posted at Szavanna_blog. She calls it "A great afternoon and evening spent at a local jazz event." Artistes who played at the event include Vivid Africa, Sipho Hotstix Mabuse, and Freshlyground. She concludes the post by writing, "After the last song the audience was completely energised and you could see the positive energy in the crowd...."

Our second post in the Personal Experience category is from Travel Betty. The post is titled Terror Somewhere High Up Over Namibia, posted at TravelBetty. And the post is literally about terror high up over Namibia - in a hot air ballon. In a raw and gritty way, she takes the reader through the thoughts that went through her mind just as she was about to get in the hot air ballon, and - even more gritty - her experiences riding the hot air ballon over Namib-Naukluft Park near Sossusvlei in Namibia. Brace yourself for a terrifawing (neologism from Travel Betty) experience.

We conclude this category with a post from Angola. Posted at Unstrung , Lara Pawson writes a beautiful post titled Breathing Life into Adam. The post is about her experience in a traffic jam. A particularly impressively crafted description is of "Adam", a person she describes as "something out of a painting".


Sounds of Africa

I doubt that the blind couple of Mali need any introduction. Loomnie presents a short post titled Amadou et Miriam Bagayoko on them, with a link to a Youtube video. I love their music, and I am sure you too will!


Sights of Africa
Jaja presents Sunset and September, posted at And as I was saying.... Although there is no simple way to describe this post, one could say it is a mixture of picture and poetry; the deep feelings it evokes is what happens when you bring out beauty from a place like the Niger-Delta area of Nigeria, an area that is more popular for violence than beauty. The beauty is so haunting that it has generated not less than 60 comments.

Tim of Walking the Berkshires presents Adaptation, a post of a picture of a coppiced mopane tree that mirrors a "braided track with its reflecting pools of water". It is more than just a picture; it leads to a personal reflection. He says, in the closing paragraph, "...sometimes you have to stay on the path and apply steady pressure rather than striking out on your own".

Our third entry in this category is Etosha National Park, Namibia: Safari on the Salt Pana posted at Far Explore. The pictures are from a place decribed in the post as "one of the world’s great national parks".



Culture & Tradition
Tauratinzwe presents Parable of the Loerie posted at Observations of Africa, saying, "A little story set in Southern Africa with a message for the wise." It is a story I am sure you will all enjoy.


Creative Writing
Atutupoyoyo presents On……the brief meeting between Sherlock Holmes and King Jaja of Opobo, posted at On..................Everything. It is just what it says it is: a meeting between Sherlock Holmes and King Jaja of Opobo, of couse, with Watson in attendance. King Jaja was a merchant who founded the Opobo city-state in present day Nigeria. He was born in 1821 in Amaigbo, was sold into slavery at about age twelve, but later became a successful merchant whose city-state came to dominate the palm-oil trade in the the region. For more on him click here. I don't think I have to add that Atutu's post is a fiction.

Others
To close this edition of the carnival, we are featuring Continentism: Let’s stop talking about “AFRICA”, a post from Ariah Fine, posted at Trying to Follow. The post stems from a frustration at the way Africa is described in the global media. I think anybody who has been to any African country, and who sees the representation of Africa, especially in campaigns for charity, would understand his reaction.

I hope you enjoy this edition of the carnival, and that you are inspired to contribute to future editions of the carnival.

For submissions to the next edition please user our submission form. The November edition is reviewed by Szavanna. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Warm greetings,
Loomnie & the BA Team.

Carnival Reminder

Hello Friends of the Beautiful Africa Blog Carnival!! This is to remind you that we are currently recieving submissions for the October edition. The edition will be available on October 16, and we will recieve submissions till October 15. To submit an entry, please click here.

Waiting to hear from you all!

Loomnie and the BA team.


The above picture is from Jaja. Jaja blogs from Nigeria. Visit his blog for more from him

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

4th edition coming up soon

Just a short post to let you know that the September edition will be available on Saturday, the 15h with great posts as always this time reviewed by Szavanna.

Though we have a lot of great submissions already you are welcome to submit new entries - if you don't see your post in this edition, it will definitely be published in the next one.

This photo is taken by Ishtar somewhere on the border between Nigeria and Niger.

Visit IshtarNews to read the latest from Ishtar.

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