Beautiful Africa 11th edition - Last edition

Welcome to our last edition - our team is getting into new ventures - so we take a break from adding new posts to Beautiful Africa.

Thanks to all that contributed - we have had a great time gathering stories - and meeting great people along the way. We all continue writing Africa related posts on our blogs not to talk about all those that continue documenting life as they see it here in Africa. Blog culture is definitely here to stay and by now there is no end to the many sites and blogs that show a more honest and real picture from all corners of the continent. A big thank you once more to our regular contributors and everyone else that contributed with their posts and regular comments.

This last edition includes posts about Arusha, Timbuktu, the Eden field station in Niger, a fun song by Freshlyground, one of Kari's fantastic photos and last but not least Loomnie's short story.

Personal experiences


From Tauratinzwe here is When I first lived in Africa posted at Observations of Africa - "When first I lived in Africa, I lived about 20 kilometers outside Arusha, Tanzania at the foot of Mt. Meru. My house was among the student houses at the Chuo cha waBatisti cha Theologia cha Afrika ya Mashariki (the Baptist Theological Seminary of East Africa)."


Esther sent me the link to a great blog and I chose the latest post from there : The river to Timbuktu published at Camels from Timbuktu to Essakane.

"There's now a new 'road' through the desert, North off the tarmac on sandy tracks from Douentza to get to Timbuktu, finishing in a ferry to cross the wide Niger river."


Sights of Africa


From Esther's blog here is - Skywatch over Eden’s field station posted at esthergarvi.com - the photos speak for themselves - also check out Esther's other skywatch posts.

I chose one of the latest posts from Kari's blog The Harmattan is blowing in posted at peregrinebynature.com. "african dust is kicked up and blown west on the trade winds where it freezes in midair and falls on your tongue and mittens. "


Sounds of Africa

From Szavanna_blog here is a vibey song - Ma Cherie by Freshlyground.

Creative Writing

Loomnie presents The Lizard posted at Loomnie.com. "He had been watching his son since he started the game. The boy had been chasing a red-head lizard for about thirty minutes, and now he had finally got him. He held the wriggling lizard by the tail and went outside. Still holding him he came back into the parlour of their room and parlour apartment with a bowl and a forked stick. His father wondered what he was going to do with them but he did not ask him anything. He did not want to say anything."

This the last post for the carnival - at least for the time being - have fun and keep blogging!

many greetings,
from Szavanna and the rest of the team, Ishtar and Loomnie

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.

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