Been to Africa

366placestogo: Day 53: Lagos, Nigeria. Who ever thinks about...

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:17:59 -0400

Day 53: Lagos, Nigeria.

Who ever thinks about taking a vacation and even considers Africa? There are some beautiful places in Africa, and they don’t all have to be the beach-type either. We don’t even consider African countries as a vacation spot. Why is that? Why don’t we want to go see the peace in the communities like Lagos? Why don’t we want to see how people are content with their lives? Such happiness and satisfaction we in the Western-developed nations cannot even achieve at any point in our entire lives. Isn’t that ironic?

Analysis of all this KONY2012 shit

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:53:23 -0400

Analysis of all this KONY2012 shit

typicalugandan: National Geographic: Return to Uganda,1980....

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 07:06:10 -0500

typicalugandan:

National Geographic: Return to Uganda,1980.

With her Canadian husband, a Ugandan woman goes home after seven years.

Photography by Sarah Leen.

nok-ind: World’s languages traced back to single African...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:48:41 -0500

nok-ind:

World’s languages traced back to single African mother tongue: scientists.

New Zealand researchers have traced every human language — from English to Mandarin — back to an ancestral language spoken in Africa 50,000 to 70,000 years ago.

Scientists say they have traced the world’s 6,000 modern languages — from English to Mandarin — back to a single “mother tongue,” an ancestral language spoken in Africa 50,000 to 70,000 years ago.

New research, published in the journal Science, suggests this single ancient language resulted in human civilization — a Diaspora — as well as advances in art and hunting tool technology, and laid the groundwork for all the world’s cultures.

The research, by Quentin Atkinson from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, also found that speech evolved far earlier than previously thought. And the findings implied, though did not prove, that modern language originated only once, an issue of controversy among linguists, according to the New York Times.

Before Atkinson came up with the evidence for a single African origin of language, some scientists had argued that language evolved independently in different parts of the world.

Atkinson found that the first populations migrating from Africa laid the groundwork for all the world’s cultures by taking their single language with them. “It was the catalyst that spurred the human expansion that we all are a product of,” Atkinson said, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Atkinson traced the number distinct sounds, or phonemes — consonants, vowels and tones — in 504 world languages, finding compelling evidence that they can be traced back to a long-forgotten dialect spoken by our Stone Age ancestors, according to the Daily Mail.

Atkinson also hypothesized that languages with the most sounds would be the oldest, while those spoken by smaller breakaway groups would utilize fewer sounds as variation and complexity diminished.

The study found that some of the click-using languages of Africa have more than 100 phonemes, or sounds, whereas Hawaiian, toward the far end of the human migration route out of Africa, has only 13, the Times reported. English has about 45 phonemes.

The phoneme pattern mirrors the pattern of human genetic diversity as humans spread across the globe from sub-Saharan Africa around 70,000 years ago.

Source: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business-tech/science/110415/language-science-linguistics-mother-tongue-english-chinese-mandarin-africa

serfsup: Vintage TWA Posters

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:45:13 -0500

serfsup:

Vintage TWA Posters

The Warm Heart of Africa - The Very Best

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:42:56 -0500

The Warm Heart of Africa - The Very Best

Moroccan Winter

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:17:30 -0500

Moroccan Winter

power struggles

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:27:47 -0500

power struggles

Incredibly inspiring hitchhiking race: Paris to Dakar.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:32:19 -0500

Incredibly inspiring hitchhiking race: Paris to Dakar.

ciaorazann: MY PEEPS. well, my paternal side. The Beja are a...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:07:32 -0500

ciaorazann:

MY PEEPS. ~~well, my paternal side.~~

The Beja are a non-Arab, Hamitic people,living in the area from southeastern Egypt through northeastern Sudan into Eritrea.

Many scholars believe the Beja to be derived from early Egyptians because of their language and physical features. They are the indigenous people of this area, and we first know of them in historical references in the Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Over the centuries, they had contact and some influence from Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Turks.

The Beja speak Beja or To Bedawie, an Afro-Asiatic language usually classified as Cushitic, but sometimes seen as an independent branch. A significant number also speak Tigre or Arabic, which are both Afro-Asiatic languages as well, but of the Semitic branch.

Most of them live in the Sudanese states of Red Sea around Port Sudan, River Nile, Al Qadarifand Kassala, as well as in Northern Red Sea, Gash-Barka, and Anseba Regions in Eritrea, and in southeastern Egypt. There are smaller populations of other Beja ethnic groups in Egypt’s Western Desert as well as Yemen.

The Bejas contain smaller tribes, such as the Bisharin, Hedareb, Hadendowa (or Hadendoa), the Amarar (or Amar’ar), Beni-Amer, Hallenga and Hamran, some of them partly mixed with Bedouins and Berbers. The European colonial masters and the explorers became fascinated with the Bejas which they often described in eulogistic terms.

landtours: 7/20/12-8/1/12 - Panafest is Back!!! Panafest is a...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:52:01 -0500

Traditional Drumming

A Dubar Chief

Young Girls Doing a Cultural Dance

Cape Coast Slave Castle

Cannons to Guard the Castle

landtours:

7/20/12-8/1/12 - Panafest is Back!!!

Panafest is a cultural event held in Ghana every two years for Africans and people of African descent. The idea of this festival is to promote and enhance unity, Pan-Africanism, as well as the development of the African continent itself.

It’s goals are to establish the truth about the history of Africa and the experiences of the African people, using the vehicle of African arts and culture. Activities that occur at this festival are cultural performances and work in the areas of theatre, drama, music, and poetry etc. Also, there are viewings of the durbar of Chiefs, naming ceremonies and tours are available to various places of interest, such as slave castles and the sentimental “Door of No Return”.

Panafest, by it’s diverse character, projects the potential of being the most prestigious and indeed the most relevant cultural event on the African continent.

Andorra? Isn’t that in Africa? (from theonion.com)

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:17:00 -0500

Andorra? Isn’t that in Africa?

(from theonion.com)

something to make you feel like you will never be a man.

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:42:00 -0500

something to make you feel like you will never be a man.

They came for 4 months but stayed for 2 years...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:54:00 -0500

They came for 4 months but stayed for 2 years...

Magical Egypt

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:33:33 -0400

Magical Egypt:

[taken from their summary page]

There is another side of Egypt that is not so widely known. Egypt is also the land of secrets. Another history, a secret history, tells of Egypt as the inheritor of deep wisdom and magical ability from an even earlier culture. It is the account of the Egyptians themselves. This alternate history is echoed by parallel accounts from the myth and history of other ancient cultures, as well as myriad secret societies and occult sources. The remarkable number of parallels in these stories provides a unique window into this other Egypt.

A new kind of counterculture is emerging around the unexpected discoveries of a small but growing circle of scientists, authors and researchers. The focal point of this counterculture centers on an alternative interpretation of ancient Egypt – not as mankind’s earliest attempts at primitive civilization, but as a fully developed, and inexplicably advanced culture, who’s scientific and metaphysical achievements we are only beginning to fully appreciate.

A great collection of vibrant images from Africa

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:42:14 -0400

A great collection of vibrant images from Africa:

Who is Axel_B…?

Safari By Design/The Scarlet Leopard: Supporting Africa Through Art

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:37:55 -0400

Safari By Design/The Scarlet Leopard: Supporting Africa Through Art:

Read the story of my friend entrepreneur Sharyn Compton, of Phoenix, AZ, who was inspired by one visit to Africa over twenty years ago. Learn more about the diverse people of Africa and support the development of one of the most impoverished parts of the world when you purchase jewelry and other art, as featured in INSTYLE magazine and sold at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

http://beentoafrica.com/2011/07/27/ced-centre/

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:02:30 -0400

http://beentoafrica.com/2011/07/27/ced-centre/

Your journey of a lifetime to Uganda

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:07:00 -0400

Your journey of a lifetime to Uganda:

This post is by Francesco Dendi. You can find him on Twitter: @denditwits

BTA's South Sudan Profile

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:45:35 -0400

BTA's South Sudan Profile