The Sahara Desert

• The Sahara ("The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert.
• At over 9,000,000 square kilometers (3,500,000 sq mi), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe.
• The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean.
• The Sahara divides the continent of Africa into North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• To the south, it is delimited by the Sahel: a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna that comprises the northern region of central and western Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Sahara covers huge parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
• Here's a beautiful image of the Sahara.
• Read more here.

The King of Raï

Khaled Hadj Brahim, better known as Khaled, is a raï singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born in Sidi-El-Houari in Oran Province of Algeria. He began recording in his early teens under the name Cheb Khaled (Arabic for "Young man Khaled") and has become probably the most internationally famous Algerian singers. His popularity has earned him the unofficial title "King of Raï". Read more at Wikipedia.

Here are my two favourite Khaled songs: Didi, which never ceases to catapult me into high spirits and Aicha which I regard as one of the most romantic songs ever written (by the amazing Jean-Jacques Goldman).

(For better audio, try the version of Didi here).

Picture from Cheb Khaled's Official Website.

La Victoire sur les Sachets

An interesting short film by Sarkis, La Victoire sur les Sachets shows how plastic trash (20 tons of it) as used effectively in Africa to manufacture 2000 Djembés (musical instruments).

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Synopsis from Culture Unplugged: Ingenuity is at work in an African community where plastic bags are transformed from garbage into musical instruments. The film, created and produced by ART for The World is born under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and supported by the European Commission, French Government and SESC, Sao Paulo, Brasil, is a long feature composed by 22 short movies by filmmakers and artists from all over the world. Each short (documentary, fiction, drama, comedy, etc) is based on one of the major themes highlighted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: culture, development, dignity and justice, environment, gender and participation.

Kenya: 'Witch' lynchings

A reminder of the horrific practices that still exist in the world.

MJ in Africa

Back after a fairly long hiatus. A short video of MJ's 1993 visit to Africa:

Africa mourns the loss of the King of Pop.

C comme Corneille

Cornelius Nyungura (Corneille) was born in Germany to Rwandan parents but spent most of his childhood in Rwanda. However, his life changed after the genocide in 1994. His father, Émile Nyungura, was a leader of the political party (PSD); as a result, his parents and some of his relatives were killed in the massacre. Corneille fled to Germany, where some of his parents' friends took him in. He is now a Canadian Citizen and sings in French and English.
Source: Wikipedia

My favourite Corneille songs so far, Avec Classe:

Official Website.

Afrigadget

"Afrigadget is a website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. A team of bloggers and readers contribute their pictures, videos and stories from around the continent. The stories of innovation are inspiring. It is a testament to Africans bending the little they have to their will, using creativity to overcome life’s challenges".

Extremely cool blog!

African Art

Daniel Akortia Painting

I chanced upon this website, AfricanArt.com which features all kinds of authentic hand-crafted African Art for sale. From masks to musical instruments, from wild animal miniatures to walking canes, they sell it all.

From the Website: AfricanArt.com was created to share with you the magnificent art and crafts of Africa for your joy and for the benefit of artists and craftsmen and their families in Africa. We source our artwork directly from Africa from countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa to name a few.

Cape Town by Osei Anim

Their paintings section is beautiful and features art by Daniel Akortia and Osei Anim from Ghana. They also have a wonderful photo gallery. Check it out!

Vieux Farka Touré

Ali Farka Touré was one of the greatest African musicians. His son, "Vieux" Farka Touré decided to follow in his father's footsteps and is an acclaimed singer and guitarist. Here he is performing the beautiful number 'Ai Du' at Joe's Pub in New York.

More of Vieux's music on MySpace and check out his official website here.

Mauritian Moments

Quatre Bornes Sunday Market


Baie Du Cap


Shallow Beaches


Trou Aux Cerfs


Black River Gorge Viewpoint


Rochester Falls

I love the way a waterfall sounds. This one was noisy and beautiful. There were lots of people swimming and diving and one local fellow wanted me to pay him to watch him dive! Fat chance! :P

Dholl Puri, Gateau Piment and Alouda

I loved Mauritiuas for its blend of influences, the strongest of which are French and Indian. The fresh baguettes tasted wonderful. One of our frequent meals in Mauritius was a baguette with a stuffing of our choice; the one you see here has chicken curry cooked in a chinese style. Another treat was the rare flavors of ice-cream, my favourite being Coconut and Tamarind!

One afternoon, we took the bus from Cybercity to Rose Hill at noon (cost us Rs.6). Rose Hill is one of the nearby areas (the other being Quatre Bornes where I was staying). Rose Hill reminds me of Jayanagar 4th block in Bangalore - it has a main market and is always busy and bustling with life. It's also noisy and there is plenty of traffic.

We got off at the bus station and walked through little streets to make our way into the market. Here there are little stalls (much like the Gola/Pav Bhaji stalls you can see on Juhu beach in Bombay) lined up one next to the other, with customers patiently waiting for what they ordered. I was really eager to try some local cuisine - things I've been hearing about for months now from my Mauritian colleagues. A lot of these specialties have an Indian influence and you will soon see what I mean. (Read more about Indo-Mauritians here).

The first thing we tried was "Dholl Puri". Dholl Puri is basically a kind of bread (Poori) which is stuffed with crushed pulses (dal) before it is cooked. The result is a sort of double-layered-non-sweet-Obbattu-Poori which is soft and filled with sprinklings of dal inside. When you order it and specify how spicy you want it, it is filled with this amazing red sauce which is spicy and tangy and the Dholl Puri is given to you folded in half. The right way to eat it, is to fold it further in one more half and hold it with your finger tips on one corner and eat it from the other end, so that none of the sauce spills out. Now, my dholl puri was steaming hot(which is how it should be eaten, I was told) and I had a hard time holding it like that and eating it. So I dug into it in full masala-dosa style and had a ball getting my fingers all dirty while the locals "tsk-tsk"ed at me. :)

I also tried a "Gateau Piment" which literally translates to "Chilli Cake". What is it? Ever tried a "Paruppu Vada"? I was most amused to eat a little Vada with SUCH an exotic name. It was deep fried and tasted extremely good!

After a nice round of Dholl Puri (which cost all of Rs.5 by the way) and Gateau Piment (Rs.1 each), it was time for some "Alouda". What is Alouda? Well, Alouda, is more or less, Falooda! So for Rs.10 you can get a tall glass of Alouda - which is made with cold milk, jelly, some other ingredients that I could not recognise and the glass is topped with a few delicious spoonfuls of ice cream (which was the same colour as the Alouda). Now this Alouda, is really very, very tasty. After his first sip, my colleague Debjoy's eyes opened really wide and a big smile covered his face! To wash the spicy Dholl Puri down with a giant glass of cold Alouda is a total treat - and such a delicious meal - all for Rs.16!! Fantastic lunch, I thought.

After this, we walked around in Rose Hill for quite a while trying to find something vegetarian to take back for our boss. This is no easy task, I tell you. If you are non-vegetarian, you are bound to have a good time here and if not, you are bound to be hunting for your meals (no pun intended!! :P).

Finally, we managed to find a place that would stuff a baguette with Potato and Long Beans curry and we walked back to the Bus Station. On the way, I saw two Dholl Puri vendors who were in an argument and I stopped to take a picture of the huge pile of Dholl Puri. They stopped arguing, looked at me like I was from outer space and said "errr....mademoiselle???".... I grinned and ran off to catch up with the others. I dozed through most of the afternoon.

Windows XP

A large part of the Mauritius looks like the Windows XP Screensaver. Green grass (sugarcane fields) and clear blue skies. From Wiki: Sugarcane is grown on about 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 25% of export earnings.

Soweto Blues

Soweto Blues is a beautiful number written for Mama Africa by Hugh Masakela. Soweto (South Western Township) is an urban area in the City of Johannesburg, in Gauteng, South Africa. The song is about the Soweto riots of 1976 which started because of a language decree.

I had a hard time finding the lyrics, so I thought it would be fitting to save them here:

The children got a letter from the master
It said: No more Xhosa, Sotho, no more Zulu.
Refusing to comply they sent an answer
That's when the policemen came to the rescue

Children were flying bullets dying
The mothers screaming and crying
The fathers were working in the cities
The evening news brought out all the publicity:
Just a little atrocity, deep in the city
Soweto blues (4)

Benikuphi ma madoda (where were the men)
Mabedubula abantwana (when the children were being shot)
Benikhupi na (where were you)
Abantwana beshaywa ngezimbokodo (when the children were throwing stones)
Benikhupi na (where were you)

There was a full moon on the golden city
Knocking at the door was the man without pity
Accusing everyone of conspiracy
Tightening the curfew charging people with walking

Yes, the border is where he was awaiting
Waiting for the children, frightened and running
A handful got away but all the others
Hurried their chain without any publicity
Just a little atrocity, deep in the city
Soweto blues (4)

Benikuphi ma madoda (where were the men)
Mabedubula abantwana (when the children were being shot)
Benikhupi na (where were you)
Abantwana beshaywa ngezimbokodo (when the children were throwing stones)
Benikhupi na (where were you)

Soweto blues (3)
Soweto blues - abu yethu a mama
Soweto blues - they are killing all the children
Soweto blues - without any publicity
Soweto blues - oh, they are finishing the nation
Soweto blues - while calling it black on black
Soweto blues - but everybody knows they are behind it
Soweto Blues - without any publicity
Soweto blues - god, somebody, help!
Soweto blues - (abu yethu a mama)
Soweto blues

Another beautiful version of Soweto Blues:

Port Louis

Taxis are extremely expensive in Mauritius and so, I took the bus as much as possible. One weekend, I went to Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius.

If you take the motorway, the ride is simply breathtaking. After a few miles of road, all of a sudden you will see the sea in the distance and it looks marvelous! Also, in the frame from the car, you will see the road below (heading downhill) and the water looming above it and this really makes it special.

This is the Caudan Waterfront at Port Louis. There are lots of restaurants at the waterfront and my friends Swaroopa and Unish took me to "Tandoori Express" for lunch. Before they arrived, I watched Akshay Kumar and John Abraham (famous Indian Movie Stars) dancing away at Caudan with a bunch of hot European women dressed in sailor suits. Same dance step, 4 million takes. *Yawn*. :P. But gosh, you need patience to make a movie. Mauritius is one of Bollywood's favourite destinations, especially for romance sequences.

After lunch, I dragged Swaroopa and Unish to the Klassic theatre to watch the "L'enfant au Grelot", which was, by the way, one of the most lovely animated movies I've ever watched. It's such a treat to watch a French movie in the theatre - how could I not make use of the opportunity? I enjoyed myself completely and was quite thrilled that my friends enjoyed it too!

At about 4.30 in the evening, at Port Louis, I went on a harbor cruise with Swaroopa and Unish. The cruise lasted about 45 minutes and the sun decided to disappear behind the clouds during that time. The cruise takes you around the harbor and then goes out into the ocean for a little while. It was extremely windy out there and that made it all the more enjoyable. The ride costed Rs.40 - too little for that much excitement, if you ask me! When the ride started, we turned around to look at the Caudan Waterfront and Swaroopa noticed two of our friends Raju and Sathish (they live in Mauritius and work for the Mauritius Radio Telescope) standing at the entrance to the Klassic theatres. I started waving wildly to get their attention and I was quite kicked when they spotted me and waved back. Raju called me on my cell and said "YenRee? Full Enjoy Maadtha Iddiraaa??"(Roughly translated from Kannada: "What?! Having a ball, huh?"). I certainly was!

Pamplemousses

In the district of Pamplemousses, which is in the north of the island, there is a beautiful botanical garden. It is peaceful and serene and provides a welcome overdose of fresh green!

Here is some info I found: "Famous to naturalists for its 500 species of indigenous and exotic plants of which 80 are palms, this garden is located in the proximity of Port-Louis and spreads over 60 acres.

Among the plants growing there, there are the giant Victorial Regia water lilies and the talipot palm, said to flower once every sixty years and then die. The garden was created by Pierre Poivre in 1767 in the Estate of the French Governor Mahé de Labourdonnais. The latter's Chateau de Mon Plaisir, built in 1735, is found there."