February 2010
16 posts
5 tags
“Our big announcement today is that we are launching Maps domains for 30...”
– Official Google Africa Blog: New Maps domains in 30 African Countries
“After hearing about the coup in sounds-like-Nigeria Niger last Thursday morning,...”
– wronging rights: Fun with Google Alerts
3 tags
“War, war, war. Stand up … and defend yourselves. Kill before they kill you....”
– one of the text messages circulated in Nigeria during the Muslim/Christian violence in Jos that killed hundreds. Via IAfrica, who comments that “the communication infrastructure has played a part in all major cases of recent atrocities in Africa… in transmitting vile messages.” (via abbyjean)
...
Congolese Space Program "A Great Success" //... →
Apparently the Democratic Republic of the Congo has a space program complete with rat astronauts. I’m feeling a little mixed about this. While I appreciate the hobbyist DIY nature of no budget space exploration, I can’t help but feel a little frustrated by the whole thing.
It reminds me a little of the slightly more successful Zairean Nuclear program written about in Howard...
5 tags
WatchWe can unpack this video later. For now, just enjoy. (via Alvaro)
“How possible is it that we are being compared to Somalia (a country with an...”
– The Shocking Reality of Zambia’s Web Presence. | Zedcloud.com
Zambia is one of three countries in the world that has no government web presence. This is kind of shocking.
“A strange thing has happened in the Zambian blogosphere. Rather than grow, it...”
– Zambian Economist: State of the Zambian Internet
Go read the rest of The Zambian Economist’s State of the Zambian Internet commemorating his third anniversary as, and I’ve said it before, Zambia’s best blog. Some issued discussed: “authoritarian incompetence” when it...
January 2010
46 posts
“Ninja: Here in South Africa the taxis play rave music fokken loud my bru. You...”
– DIE ANTWOORD - Zef So Fresh
I don’t really have much to say about these guys except they sound like Dutch-style rap-rave a la De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig with a kind of Afrikaaner chip on their shoulder.
Die Antwoord - Taking Over The Interweb →
Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian... →
“‘Idiot guerilla film-makers go to African country and make terrible film...”
– A word about Vice « Things Seen and Heard…
I haven’t watched it yet. I kinda know what to expect.
Inside the Central Methodist Church - Mail &... →
BBC News - Nigeria text messages 'fuelled Jos... →
“Travelling as a Nigerian was exciting. People listened to us. Our money was...”
– Chinua Achebe: What Nigeria means to me (via puretheory)
“The Culture and Museum Center Karonga is Karonga’s most popular...”
– Karonga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
how the hell did I miss this?
Scientists are calling the quakes in Karonga — along the Great Rift Valley on the Tanzanian border — an “earthquake swarm” and are conducting geological assessments to ascertain if more are on the way.
The town of Karonga tells the story: collapsed houses, roofs fallen in and huge gashes in the road where the earth has split apart. Children are now taught under trees...
“Our main goals are:
* Recognition of homosexuality in Sudan.
* Social...”
– Global Voices Online » Sudan’s First LGBT Rights Organization?
“New York, January 20, 2010—Freelance journalist Stanley Kwenda, left, a...”
– Journalist flees Zimbabwe after death threat - Committee to Protect Journalists
“Some years later I was invited to the book fair in Harare as a speaker and...”
– Customary charisma - Mail & Guardian Online
“The ruling was linked to a November 27, 2009, story that alleged cheating in the...”
– Leading investigative weekly suspended in Tanzania - Committee to Protect Journalists
WatchGHETTO BASSQUAKE: Killamu ‘A Minha Face’
“We must think about how we get a grip on security issues. We can’t simply say...”
– Germany to rethink World Cup security - Times LIVE
But South Africa IS “something else than Angola.” This is so weird. Did anyone, for a second, worry about the World Cup in Germany because of instability in Kosovo, or Chechnya, or the Parisian suburbs?
Further reading on both soccer...
Another Day of Life →
This is a really wonderful site.
During the summer of 2006, I decided to travel through Portuguese Africa from Luanda to Maputo. I carried a box with disposable cameras I was hoping to distribute. The photographs on this website are the result of my trip.
2 tags
Decline & Crash of the BBC Africa Service « unreal →
This is a rather god condemnation of how the BBC approaches African coverage. Worth reading. Here’s an excerpt:
There are African ‘local’ BBC staff working in cities like Abuja in Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya, who are earning between a seventh and a quarter of what the staffers in London take home each month. Some of these BBC staff live in shanty towns, with no clean water and the minimal...
“Nairobi — Rwanda is this week expected to release the findings of an...”
– allAfrica.com: Rwanda: Habyarimana Killed By His Own Army - UK Experts
“There are lively publishing enterprises in different areas of Africa that are...”
– The Internet is Africa’s “Gutenberg Moment”
3 tags
“Nairobi — Safaricom and Zain transferred a whopping Sh318.4 billion through...”
– allAfrica.com: Kenya: Sh318 Billion Sent Through Phones in 12 Months
Wow, that number is unfathomable. Kenyans transfered over four billion US dollars worth of money using cellphones last year. Can we get that in Canada?
“Confused about exactly how many wives our president has? We round up the facts...”
– All the president’s women - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source
Thanks Verashni. I was, indeed, confused.
“One of the ministers called by our correspondent on the development declined to...”
– The Punch:: Ministers, Presidency officials’ phone lines bugged
