Inside Africa Vol. 1 & 2


TASCHEN books are some of my favorite to collect. If I had hundreds of dollars to blow I could easily do so on their website, but for now I’ll have to place some of these titles on my Christmas wish list or refrain from doing so much running to and fro’ to buy a few more. Of the more recent releases I’d like to take a peek at the Inside Africa titles. The two volume set puts the diversity of African living in the reader’s face. I’ll be one of the first to admit (and this is very sad because I have so many African friends), but when I think of dwellings found in various African places I don’t think modern for the majority. I see mud, clay, and earthy homes with wells and without running hot water. SO WRONG. While a good portion of countries may have tribes and villages with housing of this nature there are tons of luxury lodges, artist studios, minimalist houses, and so-forth. These two sets claim to have a good mixture of both and more, but with the eye-popping ink and paper stock TASCHEN uses I’m sure anyone flipping through the book would want to stay in a clay hut. Deidi von Schaewen is the photographer and it took a period of four years and fifteen countries to make it these Inside Africa volumes happen.

Countries featured include Egypt, Kenya, Botswana, Morocco, Réunion, Seychelles, Tanzania, Tunisia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria, and Senegal to list only a few.

Pan African Arts & Film Festival

Tomorrow the Pan African Arts & Film Festival will kick off until February 20, 2006 at the Magic Johnson Theatres in Los Angeles, CA. This is one of those moments I’m itching to be close enough to the city to peep some of the films, yet avoid the smog. Skip the pseudo glitz and glam of Sunset Blvd and head to beautiful Baldwin Hills. Okay, so not a likely tourist advertisement to get you there, but seriously take in some cinematic cultural pieces from all over the globe. Films from Burkina Faso, Congo, Cuba, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Belgium, and a number from the US are all scheduled over the 12 day period. Undoubtedly, this could be one of the best Black History month events to date.

Since I can’t be there, I just want make mention on two films that caught my eye. The first, All About Darfur, is a film about the 20-year conflict between North and South Sudan and how it is not primarily about race or religion. The film plunges further into the situation analyzing the difference in cultural groups, one agricultural and the other nomadic. The second film is titled HM HM out of Egypt with a 3 minute duration tells the tale of a restaurant customer that doesn’t wish to pay after eating. Completely different flicks, I’m sure. If anyone happens to catch either, do let me know if a trip should be planned for Atlanta when the festival makes its way to the south in July.

Guy Francois Photography

Guy Francois photography – wow. Few photographers leave me feeling speechless, inspired and with new reasons to never stop wanting to explore the world. In his crisp, vivid, and stunning photos from locales like Burkina Faso, China, Morocco, and Madagascar the world comes alive like never before. Whether it’s a shot of hay stacks overlooking the water, a young African boy in the village or a dusty road of clay colored Earth keeping the senses from colliding is near impossible. If you’re in need of something to jump start your Monday morning I HIGHLY recommend visiting his site. Should you find yourself as blown away as I am and desire the works of Guy Francois in your very own home click here to purchase “Couleur de Somme.” I’ll be getting my copy upon return from my own travels and building a new wish list soon after.

Africa Travel: Burkina Faso & Burundi

I’ll admit it is a pretty ambitious goal to tackle and track down some of the secrets behind every country on the African continent (especially when one has never been) for Black History month and a hard one too. As I started looking for things to pour out to the masses on Burkina Faso and Burundi I hit a brick wall. However, Burkina Faso, a west African country north of Ghana has a few things for the interested tourist. One Lonely Planet reader actually listed Burkina Faso on his Blue List with attractions being the SIAO Art Festival and Yako – the halfway town. You can read his notes here, but outside of this and the LP online guide I didn’t find a whole lot of promotion for tourism within the country.

Things got even worse on my Burundi searches. Let me not say worse, but complicated. This central African country sits east of Democratic Republic of the Congo and has suffered from years of ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi much like its neighbor to the north, Rwanda. Though things have simmered down it is still advised visitors seek other travel destinations over Burundi. The photo above is from Burundi taken by Jan Oberg found this Burundi.nu a site dedicated to spreading tourism and general information on the country. Created by John Jorgensen and his Burundi born wife, Chantal Nahimana Jorgensen the site deserves all your attention if you ever consider travel to Burundi.

Anyone with additional sites or experiences on either of the countries, please share.

Latitudes Magazine February

Once again I urge you to check out Latitudes Magazine, which just came out. Let me reiterate that this is probably my favorite online multimedia magazine. I try my best to remember that it’s a monthly and to take a look, but sometimes I forget. Now I’ve figured out that they have an email reminder system so I do that.

Anyway, as travel magazines go, Latitudes is wonderful. I believe it’s published in Italy, so it has a definite Italian flair, tasteful, snazzy, if a wee-bit arrogant. Every month, the online issue has got about a dozen or so stories from around the world. They are always illustrated with the most luscious photos, a satisfactory amount of text (the pictures really speak for themselves) and a little bit of multimedia surprise in each issue. They usually visit at least a few places that everyone knows, and then there will be some bizarre, distant place that I’ve never heard of.

To wit: among the places visited this month are Burkina Faso, Belfast, Madrid and…here’s the odd one: Coober Pedy, some place in the Australian Outback. So there you go. Give it a read, gander, perusal, once-over.