Africa 24 Media Photography

Thousands of kilometers from the Seychelles islands, deep in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, lays one of the most fascinating and best preserved ecosystems on the planet. The Aldabra atoll, which takes its name from Arab traders who sailed there swept by winds from East Asia, is the largest single collection of coral islands in the world.

Stretching in a north-south direction off India’s Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and Chagos Archipelago, The Maldives is amongst the world’s premier travel and tourism destinations. 1,192 Islets that make up The Maldives are essentially a series of ancient coral reefs that grew up alongside mammoth prehistoric volcano's.

The Kenyan music industry has revolutionized over the years and the gospel music industry in particular has played a key role in this change. Gone are the days when gospel music was a reserve of the ‘born-again’ Christians, and to access it one had to tune in to “Sing and Shine”. The lulling tunes were out of resonance with the youth and any beat beyond the choir-like tunes was frowned upon.

When Mzee Kimani Ng'ang'a Maruge burst into public limelight when he enrolled for primary school education at the age of 84 in 2004, many dismissed it as a bad joke and a public stunt driven too far. But when this great-grandfather finally departed to his grave on August 14, 2009 of stomach cancer at the Cheshire Home for the Aged in Kariobangi North, Nairobi, he not only left a sweeping legacy that defied the odds in education and proved to many that it’s never too late to salvage a dream, but had his name firmly inscribed in the coveted Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to start primary school.

Africa is widely known for its many cultures and traditions. Diversity is a word that augurs well within the African continent and has been frequently used to describe the difference in its people, religion, tradition, music, beliefs among others. In religion in particular, the freedom of worship enshrined in many constitutions by African governments has led to the sprouting of many Churches. In Kenya for example, there are more than 4000 registered churches.

The Maasai people are an indigenous African ethnic group of East Africa. They live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania along the Great Rift Valley on semi-arid and arid lands. The community is known for their diverse and rich culture and their patriarchal nature where elder men decide major matters.

Rwanda has one the highest percentages of orphans in the world. This owes its beginning to April 1994, when ethnic violence erupted in the country as Hutu extremists murdered as many as 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a reign of terror that lasted 100 days. In fact, the death toll is reported to have scaled to more than a million people, while another three million were displaced.

Uganda’s positive progress in combating and reducing HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country has seen it earn the status of being called the model for other Sub-Saharan Africa countries in the fight against the deadly disease. The nation’s open policy and holistic approach towards HIV/AIDS and its comprehensive programs aimed at providing AIDS education has seen infection levels drop drastically especially during the 1990s and beyond.

Kenyans woke up on Friday morning to a cold and chilly weather with a blanket of grey cloud covering the sky, but were soon nodding in satisfaction after witnessing one of the longest solar eclipses that traveled across several African countries. The eclipse, which saw the sun completely ringed by the moon, began at about 8:20 am, prompting elated Nairobi residents to employ the use of mobile phones to record the spectacle.

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the harshest and most difficult places to live in – if you get to live. Life, especially for the poor in most parts of the region is marked by an unending struggle to see through diseases, conflict, poverty, forced labour, rape and other quandaries from birth, through childhood, adulthood and even death. In fact, the journey of a child, born of a poverty-stricken parent starts from the mother’s womb.