Africa 24 Media Photography

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.

If the name Zanzibar conjures up for you a tantalizing sense of mystery, of a hidden past, of the spices of the orient, of a vibrant culture set in an island just off the coast of Africa and edged with tropical, palm-fringed beaches – then you will not be disappointed. Zanzibar is all this, and more. The Island has a long and colorful past.

South Africa’s prehistory was written anew with opening of the Mapungubwe Museum on the grounds of the University of Pretoria. Mapungubwe is a cultural heritage site in the Limpopo Province of the Nation. It is South-Africa’s lost city of gold. A city inspired by the iron-age and established its sovereignty for over 400 years. It was a dominant kingdom up until the 14th century when it collapsed due to poor climatic conditions.

The consequences of the 1994 genocide are echoed across the streets of Rwanda. The faces of thousands of street kids speak for the countless relatives the lost in this dark period. With no one to care for them they lack the luxury of enjoying a decent childhood. Survival is an instinct that has been long horned into their system, circumstances have changed but the struggle remains for the same thing; life. 

Haunted by a series of megalomaniac leaders Congo’s history has hardly been peaceful.  Political differences further catapulted by ethnic differences have pushed the country past the brinks of civil war. Death tolls of 3.8 million through a civil war, that many who engaged in did not understand, have left the nation trembling. Characterized by conflict between rebel groups and the government, rebels between other rebel groups, the road to stability is nothing short but turbulent.